[ Editors note: This story was updated on June 30 to reflect additional reporting .] A Senate panel is directing the Navy to draw up a design for a smaller aircraft carrier, a move that advances the call for such a capability proffered in recent conceptual studies and opens a pathway to potential competition to buy big-deck ships not currently possible with the 100,000-ton Ford-class aircraft carrier design, a super-size vessel that can be built at only one U.S. shipyard...
