By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
Not long ago in the Pacific, the US Navy conducted “dual-carrier” war drills wherein two aircraft carriers operated in close coordination with one another to practice executing a massive air campaign, something which verified that several integrated carriers together could double the sortie rate, dwell time over targets and geographical envelope of attack. With USS Ford and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Groups both off the coast of Israel, the Pentagon is making it clear that it has the ability to operate a sweeping, massive, multi-warship air attack on Hamas or Iran if necessary.
The “dual-carrier” training mission in the Pacific was successful, as it enabled the US Navy to ensure it could greatly “scale” and maintain a sustained air attack from the sea. It involved the USS Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Groups which conducted a range of maritime warfare operations, including anti-submarine warfare, naval replenishment, cross-deck flight operations, and maritime interdiction missions.
The US “dual-carrier” exercise was quickly and not surprisingly copied by the People’s Liberation Army – Navy, and it may have provided the confidence and conceptual framework for the Pentagon’s current decision to place two highly-lethal and likely integrated Carrier Strike Groups in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Often thought of as a venerable symbol of American power and presence, US Navy carriers have for years operated as an “ultimate deterrent,” meaning they certainly give potential adversaries pause when it comes to taking certain aggressive actions. The potential for an air campaign is massive, as each carrier can operate at least 75 to 90-aircraft, and one of the key take-aways from previous “dual-carrier” exercises was that flight paths, launches and missions could be synchronized, staggered and coordinated to optimize attack duration and effectiveness. For instance, with two carrier strike groups capable of integrating and networking operations, the US Navy could potentially operate two distinct, yet large air campaigns simultaneously. US Navy carriers could attack Hamas and Iran at the same time in a large-scale way should that be necessary.
The operational deployment of the USS Ford brings yet another host of extremely significant variables as it is capable of a 33-percent increase in sortie rate beyond the Nimitz-class. The largest advantage related to the dual-carrier groups now in the Middle East likely pertains to 5th-generation aircraft. Of course carriers and destroyers in the Carrier Strike Groups to protect carriers can launch long-range precision attacks with Tactical Tomahawks able to change course in flight and use Aegis radar and SM-3s to stop ballistic missile attacks, but perhaps of greatest significance, they can each operate 30-to-50 F-35Cs if necessary. Given the ability of the F-35s to easily network with each other on real time with Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL), US Navy maritime variant F-35Cs from different carriers could use the same command and control. F-35s could exchange ISR and targeting data with one another as well, a latency-reducing, target-attack enhancing circumstances.
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization and Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
