Armada Arrayed for Anticipated Action; Largest Deployment Since the Gulf War

By RICHARD R. BURGESS, Managing Editor

While United Nations inspectors have been searching for evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the U.S. Navy and Royal Navy were deploying the largest armada of naval forces to the Middle East region since the Gulf War 12 years ago. Routine deployment cycles were disrupted to array an impressive number of ships and aircraft--and Marine Corps and Army units--all ready for immediate combat action if the order is given.

The number of U.S. carrier battle groups (CVBGs) and amphibious ready groups (ARGs) at sea rose dramatically through December 2002 and January 2003. The USS Abraham Lincoln (with Carrier Air Wing 14 (CVW-14) embarked)--on its way home after a liberty call in Fremantle, Australia--came about near Guam and returned to Australia, ready for further orders; she has been ordered back to the Persian Gulf. Her intended relief--USS Constellation (with CVW-2), on her last scheduled deployment--plied the Persian Gulf and conducted patrols, and occasional reactive strikes, over Iraq in support of Operation Southern Watch.

Meanwhile, the USS Harry S. Truman (with CVW-3) had deployed on schedule and lingered in the Mediterranean, and the USS George Washington (with CVW-17)--which had returned from deployment in December--was placed on a 96-hour readiness-to-deploy status. The USS Theodore Roosevelt (with CVW-1)--which conducted battle group training in the Caribbean in January as the last battle group to use Vieques Island for predeployment training--was ordered to join the other carriers in the Middle East. The other U.S. carriers available for deployment included USS Nimitz (with CVW-11) and USS Carl Vinson (with CVW-9)--both in training off the West Coast--and USS Kitty Hawk (with CVW-5) in Japan.

The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and helicopter carrier HMS Ocean have been dispatched by the Royal Navy to the Persian Gulf along with 14 other ships, and between 3,000 and 4,000 Royal Marines.

Approximately 20,000 U.S. Marines assigned to the I and II Marine Expeditionary Forces have been ordered to the U.S. Central Command in the region. Many of the Marine units--along with their vehicles, artillery, helicopters, and AV-8B Harrier II attack jets--were embarked in the big-deck amphibious ships of several ARGs. Already at sea on previously scheduled deployments were ARGs centered on the amphibious assault ships USS Nassau (with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) embarked) and the USS Tarawa (with the 15th MEU).

Seven other amphibious ships--including USS Saipan, USS Kearsarge, and USS Bataan--departed the East Coast beginning on 12 January with between 6,000 and 7,000 Marines of the 2nd Marine Amphibious Brigade embarked. On 17 January, another seven amphibious ships, including USS Boxer and USS Bonhomme Richard, departed San Diego, Calif. The ARG centered on USS Iwo Jima (with the 26th MEU embarked) was scheduled to deploy in March 2003. The USS Belleau Wood (with the 11th MEU) and its ARG returned from a six-month deployment to the Middle East and the Western Pacific in December 2002.

The command ship USS Mount Whitney has been staged to Djibouti to serve as headquarters of Combined Joint Task Force­Horn of Africa--which was activated on 13 December 2002 to support the global war on terrorism. The Mount Whitney and several hundred Marines and SEALs already have participated in a number of exercises with foreign ships assigned to Combined Task Force 150 in the Gulf of Aden and Djibouti.

The hospital ship USS Comfort--berthed in Baltimore, Md.--also has been activated and, with its medical personnel onboard, has deployed to the Indian Ocean region. The Royal Navy also is sending a hospital ship, RFA Argus, to the Persian Gulf.

Approximately 800 Marines assigned to the I MEF are staged far forward in the ground theater as a headquarters element in Kuwait.

Marine Corps units staged to Japan on routine six-month deployments have been ordered to remain until further notice. The Marine Corps also has ordered a one-year "stop-loss" hold on personnel discharges.

The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force has dispatched the Aegis guided-missile destroyer JDS Kirishima in support of the global war on terrorism.

Several sealift ships operated by the Military Sealift Command have been assigned the task of transporting Army vehicles, helicopters, and cargo to the Central Command area of operations. Maritime prepositioning ships loaded with Marine Corps equipment also have been put on notice for a possible early deployment. Thirteen cargo ships of the Maritime Administration's Ready Reserve Force have been activated. The experimental high-speed vessel Joint Venture has been ordered to deploy to an undisclosed location overseas, as have been a Coast Guard Port Security Unit and two battalions of Seabees.

In other developments, Marines of the 2nd Marine Division have assumed training responsibilities, from U.S. Army Special Forces, for training troops of the nation of Georgia. U.S. Marines and Sailors also have been sent to the southern Philippines to participate in counterterrorism exercises with the Philippines armed forces.

After a steady decline in the last half of 2002, the number of sea-service reservists activated for Operation Enduring Freedom has once again increased. The number activated as of 22 January 2003 included 5,254 Navy, 8,170 Marine Corps, and 833 Coast Guard Reservists.

New Warships Named For Bush and Bainbridge

The last planned Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, CVN 77, finally has been named. The 1,092-foot, 97,000-ton CVN will be christened George H.W. Bush, in honor of the 41st president of the United States.

The selection by then-Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England honors Bush, the Navy's youngest combat aviator in World War II--who survived after being shot down and in his postwar career served as a member of congress, as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as director of central intelligence, as vice president to President Ronald Reagan, and as president of the United States. His most notable achievement as commander in chief was his leadership of the coalition of nations that expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991.

Bush's TBM torpedo plane, flying a mission from the light carrier USS San Jacinto, in September 1944, was shot down during an attack against Japanese positions on the island of Chichi Jima. He completed his strafing run before bailing out, and later was rescued by a U.S. Navy submarine. Bush was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his heroism in action.

In another naming decision, England announced that DDG 96--a Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided-missile destroyer-- would be christened the Bainbridge in commemoration of the centennial of the destroyer in the U.S. Navy.

The Navy's first destroyer, commissioned in 1902, was named Bainbridge (DD 1) in honor of Commodore William Bainbridge, a naval hero who served from 1789 until 1833. Three other U.S. Navy ships have borne the name Bainbridge: a 259-ton brig (1842-1863); a destroyer, DD 246 (1921-1945); and a nuclear-powered guided-missile cruiser, DLGN 25, later CGN 25 (1962-1997).*

Department of the Navy Acquisition Community Restructured

Many of the Navy offices assigned various responsibilities for the acquisition of ships and related combat systems have gone through a major reorganization at the direction of John J. Young Jr., assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development, and acquisition (ASN RD&A).

Young directed the organizational changes, he said, to ensure that the service's acquisition community "is aligned to address the challenges of the Navy and Marine Corps of the 21st century. ...

"We must change from an approach that is optimized by program and platform to one that can solve the challenges of integrated systems that cross many platforms and functions," Young said in a message to Navy and Marine Corps headquarters and program offices. "We must also take a stronger business focus across multiple platforms and systems to maximize the efficiency and buying power of the multibillion-dollar enterprise that is DON [Department of the Navy] acquisition."

Among the changes implemented, beginning in late 2002, were the following:

1 Combining the offices of the deputy assistant secretary of the Navy (DASN) for Mine and Undersea Warfare and the DASN for Expeditionary Forces Programs into a single DASN for Littoral and Mine Warfare who will be responsible for all Marine Corps programs (except aircraft and command and control) as well as for mine warfare, chemical-biological defense, munitions, assault breaching, gun systems, and unmanned underwater vehicles.

2 Expansion of the role of the DASN for Theater Combat Systems to include all combat systems for surface ships and submarines, including the responsibility--previously distributed among several DASNs--for surface and submarine electronic warfare systems.

3 Establishment of a new DASN for Logistics, absorbing responsibilities previously spread among various other offices.

4 Establishment of a new DASN for Acquisition Management (achieved by combining the offices of the directors for acquisition business management and acquisition reform). This move is intended to generate more innovative thinking and shorten the time taken to initiate reform.

5 Establishment of a DASN for Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E), which would be assigned such missions as driving innovative RDT&E across platforms and systems, easing the conversion of scientific research into practical applications on ships, and integrating test and evaluation both more deeply and more effectively.

6 Retaining the existing DASNs for Ship Programs and Air Programs (but focusing them on platform-unique issues) and the existing DASNs for Space/C4ISR and for International Programs.

7 Establishment of a new program executive office (PEO) for Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS) that will be responsible for all surface-ship and submarine combat systems, missiles (except Trident and Tomahawk missiles), radars, launchers (except for Trident launchers), guns, and electronic warfare systems. PEO IWS also is responsible for coordinating all area antisubmarine warfare systems across all PEOs.

8 Combining into PEO Ships the platform responsibilities previously assigned to other PEOs. PEO Ships will be responsible for the construction and life-cycle support of surface combatants, mine warfare ships, amphibious warfare ships, command ships, sealift and logistics ships, special mission ships, and small boats and craft, and for support of the Coast Guard's Deepwater programs.

9 Renaming PEO for Mine and Undersea Warfare to PEO for Littoral and Mine Warfare. The refocused PEO will have responsibility for explosive ordnance disposal, special warfare, integrated underwater surveillance systems, "unique" mine warfare systems, and (potentially) assault vehicles. This PEO also is assigned responsibility for the development of all the Navy's subsurface and surface unmanned vehicles, and the integration of its unmanned aerial vehicles.

10 PEO Submarines is responsible for the design, construction, and transition of submarines and associated systems, advanced swimmer delivery systems, antisubmarine targets, submarine rescue systems, all towed surface and submarine towed acoustic sensors, torpedoes, and submarine-unique sonar, control, imaging, and electronic warfare systems. This PEO also will be responsible for the integration of systems into submarines.

11 PEO Carriers will focus on the construction and life-cycle support of aircraft carriers and systems unique to carriers, and the integration of systems into carriers.

12 PEO Information Technology is being expanded to include responsibility for nontactical information systems.

13 Establishment of a new PEO for C4I (command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence) responsible for shore-based C4I systems, Navy afloat networks, the Navy shore-based information technology infrastructure associated with afloat systems, Navy satellite communications, submarine communications, naval messaging, Navy command and control systems, electronic combat surveillance systems, tactical command support systems, tactical communications and switching systems, and strategic communications.

14 The director of the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) remains the direct reporting manager for all acquisition aspects of the NMCI.

Young said that the structure of the Navy's aviation PEOs also is being evaluated for possible restructuring, and that the service's systems commands are being streamlined to leverage their strengths across the department.