Carrier Air Wing And The Future Of Naval Aviation

Carrier air wing and the future of naval aviation : hearing before the Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces of the Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, second session, hearing held February 11, 2016.

Today, alongside its all-important operations in direct support of the Global War on Terrorism, naval aviation also continues its now 60-year commitment to shaping the maritime and littoral environment through persistent forward presence. In the longer term, naval aviation is also adapting to a series of geopolitical revolutions which will dramatically increase the future demand for a secure sea base capable of projecting dominant power ashore in wartime against the full spectrum of possible opponents. It is adapting to these demands by exploiting technologies and operational practices developed in the last decade that will greatly increase its ability to surge and concentrate forces rapidly; protect the sea base from new air, surface, and undersea threats; and find, identify, locate, track, and strike mobile as well as fixed targets ashore, under all weather conditions, and in timely enough fashion to produce the desired effects. This report discusses the following topics: (1) Formal Alliances Provide Predictable Access, Informal Coalitions Do Not; (2) Distributed Ground Forces Require Persistent, Distributed Air Support; (3) The Sea Shield Must Be Dominant If the Sea Base Is to Be Effective; (4) Adapting; (5) The Spectrum from Presence to Major Combat; (6) Technology and the Spectrum of Threat; (7) The Value of Robust Airborne Early Warning (AEW) Aircraft; (8) No Substitute for Range in Carrier Aviation; (9) The Need for Airborne Electronic Attack (AEA) is Not Going Away; (10) Land-Based Maritime Patrol Aircraft; (11) Multimission Helicopters; (12) New Capabilities and Challenges; (13) Eliminating the Weather Sanctuary for Mobile Targets; (14) Providing a Dominant Defense of the Sea Base; (15) Shoot Archers Not Arrows; (16) Make Opposing Submarines Pay for Their Inevitable Indiscretions; (17) Get Back in the Counter-Surveillance Business; and (18) The Force of the Future.

This book is a meticulously detailed history of British aircraft-carrying ships from the earliest experimental vessels to the Queen Elizabeth class, currently under construction and the largest ships ever built for the Royal Navy. Individual chapters cover the design and construction of each class, with full technical details, and there are extensive summaries of every ship's career. Apart from the obvious large-deck carriers, the book also includes seaplane carriers, escort carriers and MAC ships, the maintenance ships built on carrier hulls, unbuilt projects, and the modern LPH. It concludes with a look at the future of naval aviation, while numerous appendices summarise related subjects like naval aircraft, recognition markings and the circumstances surrounding the loss of every British carrier. As befits such an important reference work, it is heavily illustrated with a magnificent gallery of photos and plans, including the first publication of original plans in full colour, one on a magnificent gatefold.??Written by the leading historian of British carrier aviation, himself a retired Fleet Air Arm pilot, it displays the authority of a lifetime's research combined with a practical understanding of the issues surrounding the design and operation of aircraft carriers. As such British Aircraft Carriers is certain to become the standard work on the subject.

In a widely noted speech to the Navy League Sea-Air-Space Expo in May 2010, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates warned that “the Navy and Marine Corps must be willing to reexamine and question basic assumptions in light of evolving technologies, new threats, and budget realities.We simply cannot afford to perpetuate a status quo that heaps more and more expensive technologies onto fewer and fewer platforms—thereby risking a situation where some of our greatest capital expenditures go toward weapons and ships that could potentially become wasting assets.” Secretary Gates specifically questioned whether the Navy's commitment to a force of eleven carrier strike groups through 2040 makes sense, given the extent of the anticipated superiority of the United States over potential adversaries at sea as well as the growing threat of antiship missiles. Though later disclaiming any immediate intention to seek a reduction in the current carrier force, Gates nevertheless laid down a clear marker that all who are concerned over the future of the U.S. Navy would be well advised to take with the utmost seriousness. We may stand, then, at an important watershed in the evolution of carrier aviation, one reflecting not only the nation's current financial crisis but the changing nature of the threats to, or constraints on, American sea power, as well as—something the secretary did not mention—the advent of a new era of unmanned air and sea platforms of all types. Taken together, these developments argue for resolutely innovative thinking about the future of the nation's carrier fleet and our surface navy more generally. In Innovation in Carrier Aviation, number thirty-seven in our Newport Papers monograph series, Thomas C. Hone, Norman Friedman, and Mark D.Mandeles examine the watershed period in carrier development that occurred immediately following World War II, when design advances were made that would be crucial to the centrality in national-security policy making that carriers and naval aviation have today. In those years several major technological breakthroughs—notably the jet engine and nuclear weapons—raised large questions about the future and led to an array of innovations in the design and operational utilization of aircraft carriers. Central to this story is the collaboration between the aviation communities in the navies of the United States and Great Britain during these years, building on the intimate relationship they had developed during the war itself. Strikingly, the most important of these innovations, notably the angled flight deck and steam catapult, originated with the British, not the Americans. This study thereby also provides interesting lessons for the U.S. Navy today with respect to its commitment to maritime security cooperation in the context of its new “maritime strategy.” It is a welcome and important addition to the historiography of the Navy in the seminal years of the Cold War.

Published to coincide with the centennial celebration of U.S. Navy Aviation, this book chronicles Navy aviation from its earliest days, before the Navy’s first aircraft carrier joined the fleet, through the modern jet era marked by the introduction of the F-18 Hornet. It tells how naval aviation got its start, profiles its pioneers, and explains the early bureaucracy that fostered and sometimes inhibited its growth. The book then turns to the refinement of carrier aviation doctrine and tactics and the rapid development of aircraft and carriers, highlighting the transition from propeller-driven aircraft to swept wing jets in the period after WW II. Land-based Navy aircraft, rotary-wing aircraft and rigid airships, and balloons are also considered in this sweeping tribute.

Naval Aviation is a warfighting force. Its capabilities and capacity have been sharply honed and are fundamental to achieving the goals of the Defense Strategic Guidance, Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st-Century Defense. The fiscal landscape and emerging security environment are unstable and uncertain; balancing budgetary challenges and the need for national defense demand that Naval Aviation fulfill more global commitments while operating within tighter budget limitations. This document, guided by and aligned to The Vision for Naval Aviation 2025 and its pillars of capability superiority, wholeness, and maintaining capacity, provides our unified view of how Naval Aviation intends to meet the challenges ahead. We will do it through revolutionary changes in capabilities, retaining our aggregate and operational capacity, and by safely, effectively, and affordably executing our job of organizing, manning, training, and equipping fleet combat forces. Naval Aviation is a warfighting enterprise that continues to be the preeminent forward-deployed force ready to fulfill any mission assigned. Our aircraft carriers, amphibious assault ships, carrier air wings, aviation combat elements, and maritime patrol and reconnaissance forces maintain a combat-ready posture as an instrument of our nation's will. For the past century, Naval Aviation has been at the forefront of operational and tactical innovation. Consistent with The Vision for Naval Aviation 2025, we remain focused on systematically establishing an enduring, affordable, lethal, and adaptable approach to meet and shape strategic objectives. We will continue to operate forward with revolutionary Integrated and Interoperable capabilities designed to face future threats in an increasingly-contested operating environment. Our nation's demand for access, commerce, and maneuver will require us to continue to evolve capabilities and capacities to assure our nation's and Navy's global leadership from the sea. Naval Aviation is a major stakeholder in these operations, and will continue to play key roles in the rebalancing of our nation's global posture and presence to an emphasis on the Pacific and sustaining support for our partners in the Middle East. This vision for Naval Aviation aspires to ensure an affordable, powerful Navy that maintains our core competencies across the spectrum of military operations. Our Sailors and Marines embrace the privilege of this awesome responsibility with pride, determination, and enthusiasm.