Navy Has A New, Quieter Mission

[USS ALASKA]

Politico.com
September 24, 2009

Navy Has A New, Quieter Mission

By Jen DiMascio

ABOARD THE USS HARRY S. TRUMAN — For Navy Capt. Andrew Lewis, the commander of a fighter jet fleet stationed on this Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, times have changed.

For much of his career, which began before Desert Storm, more than 20 years ago, success in battle was determined by the number of bombs he dropped. Not anymore. Now, as he prepares for his 10th deployment, the fighter pilots he trains and commands are taught to prize restraint — especially in the valleys of Afghanistan.

“If we do not drop any bombs flying over Afghanistan, over Iraq — if we don’t shoot the gun — that’s a good thing,” said Lewis, leaning on a chair in the ready room of the Gunslingers fighter squadron. A quiet mission for him “means the people on the ground doing counterinsurgency work are able to do their work.”

The evolution seen by Lewis — whose boyish face is creased with deep lines — dovetails with the emerging strategy of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. McChrystal is aiming to reduce civilian casualties through more discreet, pinpoint operations, hoping that makes Afghans less opposed to a new U.S. troop buildup. Illustrating the change, the USS Ronald Reagan just wrapped up a tour in the Gulf of Oman and dropped half as much ordnance as the carrier group that went before it.

The Navy, for its part, is holding up Lewis and his fleet of fighter jets as an example of a contrarian notion — showing that an aircraft carrier strike group not known for its ability to make quick changes can in fact swiftly adapt to the demands of changing warfare.

The 97,000-ton Truman carries a fleet, or “wing,” of 44 fighter jets — the size of an entire air force for some nations — surveillance planes and helicopters, cargo planes, guns, large bombs and 4,500 sailors. The strike group sails with a fleet that includes an anti-missile cruiser, several destroyers, a submarine and a frigate.

But all those additional ships — multiplied over 11 carrier groups arrayed against opponents from insurgents in Afghanistan to pirates off the coast of Somalia — make the groups vulnerable targets come budget time. And while the carrier groups are a key way to project U.S. power around the globe, Pentagon planners are debating whether — at $10 billion for a new carrier — they need quite so many, prompting the Navy to push back.

Adm. Timothy Keating, the commander of Pacific Command, told reporters last week that the United States deploys six carriers to the Pacific and it’s not always enough.

Commanders of carrier strike groups described them as the military’s Swiss army knife, with a tool for nearly every contingency. The carrier has advanced fighter jets and ballistic missiles to counter near-peer threats and anti-missile defenses ready to shoot down approaching missiles.

To take on pirates off the coast of Africa, the strike group can deploy its destroyers and smaller vessels with surveillance equipment to challenge the smallest boats. It can dispatch surveillance planes to protect the oil fields of Iraq.

But perhaps most important, the sight of a 1,096-foot aircraft carrier off a coast inspires sheer awe.

“The incredible firepower that this aircraft carrier and air wing and accompanying assets have is a tremendous stabilizing force as it moves around the world,” said Rear Adm. Garry White, the commander of a strike force training in the Atlantic. “You want to have the firepower. It’s best to negotiate from a position of power. Some people just don’t necessarily respect you if you don’t have that power.”

But in recent times, being awesome has worked against other programs, particularly when it describes their price tag.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates also recently raised the concern that technology might in the future trump brute strength, citing the case of China.

“Their investments in cyber- and anti-satellite warfare, anti-air and anti-ship weaponry and ballistic missiles could threaten America’s primary way to project power and help allies in the Pacific — in particular, our forward air bases and carrier strike groups,” Gates said in a speech to the Air Force Association this month.

Gates is recommending slowing down the production of aircraft carriers — whose number, because older ones are retiring, will temporarily be reduced to 10.

That idea is favored by Robert Work, who recently joined the Navy as its undersecretary. Before his new assignment, Work wrote a paper for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments analyzing the U.S. Navy’s relative pre-eminence over other navies, particularly with regard to its presence in the skies. Work didn’t recommend stopping the production or deployment of carriers, but he suggested slowing their production.

Future carriers will have to operate farther from shore to avoid the types of threats Gates mentioned in his speech, Work wrote, an argument that’s being used to develop long-range, unmanned bombing aircraft that can be launched from a carrier deck.

Eliminating one full carrier is being considered as part of the Pentagon’s once-in-four-years review, said Mackenzie Eaglen, a defense analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “The reason it’s particularly precarious for the Navy is because it could put the Navy in a single-digit fleet,” she said, adding that because of maintenance schedules, only nine carriers would be available for deployment.

“I think it would be significant psychologically,” she said, but it would also put the nation at a higher level of military risk. “At what point is it the straw that breaks the camel’s back?”

With defense budgets being squeezed, the carrier community is moving into defense mode, and the Navy is responding by promoting the many uses of a carrier and its importance to global security. More and more often, carrier groups are taking on new roles, supporting counterinsurgencies, conducting anti-piracy missions and providing humanitarian relief and health care.

When the Navy’s Strike Group 10 sets sail next year, it will be able to simultaneously support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and dispatch smaller ships to the Horn of Africa to pick up counterpiracy missions.

Nothing less than the world’s economy is at stake, said Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll, the strike group’s commander, from a room overlooking the USS Truman’s 300-foot runway, where a steam-powered catapult launches F-18 Super Hornets into flight.

“Ninety percent of the world’s trade goes by sea. Ninety percent of the communications cables go by sea. The petroleum market is critical to how our economy goes, and 40 percent of all that oil goes through the Malacca Strait — one strait that we have to make sure doesn’t get closed,” Driscoll said. “It’s essential that we have strong maritime forces to protect the sea lanes and have a presence forward. If you’re not there, you don’t have a vote.”

[RF]

A different mission due to different types of warfare, shows how the world is changing, not necessarily for the better.