bobdina
10-03-2009, 06:57 PM
Strike group mission expands far beyond simple escort
By Christopher P. Cavas
ccavas@militarytimes.com
The classic view of a deployed aircraft carrier strike group evokes a picture of a mighty flattop and its planes surrounded by protective “small boy” escorts of cruisers and destroyers. But with more responsibilities and missions falling on the fleet, the reality is the ships of the strike group can be carrying out a variety of missions hundreds and even thousands of miles away from the mothership.
Navy officials point out the dispersion is possible because, although carriers are never left unprotected, they also aren’t facing direct, “hot war” threats such as mass cruise-missile attacks or enemy submarines. If such a threat materializes, the thinking goes, defenses can mobilize and fall in on the carrier in short order — led by the aircraft of the embarked air wing.
Meanwhile, the submarine and the five or six small boys that deploy with each carrier split off to take care of patrol missions, exercises and port calls. Other deployers — ships that may have come out with an amphibious group, in smaller formations or as single deployers — also rotate in and out of operations with the carrier. The carrier itself often has only a single escort — dubbed “shotgun” — and at times that ship might not even be part of the carrier ’s group. Recently, for example, the San Diego-basedcarrier Ronald Reagan, operating in the Gulf of Oman, was temporarily escorted only by the destroyer James E. Williams, a Norfolk, Va.-based destroyer that deployed with an amphibious ready group.
The dispersal of the Norfolk based Theodore Roosevelt strike group that preceded Reagan in the region reflected an extreme example of the new operating profile.
The carrier began its deployment in fall 2008 by visiting South Africa — the first U.S. carrier in more than 40 years to call there. While some ships of the group cruised through the Mediterranean, another, the destroyer The Sullivans, traveled to northern France for a D-Day commemoration. Later, when TR was conducting combat operations in the northern Arabian Sea, the same destroyer was dispatched to Japan to carry out a series of exercises.
“The ability to share assets between task forces is a historic strength, and we’re doing it today to a tremendous degree,” said Rear Adm. Frank Pandolfe, former commander of the TR strike group, during a Sept. 16 interview in his Pentagon office.
But “the geographic extent of our operations was a little bit unusual,” he said.
“You want to make sure your capabilities are moved around to where they are needed,” Pandolfe said, explaining how, for example a coalition patrol force needed a flagship. The answer was the TR group’s cruiser Monterey and the Vella Gulf, another cruiser that originally deployed with an East Coast amphibious group. The cruisers, equipped with command facilities, each served as flagship for Combined Task Force 151, a counterpiracy force off Somalia.
CTF 151 was one of four coalition maritime forces in the region that the carrier ’s ships operated with. Others were CTF 150, an anti-smuggling force that operates in the Red Sea and off Somalia, Yemen and Oman; CTF 152, performing maritime security operations in the Persian Gulf; and CTF 158, protecting key oil platforms in the northern Persian Gulf.
Vella Gulf and the destroyers The Sullivans, Mahan, Mason and Nitze all operated with CTF 150 during the deployment, Pandolfe said. The carrier led CTF 152 for three months, and Nitze protected CTF 158’s oil platforms for nearly three months, during which its embarked helicopter flew an average of more than five hours a day.
The most eclectic deployment profile was turned in by The Sullivans, which “had a very interesting cruise,” Pandolfe said. “She’d gone up to D-Day, helped commission a Navy monument on the battlefield at Normandy. She then came through to work with NATO for a while. Then she went to the Far East and worked with 7th Fleet for a while. She came back and rejoined us, and at the end of the cruise, when the TR went to the United Kingdom for a visit, The Sullivans came with us.” The NATO mission involved operations with Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 in the Persian Gulf, working alongside German and Turkish warships.
“It worked out well for us,” Pandolfe said. “It was a good deployment, and The Sullivans provided extra capability for that group and showed U.S. commitment to NATO by doing so. I think it’s illustrative of the flexibility and the operational agility of our ships that we can do this.” An unusual aspect of the cruise was the three months The Sullivans spent operating in the Far East. A Japan-based U.S. destroyer equipped for ballistic-missile defense was assigned to the Gulf region, “so we did a swap,” Pandolfe said.
All the while, the aircraft of Carrier Air Wing 8 aboard TR were flying grueling combat missions over Afghanistan.
“These are very long flights, very taxing on our air crews,” Pandolfe said. “Generally, they are six-hour flights involving three [air-to-air] refuelings.” The experience of the TR group’s deployment now is being echoed by the Ronald Reagan strike group —
and has almost become routine.
Strike groups “are disaggregating, but they are operating across a wide set of missions in a wide geographic area because of a demand signal to accomplish a number of missions,” said Pandolfe, who now heads up the Navy’s Surface Warfare Division.
“As you look at the kinds of missions that are important today and will be important tomorrow —
things like ballistic-missile defense, engagement, the projection of combat power from carriers to shore — these will remain essential to what we do,” he said. “And we will design ships to meet the mission set we expect to accomplish. Building more BMD ships, building fast, modular agile ships that can help fulfill engagement roles — these are the things we are looking at.”
Navy TIMES
By Christopher P. Cavas
ccavas@militarytimes.com
The classic view of a deployed aircraft carrier strike group evokes a picture of a mighty flattop and its planes surrounded by protective “small boy” escorts of cruisers and destroyers. But with more responsibilities and missions falling on the fleet, the reality is the ships of the strike group can be carrying out a variety of missions hundreds and even thousands of miles away from the mothership.
Navy officials point out the dispersion is possible because, although carriers are never left unprotected, they also aren’t facing direct, “hot war” threats such as mass cruise-missile attacks or enemy submarines. If such a threat materializes, the thinking goes, defenses can mobilize and fall in on the carrier in short order — led by the aircraft of the embarked air wing.
Meanwhile, the submarine and the five or six small boys that deploy with each carrier split off to take care of patrol missions, exercises and port calls. Other deployers — ships that may have come out with an amphibious group, in smaller formations or as single deployers — also rotate in and out of operations with the carrier. The carrier itself often has only a single escort — dubbed “shotgun” — and at times that ship might not even be part of the carrier ’s group. Recently, for example, the San Diego-basedcarrier Ronald Reagan, operating in the Gulf of Oman, was temporarily escorted only by the destroyer James E. Williams, a Norfolk, Va.-based destroyer that deployed with an amphibious ready group.
The dispersal of the Norfolk based Theodore Roosevelt strike group that preceded Reagan in the region reflected an extreme example of the new operating profile.
The carrier began its deployment in fall 2008 by visiting South Africa — the first U.S. carrier in more than 40 years to call there. While some ships of the group cruised through the Mediterranean, another, the destroyer The Sullivans, traveled to northern France for a D-Day commemoration. Later, when TR was conducting combat operations in the northern Arabian Sea, the same destroyer was dispatched to Japan to carry out a series of exercises.
“The ability to share assets between task forces is a historic strength, and we’re doing it today to a tremendous degree,” said Rear Adm. Frank Pandolfe, former commander of the TR strike group, during a Sept. 16 interview in his Pentagon office.
But “the geographic extent of our operations was a little bit unusual,” he said.
“You want to make sure your capabilities are moved around to where they are needed,” Pandolfe said, explaining how, for example a coalition patrol force needed a flagship. The answer was the TR group’s cruiser Monterey and the Vella Gulf, another cruiser that originally deployed with an East Coast amphibious group. The cruisers, equipped with command facilities, each served as flagship for Combined Task Force 151, a counterpiracy force off Somalia.
CTF 151 was one of four coalition maritime forces in the region that the carrier ’s ships operated with. Others were CTF 150, an anti-smuggling force that operates in the Red Sea and off Somalia, Yemen and Oman; CTF 152, performing maritime security operations in the Persian Gulf; and CTF 158, protecting key oil platforms in the northern Persian Gulf.
Vella Gulf and the destroyers The Sullivans, Mahan, Mason and Nitze all operated with CTF 150 during the deployment, Pandolfe said. The carrier led CTF 152 for three months, and Nitze protected CTF 158’s oil platforms for nearly three months, during which its embarked helicopter flew an average of more than five hours a day.
The most eclectic deployment profile was turned in by The Sullivans, which “had a very interesting cruise,” Pandolfe said. “She’d gone up to D-Day, helped commission a Navy monument on the battlefield at Normandy. She then came through to work with NATO for a while. Then she went to the Far East and worked with 7th Fleet for a while. She came back and rejoined us, and at the end of the cruise, when the TR went to the United Kingdom for a visit, The Sullivans came with us.” The NATO mission involved operations with Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 in the Persian Gulf, working alongside German and Turkish warships.
“It worked out well for us,” Pandolfe said. “It was a good deployment, and The Sullivans provided extra capability for that group and showed U.S. commitment to NATO by doing so. I think it’s illustrative of the flexibility and the operational agility of our ships that we can do this.” An unusual aspect of the cruise was the three months The Sullivans spent operating in the Far East. A Japan-based U.S. destroyer equipped for ballistic-missile defense was assigned to the Gulf region, “so we did a swap,” Pandolfe said.
All the while, the aircraft of Carrier Air Wing 8 aboard TR were flying grueling combat missions over Afghanistan.
“These are very long flights, very taxing on our air crews,” Pandolfe said. “Generally, they are six-hour flights involving three [air-to-air] refuelings.” The experience of the TR group’s deployment now is being echoed by the Ronald Reagan strike group —
and has almost become routine.
Strike groups “are disaggregating, but they are operating across a wide set of missions in a wide geographic area because of a demand signal to accomplish a number of missions,” said Pandolfe, who now heads up the Navy’s Surface Warfare Division.
“As you look at the kinds of missions that are important today and will be important tomorrow —
things like ballistic-missile defense, engagement, the projection of combat power from carriers to shore — these will remain essential to what we do,” he said. “And we will design ships to meet the mission set we expect to accomplish. Building more BMD ships, building fast, modular agile ships that can help fulfill engagement roles — these are the things we are looking at.”
Navy TIMES