Future Carrier (Including Costs)

[WE Branch Fanatic]

These articles might interest some:

Why aircraft carriers are no longer a constant in the Middle East - Navy Times

As an officer deployed aboard the battleship Wisconsin during Operation Desert Shield in 1990, James Holmes recalls how no one back then thought the U.S. military would ever need an aircraft carrier in the Middle East.

At the time, the Navy’s presence in the region was mostly limited to small surface combatants, and an enclosed body of water like the Persian Gulf was considered a potential graveyard for a carrier, according to Holmes, now retired and the chairman of maritime strategy at the U.S. Naval War College.

The situation changed drastically in the ensuing decades. As the Iraq and Afghanistan wars raged after 9/11, the military had at least one carrier strike group steaming in U.S. Central Command--or CENTCOM--waters at any given time, a demand that eventually helped degrade the readiness of the carrier fleet.

But these days, hundreds of thousands of U.S. boots who might need air support are no longer on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And as a result, roughly 30 years since Holmes encountered a carrier-less Middle East, what’s old has become new again.

----

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February certainly helped nudge this change along. Before that war and the resulting need for U.S. and NATO presence, the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group might have spent only a short time in the waters of U.S. European Command before heading down to CENTCOM, a common route for deployed East Coast carriers.

Instead, Truman and its ships spent an extended deployment in the European theater, primarily in the Mediterranean, and were relieved by the George H.W. Bush carrier strike group in September.

UK Navy should ‘export’ A2/AD ‘bubbles’ to Indo-Pacific partners to fend off China: Report - Breaking Defense

DUBLIN — The United Kingdom’s Royal Navy should “export” anti-access/anti-denial (A2/AD) “bubbles” to regional partners in the Indo-Pacific so it can operate effectively there, while maintaining commitments in Europe, a new report urges.

The recommendation, outlined in a report published by the UK-based think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), was delivered to Adm. Ben Key, First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy, and comes ahead of a national defense review “refresh” set for publication by the end of the year.

At issue for London in turning attention to the Indo-Pacific is that it has said the Royal Navy will support the Europe-based NATO Readiness Initiative by committing Carrier Strike Group assets to the project leaving very limited scope or resources for new operations — especially those that involve fleet sustainment at range.

In order to resolve such tension, the RUSI authors recommend a so-called “assured sovereignty” approach be taken in which the Royal Navy lends support to “regional partners” so they could develop anti-A2/AD “bubbles” of their own and in so doing deter Chinese threats.

“If this approach were adopted, it could act as a capstone concept not only for the Indo-Pacific tilt but also for the future evolution of frameworks such as the AUKUS (Australia–UK–US) security partnership,” note the authors, who declined to describe any specific systems the UK might consider transferring..

They suggest that AUKUS should also be matured to include “two additional functions” beyond the multinational partnership’s main focus of delivering nuclear powered attack submarines (SSN) to Australia — namely “reinforcing” Canberra’s ability to restrict freedom of action and building AUKUS “exportable capabilities” so smaller nations can increase deterrence.

“In effect, then, the aim of exporting anti-access bubbles might become the capstone aim around which the partnership evolves,” the report adds. “This is not necessarily the only means by which the UK can contribute to regional balancing dynamics, but it is potentially an approach through which the Royal Navy can deliver the most significant strategic effects.”

There are a series of issues that, when looked at together, combine to make the implementation of newly formed A2/AD bubbles particularly relevant, according to the report. Those include lethal autonomy, scalable manufacturing and “smaller devices” potentially being able to increase lethality — suggesting smaller partner nations in the region, well-guided, could become a greater deterrence to large rivals like China...

HMS Queen Elizabeth heads on F-35 jet exercises in northern European waters - Royal Navy

The Carrier Strike Group will work closely with NATO and Joint Expeditionary Force allies as the UK underscores its commitment to safeguarding European security.

The Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) is a coalition of ten like-minded nations, which are dedicated to maintaining the security of northern Europe.

This latest deployment builds on a range of operations and exercises with JEF allies this year for the Royal Navy, including maritime patrols in the Baltic Sea.

HMS Queen Elizabeth will be at the centre of the Carrier Strike Group, with the Commander UK Carrier Strike Group, Commodore Angus Essenhigh, and his staff commanding from the aircraft carrier.

F-35B Lightning jets from 617 Squadron will carry out flying operations, while helicopters from 820, 845, 815 and 825 Naval Air Squadrons will be undertaking sorties from a bustling flight deck...

Someone said something about having a carrier meaning that we can only be effective in one place:

The deployment is part of the UK’s Operation Achillean, which also includes a task force led by HMS Albion in the Mediterranean.

More than a thousand sailors and Royal Marines have been operating with NATO allies and partners across the Med as part of the Littoral Response Group (North) this autumn.

The task force – which also includes RFA Argus, RFA Mounts Bay and HMS Defender – have most recently worked in Montenegro, forging closer bonds as the Balkan nation celebrates five years of NATO membership.

That sounds like being effective in two places - as well as other contributions to NATO, commitments in the Middle East, and forward presence in the South Atlantic, Caribbean, Mediterranean, and Far East - and of course CASD.

Often the carrier would be acting to protect the LRG.