Carrier (1999) (73 page)

While Naval aviators did have some precision weapons such as Paveway II LGBs and the new AGM- 84E Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM), their stockpiles were small, and lacked the capabilities of the newest systems like the Paveway III LGB and GBU-15 electro-optical guided bombs. So rapidly were these stocks used up that the Navy had to borrow a supply of Paveway II LGB kits from the USAF so that they could continue to strike precision targets.

The “Virtual Presence” campaign was designed to support additional procurement of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, hopefully with the funds that could be diverted by canceling production of additional aircraft carriers and their aircraft. Saner views took hold, and the production of the B-2 was capped at twenty-one.

“Black” procurement programs are designed to be so secret that they are not officially acknowledged in the federal budget. Only a select group of legislators and administrators are allowed to know of these projects, and the clearances required to work on them are above Top Secret.

As if all this was not absurd enough, there was the problem that DoD and the Navy improperly canceled the A-12 program, claiming that the GD and MDC had somehow “defaulted” on the contract. Normally, such cancellations are of government “convenience,” allowing the contractors to recover their losses and costs for shutting down the program. However, DoD and the Navy contended that the contractors had failed to do their jobs properly, and thus actually owed the government around $1.3 billion in money already paid. As might be imagined, this rapidly became a matter for high-priced lawyers, and resulted in an expensive show trial that the government decisively lost. While the government and contractors continue arguing over the details, it looks like the Navy will have to cough up something like $3.8 billion over the roughly $4.8 billion already spent to pay for its improper cancellation of the program.

The shame of it is that the design of the A-12 appears to have been sound, and while it would have been expensive at between S150 and $175 million a copy, that seems quite reasonable when compared to the Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor stealth air-superiority fighter, which is priced almost identically!
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To put an ironic perspective on this decision, General Charles “Chuck” Horner, who commanded U.S. Air Forces in Desert Storm, has told me that the only Navy strike aircraft he valued during the Desert

This also conformed to the usual Navy practice of giving feline names to Grumman fighters.

When Soviet intelligence obtained the specifications for the F-14 in the early 1970’s, the numbers actually terrified the Russian fighter pilots. So desperate were the Soviets to counter the F-14, and the other third-generation Western fighter designs, that they began to spend exhorbitant amounts of money on new fighter designs, and on intelligence efforts to obtain technical information that they could copy into their new aircraft.

Compared to the F-14’s single helicopter air-to-air “kill” during the war, F-15’s scored thirty-five victories. Much of this was due to the advanced NCTR systems of the USAF aircraft, which made them better able to employ their long-range weapons with the certainty required to avoid possible “blue-on-blue” incidents.

Along with the U.S. Navy, there was a single foreign customer for the Tomcat: the Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF). The IIAF Tomcat sale was approved by the Shah of Iran, based upon the capability of the AIM-54 Phoenix to hit the fast, high-flying MiG-25 Foxbat-R reconnaissance aircraft that had been intruding across the border shared with the then-Soviet Union. Of the eighty IIAF Tomcats ordered, all but one was delivered, with the last F-14 being embargoed and eventually delivered to the USN. Very little has been published in open sources about the air battles of the Iraq-Iran War (1980-88), though some of the F-14’s are reportedly still flying today.

During Desert Storm, this was usually four Mk. 83 1,000-lb/454.5-kg general-purpose bombs or a pair of Mk. 20 Rockeye cluster bombs. Today, the Hornet tends to carry PGMs like Paveway LGBs.
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While the LANTIRN system is used on single-seat F-16C fighter-bombers, it tends to be limited to striking fixed, preplanned targets only. For missions requiring a search for a target, two-person aircraft like the F-14 Tomcat or F-15E Strike Eagle are necessary.
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The A/U/RGM-84 Harpoon has been in service since the late 1970’s, originally having been designed to deal with patrol boats and other surface combatants at ranges of up to 60 nm/100 km. Thousands have been bought by dozens of nations for use on aircraft, ships, and submarines. It remains the most common and popular antishipping missile in the world today.

The Raytheon (formerly Texas Instruments) AGM-88A HARM missile is 13 ft, 7 in/4.2 meters long, 10 in/25.4 cm in diameter, and weighs 798 lb/363 kg. Range depends on the speed and altitude of the launching aircraft, but a standoff of 50 nm/92.6 km is typical for Prowler missions.

In 1953, some of the Navy’s older aircraft carriers were redesignated as Antisubmarine Aircraft Carriers, with air groups specifically tailored for ASW. These were mostly made up of ASW helicopters and S-2F Trackers.

The Soviet “Alfa”- and “Sierra”-class SSNs, along with a few experimental boats, had hulls welded from titanium, a very non-magnetic metal. The Russians can no longer afford the exotic construction methods required to build such boats.

This can be as low as five hundred feet, according to some open-source publications. For obvious reasons, MAD performance specs are highly classified.

Because of the scope of the original LAMPS Mk. III system with ship-mounted data links and processors, the Navy felt that the aircraft was only a secondary component. Therefore, IBM was selected to integrate the entire aircraft/ship system.

For more on the UH-60 Blackhawk, see my book
Armored Cav
(Berkley Books, 1994).

On the nose of all Block 11 and III TLAMs is a small “lip” that helps reduce the radar signature of the missile by deflecting, rather than reflecting, incoming radar waves. Also, RAM is used at various places around the TLAM airframe to further reduce the missile’s radar return.

The development and production of the thousands of TERCOM terrain maps that were necessary to hit targets around the world is a mind-numbing job. So much so that it took the Defense Mapping Agency (now part of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency) six months to build the TERCOM maps needed to give TLAM planners just three routes (one each from the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, and Mediterranean Sea) for the missiles to fly into the Baghdad area.

Current Navy plans have some thirty F/A-18E/F Super Hornets being built in Fiscal Year 1999, which will provide enough of the new aircraft to constitute the first advanced training and fleet squadrons.

For a general primer on airborne ordnance, see
Fighter Wing
(Berkley Books, 1995).

One of the more interesting possibilities for JSOW is to use it as a resupply system for Special Forces units behind enemy lines. It could even be packed full of MRE ration packages, and used for humanitarian relief in “hot” combat zones.

The USMC MEU (SOC) is a multi-purpose/capability unit based around a reinforced Marine battalion and medium-helicopter squadron. For more information on MEU (SOC)s and their operations, see my book
Marine: A Guided Tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit
(Berkley Books, 1996).

There are more carrier groups in the Pacific because the U.S. still maintains one CVBG/CVW at Japanese bases. The remaining groups are based at the West Coast ports of San Diego, California; Alameda, California; Everett, Washington; and Bremerton, Washington.

Given the historic unreliability of the United States in foreign affairs and alliances, very few nations are willing to risk the political fallout it takes to invite in U.S. forces. For example, because of the political and cultural risks, Saudi Arabia denied America access to bases during the 1997/98 Iraqi crisis.

Currently, O-10 (Admiral and General) are the highest ranks allowed by Federal law. The O-11 rank is a rare honor, voted by Congress for special personnel and occasions. These are known as Admiral of the Fleet, and General of the Army/Air Force/Marine Corps. The last living recipient of this honor was General of the Army Omar Bradley.

“CAG” is a term dating back to before World War II, when the air unit aboard a carrier was known as

Much of this information comes from
Combat Fleets of the World
(A.D. Baker, III, U.S. Naval Institute Press), which is the finest such volume in the world. If you want to know more, look it up in
Combat Fleets.

Despite their intended “low mix” status in the Cold War structure of the U.S. Navy, the FFG-7’s have frequently been in the thick of maritime operations and actions. Two of them, the
Stark
(FFG-31) and
Samuel
B.
Roberts
(FFG-58), were severely damaged by missiles and mines during operations in the Persian Gulf in the late 1980’s, but survived to serve today. FFG-7’s were later key assets in the maritime embargoes of Iraq, Bosnia, and Haiti, as well as in combat operations during Desert Storm.

For more on the ARG, MEU (SOC), and their various components and missions, see my book
Marine: A Guided Tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit
(Berkley Books, 1995).

In addition to USACOM, there are seven other regional CinCs. These include the Pacific Command (PACOM), Strategic Command (STRATCOM), Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), Central Command (CENTCOM), Special Operations Command (SOCOM), Space Command (SPACECOM), European Command (EUCOM), and Transportation Command (TRANSCOM).

Though there are literally dozens of such programs (ranging from staff-level exercises to war games involving tens of thousands of participants), the best known are at the Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, and at the Air Force’s Operation Red Flag at Nellis AFB, Nevada.

Most veterans of Desert Storm will tell you that the extensive force-on-force training prior to their deployment to the Persian Gulf was tougher than anything the Iraqis threw at them. This is hardly a surprise, since the Opposing Force units they trained against are usually the best-trained and motivated units in the U.S. military.

This is the same group that I highlighted in my 1996 book Marine:
A Guided Tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit
(Berkley Books, 1996). 82 The
GW, Norrnandy
(CG-64),
South Carolina
(CGN-37), and
Guam
were all scheduled either for deep overhaul or scrapping at the end of the cruise in 1998.

This similar to the Red/Green Flag exercises conducted by the USAF at Nellis AFB to the south of Fallon. Although somewhat smaller than the Nellis exercises, there is a greater emphasis on live-fire and electronic-warfare issues.

For a closer look at the outstanding JRTC program, see my book
Airborne: A Guided Tour of an Airborne Task Force
(Berkley Books, 1997).

It was these kinds of “bumping” incidents that caused the creation of the “Incidents at Sea” treaties between the United States, the Soviet Union/Russia, and a number of other nations.

The
GW
group that went to the Gulf had two things in common with the
Nimitz
CVBG. In addition to the carrier and logistics ship, both of the escort ships were Aegis- and Tomahawk-capable, as was the submarine. In short, they took the ships with the most firepower where they would be needed.