[smorephism]

>What's the cost to also fit that carrier out with all of the various aircraft required to make the carrier worth having?

Right idea! The answer is "hardly anything, relative to crewing it for its useful lifetime", but you're barking up the correct tree.

[kevinpet]

DOD budget is about $350K per employee. A typical E5 (sergeant or PO2 in the navy) makes $3K/mo, or 1/10 of that.