Aircraft Carriers III

Jura said:

Oct 25, 2017
while
U.S. to stage drill with three carriers as Trump visits Asia
Updated 6 hours ago

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Three U.S. carrier strike groups will drill together – in the first tri-carrier operations in a decade of the Korean peninsula in the Sea of Japan, several sources confirmed to USNI News on Wednesday.

USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), USS Nimitz (CVN-68) and USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), along with their escorts and air wings, are set to meet off the coast of Korea for four days of exercises later this week.

“These three carriers are not there specifically targeting North Korea. … This is a routine demonstration of our commitment to the region,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford said last week.

Defense officials told USNI News that,

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in October, there would be likely that at least two of the carriers conducting joint operations.

“It is a rare opportunity to train with two aircraft carriers together, and even rarer to be able to train with three,” said U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander, Adm. Scott Swift, said in a statement.
“Multiple carrier strike force operations are very complex, and this exercise in the Western Pacific is a strong testament to the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s unique ability and ironclad commitment to the continued security and stability of the region.”

Nimitz is in transit to its homeport in Washington state, while Roosevelt is set to start operations in the Persian Gulf since departing last month from San Diego. Reagan has been operating off the Korean peninsula since last month.

In late May, Reagan and the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group conducted the

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in reaction to a series of provocative missile tests conducted by North Korea.

News

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.

USNI News understands there will be international participation in the exercise, but it is still unclear which navies will join the exercise and in what capacity.

However, reports indicate the Japanese would send a ship following a separate exercise.

“A Japanese destroyer, the Inazuma, will join the armada, two Japanese government officials said, following a separate three-day exercise with the Reagan and two Indian warships in the Sea of Japan that ended Monday,”

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.

The tri-carrier operations will be the largest exercise since 2007, when the Nimitz, John C. Stennis and Kitty Hawk Carrier Strike Groups exercised off of Guam as part of Exercise Valiant Shield.

The drills come as President Donald Trump is on a state visit to the region and against a backdrop of increasing tensions between North Korea and Washington.

Trump was in Beijing on Wednesday and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a meeting in which he was expected to discuss how to curb Pyongyang’s ongoing nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

The following is the Nov. 8, 2017 statement from U.S. 7th Fleet.

YOKOSUKA — The USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), USS Nimitz (CVN 68), and USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) strike groups will commence a three-carrier strike force exercise in the Western Pacific, Nov 11-14.

Units assigned to the strike force will conduct coordinated operations in international waters in order to demonstrate the U.S. Navy’s unique capability to operate multiple carrier strike groups as a coordinated strike force effort.

“It is a rare opportunity to train with two aircraft carriers together, and even rarer to be able to train with three,” said U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander, Adm. Scott Swift. “Multiple carrier strike force operations are very complex, and this exercise in the Western Pacific is a strong testament to the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s unique ability and ironclad commitment to the continued security and stability of the region.”

While at sea, the strike force plans to conduct air defense drills, sea surveillance, replenishments at sea, defensive air combat training, close-in coordinated maneuvers, and other training.This is the first time that three carrier strike groups have operated together in the Western Pacific since exercises Valiant Shield 2006 and 2007 off the coast of Guam. Both exercises focused on the ability to rapidly bring together forces from three strike groups in response to any regional situation. Ronald Reagan took part in VS 2006 and Nimitz took part in VS 2007. More recently, U.S. Navy aircraft carriers have conducted dual carrier strike group operations in the Western Pacific including in the South China Sea, East China Sea and Philippine Sea. These opportunities typically occur when strike groups deployed to the 7th Fleet area of operations from the West Coast of the United States are joined with the forward deployed carrier strike group from Japan.

For more than 70 years, the U.S. Pacific Fleet has been a persistent and stabilizing presence conducting operations throughout the region. The Fleet is just as committed to maintaining those security commitments for the next 70 years.

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Jura said:

Tuesday at 5:28 PM

now just this ("... are set to meet off the coast of Korea for four days of exercises later this week"):
UPDATED: 3 U.S. Carrier Strike Groups to Exercise for 4 Days in the Sea of Japan

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LOL as you might guess, I'm going to update this post

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US Navy aircraft carriers USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), USS Nimitz (CVN 68) and USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) together with ships from their carrier strike groups are starting a joint exercise in the Western Pacific on November 11.

The US Navy often has two aircraft carriers in the region but this will be the first time in a decade for three carrier strike groups to exercise in the region.

Units assigned to the strike force will carry out four days of coordinated operations in international waters, demonstrating US Navy’s unique capability to operate multiple carrier strike groups as a coordinated strike force effort.

“It is a rare opportunity to train with two aircraft carriers together, and even rarer to be able to train with three,” said US Pacific Fleet Commander, Adm. Scott Swift. “Multiple carrier strike force operations are very complex, and this exercise in the Western Pacific is a strong testament to the US Pacific Fleet’s unique ability and ironclad commitment to the continued security and stability of the region.”

While at sea, the strike force plans to conduct air defense drills, sea surveillance, replenishments at sea, defensive air combat training, close-in coordinated maneuvers and other training.

This is the first time that three carrier strike groups have operated together in the Western Pacific since exercises Valiant Shield 2006 and 2007 off the coast of Guam.

Both exercises focused on the ability to rapidly bring together forces from three strike groups in response to any regional situation. More recently, U.S. Navy aircraft carriers have conducted dual carrier strike group operations in the Western Pacific including in the South China Sea, East China Sea and Philippine Sea. These opportunities typically occur when strike groups deployed to the 7th Fleet area of operations from the West Coast of the United States are joined with the forward deployed carrier strike group from Japan.

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170612-N-BL637-074 PACIFIC OCEAN (June 12, 2017) F/A-18 Hornets and Super Hornets assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2 fly over the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), front, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108), right, USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112), left, and the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain (CG 57) in the western Pacific. The U.S. Navy has patrolled the Indo-Asia-Pacific routinely for more than 70 years promoting regional peace and security. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Sean M. Castellano/Released)

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The head of naval aviation told Congress on Thursday that ongoing aviation troubles, with high operational tempo and limited funding, continue to tax the service and force cuts to operations back home.

In prepared remarks for the House Armed Services Committee, Vice Adm. Troy Shoemaker testified that some carrier air wings have already cut maintenance back from two shifts to one due to lack of manning amid constant

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.

He said the force continues to feel the effects of the 2011 Budget Control Act, which put limits on defense spending, effective for 10 years.

“We’ve been forced to take risks in maintenance and production and, as a result, our ability to fix and produce up aircraft and therefore train aviators has suffered,” Shoemaker said in his remarks.

The

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has been hit hard, he said, as naval presence has been increasingly required across the world.

In 2017, the service deployed four carrier strike groups around the world, he wrote. Currently, there are seven carriers underway,

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.

But doing that means robbing non-deployed planes, Shoemaker said.

“Consistent with the Navy’s policy of supporting deployed and next-to-deploy forces, we were forced to cannibalize aircraft, parts and people to ensure those leaving on deployment had what they needed to be safe and effective while operating forward,” he said. “To continue to provide credible maritime forces around the world, we’ve made sacrifices at home.”

To aid the strike fighter community, which Shoemaker said has been hardest hit by readiness shortfalls, the Navy has established a “Rhino Readiness Recovery” team to highlight and tackle the impacts of underfunding and maintenance needs.

As of October, Shoemaker said, only half of all Navy

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were flyable, and only 31 percent were fully ready to fight and deploy.

It was first reported in February that the Navy’s Hornet community was in dire straits. At the time, 62 percent of all F/A-18s were not flyable due to spares shortages and other problems.

“The readiness level for [the Super Hornet] community has been on a declining trend for the last few years,” Shoemaker said in his prepared testimony.

He said the readiness recovery team is bringing together naval subject matter experts from across the service and teaming them with experienced industry partners.

But while the Navy works to leverage expertise, Shoemaker called on Congress to fund the service’s efforts to repair itself in a predictable way.

“We will use the lessons learned from the strike fighter community to enhance our ability to repair aircraft, predict future challenges across the aviation force, and support the warfighter in each of our aviation communities,” he said.

“Key to the success of this effort is consistent, healthy levels of aviation readiness account funding across the Future Years Defense Plan, to include investment in our aging infrastructure and needed support equipment replacement,” he continued.

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Jura said:

Today at 7:27 AM

LOL just waiting now:
For first time in a decade, three US carriers to exercise in Western Pacific

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Jura said:

in real world Navy Cutting Maintenance, Cannibalizing Planes Amid Readiness Crisis

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The Navy’s three carrier strike groups currently deployed off the Korean peninsula are ready for contingencies, but at the cost to the readiness of naval aviation squadrons training at home, the Navy’s air boss said.

“We are meeting the combatant commander’s requirement for ready lethal forces forward, but at a tremendous cost to the readiness of our forces at home,” Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker, commander, Naval Air Forces, said during a Nov. 9 hearing before the House Armed Services readiness subcommittee.

“For example, to get [the aircraft carriers] Carl Vinson, Nimitz and Theodore Roosevelt ready to deploy in January, June, and October of this year, and equip their embarked air wings with the required number of mission-capable jets, 94 strike fighters had to be transferred to and from the maintenance depots, or between F/A-18 squadrons on both coasts,” he said. “This included pulling aircraft from the fleet replacement squadrons, where our focus should be on training new aviators.

“That strike fighter inventory management, or shell game, leaves non-deployed squadrons well below the number of jest required to keep aviators proficient and progressing toward their career qualification and milestones, with detrimental impacts to both retention and future experience levels,” Shoemaker said.

“Additionally, to get those air wings ready, several hundred parts had to be cannibalized from other Super Hornets across the force, further decimating the readiness of squadrons and adding significantly and unnecessarily to the workload of our maintainers,” he said. “From a manning perspective, to fill gaps in those deploying squadrons and the three carriers, over 300 Sailors had to be temporarily reassigned from other squadrons, have their orders changed, or get extended beyond their normal sea tour lengths, which hurts our Sailors and their families and has cascading effects on enlisted retention across the force.”

In a written statement submitted to the subcommittee, Shoemaker said that “in order to properly man the required carrier air wings either on deployment or preparing to deploy at mandated levels of 95 percent, we do not have enough Sailors left to fill the two remaining air wings in their maintenance phase. Due to these shortfalls, we have some squadrons only able to operate a single shift of maintenance (when they should be able to safely run two). We’ve been forced to take risks in maintenance and production and, as a result, our ability to fix and produce up aircraft and therefore train aviators has suffered.”

In his testimony, Shoemaker said the actions needed to restore readiness in naval aviation forces include consistent, predictable funding; buying back readiness lost from years of resource-constrained budgets; replenishing diminished stocks of spare parts on carriers and on bases; modernizing the force to pace the threat; procuring new aircraft with high-end capabilities and lethality; and adding critical manpower needed to fight and to maintain those forces.

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Jura said:

the view from the most recent VIDEO: Flight Operations on USS Gerald R. Ford

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The US Navy’s commander of Naval Air Forces is sending a dire warning to Congress this week over the rampant cannibalisation of its fighter fleet could threaten the service’s ability to go to war.

In order to get its fighter squadrons to carriers, the navy is transferring hundreds of parts from its non-deployed squadrons, decreasing those aircraft’s ability to respond to the call of duty if needed.

"At the beginning of October, in our Super Hornet community alone, only half of our total inventory of 542 aircraft were flyable, or mission capable,” Vice Adm Mike Shoemaker states in a written testimony to lawmakers this week. “Only 170 or 31% of the total inventory were fully mission capable and ready to 'fight tonight.'"

Half of the navy’s Super Hornets were mission capable, meaning the aircraft were not ready for full combat but could perform some missions such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, a navy spokesman tells FlightGlobal. Only 31% were fully mission capable and could perform any mission, including combat.

The problem is most acute with the navy’s Super Hornet and Hornet inventory. While the service’s EA-18G Growlers have the same airframe, the aircraft are newer than the F/A-18s and require fewer parts replacements at this time, a spokesman says.

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