9-3-95. NYPaper: "Aircraft Carrier May Give Way To Missile Ship." The aircraft carrier may soon be shoved off center stage by a new "arsenal ship" that would be able to rain 500 missiles within a matter of minutes on targets hundreds of miles away, without risking pilots' lives. A carrier costs $4.5 billion to build and $440 million a year to operate. The new ship, essentially a floating missile barge, might cost only $500 million and just tens of millions a year to run. The new ship would fire Tomahawk cruise missiles, long-range artillery shells or rocket barrages against ammunition dumps, command posts and artillery. It could prove particularly valuable in the early stages of a crisis, before ground troops were in place. It would travel with other ships and submarines for protection, and target information would be provided by other vessels, reconnaissance aircraft, pilotless drones or ground spotters. The 825-foot ship might require fewer than 20 people to operate, compared with the 5,000 aboard a 1,040-foot carrier. ARS_tug