Originally Posted by
ORAC
In February, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower
performed just such a mission, sweeping a path across the Atlantic for cargo ships full of Army equipment bound for major ground exercise in Europe. The expercise, run under the newly reconstituted 2nd Fleet, was the first drill simulating a contested crossing of the Atlantic since 1986.
I believe there was an exercise in last 15 years relying on a NATO convoy enforcement across the Atlantic which provided lots of learnings and none of them good.
The Ike, along with an unidentified submarine sweeping the depths of the ocean for unexpected Russian guests, sailed well ahead of the convoy while fighting off simulated electronic warfare and undersea and aerial attacks in a stress test for how prepared the Navy is to punch its way across the Atlantic.
But sitting on bottom completely silent waiting for convoy was what Wolfpacks did 75 years ago, irrespective of escorts that were ahead. Why would that strategy change ?
Add in underwater drones etc etc and it becomes a bit more of a difficult exercise to protect shipping.
What is airlift capacity required for transferring a complete division from US to Europe ?
Yes I know it woukld be substantial but aircraft would be doing 14 flights a week V shipping.
As the Pentagon and Navy hash out what the Navy of the future should look like to meet challenges posed by China, they are experimenting everywhere. Navy and Marine Corps leadership have warmed to the
“lightning carrier” concept, designed to pack amphibious ships with Marine Corps’ F-35Bs and sail them to the hotspots to cover places the big decks aren’t.
Late last year, the USS America photographed in the Pacific with 13 F-35s on its deck, something the services want to do more of as the so-called Gator Navy reinforces more decks to handle the fifth generation fighter. The Marines and Navy
are working on a new strategy to more closely align their operations, which would allow both to provide more punch, and give the Marines the ability to launch from both ships and from small ad-hoc land bases to support the fleet.
Any potentially smaller carrier of the future will not be as small as an amphibious ship, as those ships can’t support high sortie rates over long periods of time like a Nimitz or Ford carrier. They would, however, certainly be smaller than the hulking Fords...........
They still fixated on manned aircraft where as the unmanned are a fraction of the cost. Services will want mega budgets even when they are unsustainable.