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On the night of January 17, 1991, more than 100 Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched at pre-programmed targets by nine U.S. Navy warships in the Mediterranean Sea, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea, marking the beginning of Operation Desert Storm. That same night, 228 combat sorties were launched from the decks of six aircraft carriers in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the North Arabian Sea. The total American naval forces assembled in the region as part of the U.S.-led coalition included six carrier battle groups, two battleships, and a 31-ship amphibious task force--more than 100 ships in all--carrying nearly 75,000 Sailors. In addition, some 67,000 Marines comprised the Marine Expeditionary Force ashore, while another 18,000 Marines were embarked in the ships of the amphibious task force--bringing the total U.S. naval contingent to 160,000 personnel.

During the next five weeks, the world was riveted by the astonishing success of coalition forces as they overwhelmed the world's fourth largest military power and drove Saddam Hussein's occupying army from Kuwait--thereby achieving one of history's most visible and rapid victories.

In the United States, the images of the Gulf War, which included strike aircraft rocketing from the decks of carriers and Tomahawk missiles arching skyward from battleships, became fixed in the minds of many Americans and are now part of the national subconscience. The sound-bite and video-clip depictions provided by the news media of subsequent military operations, including the recent air campaign in Kosovo, are often so similar to the remembered images of Desert Storm that the public might naturally assume that little has changed in the past ten years in terms of the U.S.-warfighting capability. For the U.S. Navy and naval aviation, however, nothing could be further from the truth.

A Factor of Ten

During the last decade, naval aviation has been engaged in a revolution--a revolution in strike warfare--which will culminate early in the new century with the introduction of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike fighter into carrier air wings and with the stocking of carriers' magazines with through-the-weather precision ordnance. Once this revolution is completed, the strike capability of an aircraft carrier and embarked air wing will be more than 10 times greater than that of their late-1980s predecessors--making a single aircraft carrier battle group (CVBG) nearly twice as powerful as the six that combined to enable victory during Desert Storm.

It is important to recognize that U.S. naval aviation's future does not derive solely from a single platform or weapon system. Although the Super Hornet and the critical warfighting systems that come with it are at the heart of the revolution in strike warfare, the vision for naval aviation goes beyond the strike fighters to include balancing and shaping our air wings, helicopter force, maritime aircraft and, of course, the aircraft carriers themselves.

In order for naval expeditionary forces to be decisive, naval commanders must have access to the battlespace and be able to build and sustain battlespace awareness and knowledge with a high degree of fidelity. Naval aviation is well suited for this: Its platforms, systems, and sensors that support command and control, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, antisubmarine warfare, antisurface warfare, precision strike targeting, and electronic attack all are critical to making that vision a reality.

As has been the case for many years, most of today's naval expeditionary forces work up and deploy as part of CVBGs or amphibious ready groups (ARGs). A typical CVBG is equipped with a total of 74 aircraft, 50 of which are strikers. Battle-group power-projection capability is augmented by Aegis guided-missile cruisers and destroyers that provide naval surface fire support, which includes the Tomahawk land-attack missile (TLAM). The nuclear-powered attack submarines that deploy as part of the CVBG are TLAM-capable as well, and add to the battle group's ability to project power ashore--as demonstrated so effectively during NATO's Operation Allied Force.

The striking power of an ARG is centered on the Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), or MEU(SOC), embarked in the ARG's amphibious assault ships. It includes 2,100 Marines plus heavy armor, artillery, and command and combat support elements. The ARG's Air Combat Element (ACE) includes both fixed- and rotary-wing strike aircraft, including AV-8B Harriers, which are capable of vertical takeoff and landing, and AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopters. Other naval expeditionary forces that operate in support of CVBGs and ARGs, but which often deploy independently, include not only individually deployed warships and submarines, but also SEALs, special operations and coastal patrol craft, and forward-deployed land-based patrol and reconnaissance aircraft, such as the P-3C Orion and EP-3E Aries II.

World events since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War have demonstrated an increasing need for naval expeditionary forces and naval aviation. Despite the post-Cold War drawdown and widely anticipated "peace dividend," the reality is that the Navy and Marine Corps are being called upon to respond with greater frequency--and at an accelerating pace. For example, during all the years of the Cold War, the Navy/Marine Corps team responded to 190 different crises, an average of one such operation every 11 weeks. From 1990 through 1997, the team reacted 80 times to global hotspots--once every four weeks--nearly a threefold in-crease. In 1998, naval forces responded to a different crisis every 3 weeks on average--a fourfold increase over Cold War crisis-response levels. The adage that the first question asked by the president during any crisis is most often "where is the closest carrier" has been borne out time after time as naval forces have responded around the world to crises from Iraq to Haiti, from Taiwan to the Balkans. For those who have participated in these operations and understand just how effective naval air power can be, the secretary of state's observation that "the only thing that can replace a Carrier Battle Group is another Carrier Battle Group" rings absolutely true.

Precise, Lethal, Coherent

As the centerpiece of naval expeditionary forces, naval aviation possesses several characteristics that make it uniquely suited for the full spectrum of military operations from humanitarian relief to sustained power projection. One important characteristic is the speed of response that comes with forward presence, aircraft carrier mobility, and the range and reach of its tactical aircraft, sensors, and weapons. Another is the independence and freedom of action that come from being a self-contained total force and the ability to operate from international waters, free from issues of sovereignty, basing rights, and force-protection considerations that often diminish access by land-based forces. Most significantly, naval aviation brings the ability to conduct sustained power projection that is precise, lethal, and coherent.

The dramatic increase in power projection from the revolution in strike warfare is best illustrated by a direct comparison of striking power among carrier air wings from the 1980s, 1990s, and into the first decade of the 21st century. In the late 1980s, a typical air wing included two squadrons of F-14A Tomcat fighters, one squadron of A-6E Intruder medium-attack aircraft, two squadrons of A-7E Corsair II light-attack aircraft, one S-3A Viking sea-control squadron, one EA-6B Prowler electronic attack squadron, and one E-2C Hawkeye squadron providing airborne early warning, command, and control. In terms of striking a "punch," the mainstays of this air wing were the 24 Corsairs and 12 Intruders.

By the late 1990s, the A-6s and A-7s that fought in Desert Storm had been completely replaced by squadrons of F/A-18 Hornet strike fighters--a multimission aircraft that brings the air wing high-reliability, less intensive maintenance requirements, and the potential of greatly increased sortie rates. Concurrently, F-14 Tomcat has evolved from being an exclusively air-superiority fighter to the "Bombcat," a LANTIRN-(Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night)-equipped strike fighter having excellent day-and-night precision strike capability. Additionally, the EA-6B Prowlers are now High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) "shooters," so they, too, have the ability to strike and destroy targets.

Effects-Based Targeting

In less than a decade, the number of strikers in a typical carrier air wing has grown from 36 to 50, while simultaneously moving from a "dumb bomb" to an all-precision force capable of much higher sortie-generation rates. Not only did this significantly increase the lethality of the air wing's aircraft but--by every metric used to measure the strike capability of an air wing--a revolution in strike capability was in the making. Rather than calculating the number of targets put at risk per day by a particular air wing based on any given set of conditions, the introduction of precise weaponry--which allows the surgical destruction of specific aim points within a target--meant that air wing effectiveness could be measured in terms of aim points at risk instead of targets struck.

In practical terms, rather than estimating how many sorties it would take to destroy a target (e.g., a refinery to be taken out by many aircraft dropping dozens of weapons), strike planners could employ nodal analysis to leverage the accuracy of precision weapons to achieve the desired effect (interruption of refinery production for a specified length of time) with far fewer weapons and aircraft sorties. As a result, the naval expeditionary forces that provided the preponderance of force for Operation Desert Fox in Iraq in December of 1998, and more recently contributed to the allied victory in Kosovo, enjoyed nearly a 3-to-1 advantage in effective striking power over that generated during Desert Storm.

The revolution in strike warfare will culminate as new weapon systems currently in development and production enter the fleet over the next several years. New families of precise through-the-weather weapons, many with standoff capability, will further increase naval aviation's lethality, effectiveness, and survivability. Two of these--the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) and the Joint Direct-Attack Munition (JDAM)--have been combat-tested and proven in Iraq and the Balkans with stunning success. Both combine inertial/GPS (global positioning system) guidance to provide tremendous accuracy with an ability to attack despite bad weather conditions that obscure the pilot's view of the target. These weapons also allow air crews to attack and destroy targets with precision from higher altitudes and at greater ranges than possible before. Other weapons, such as the enhanced re-sponse Standard Land Attack Missile (SLAM-ER), will provide even greater lethality by allowing strike aircraft to stand off outside the enemy's area defenses.

Decade of the Super Hornet

The final and most significant component of the revolution in strike warfare will be the introduction of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, which is currently undergoing operational evaluation. As this aircraft replaces the F-14 Tomcat and current versions of the F/A-18 Hornet, it will bring significant increases in range, payload, survivability, weapons carriage capacity, and growth potential to carrier air wings. When its capabilities are combined with the new generation of sophisticated weaponry, the typical carrier air wing operating in 2001 will be able to strike 10 times the number of target aim points over any given period of time than was possible in Desert Storm. This, then, is the revolution in strike warfare for naval aviation--an order-of-magnitude increase in capability, achieved in less than a generation.

A Seamless Battlespace

The challenge naval aviation now faces is how to maximize the combat performance of highly capable individual platforms by integrating them into a seamless battlespace-centered network. Continuing advances in information technology promise to give a revolutionary increase in combat effects by shifting the focus from specific platforms to a netted striking force. Netting geographically dispersed sensors and shooters into a coherent fighting force that can--almost instantaneously--observe, orient, decide, and then act in response to enemy actions will dra-matically increase the capability of deployed commanders to rapidly target and strike a diverse array of aim points, including the mobile short-dwell targets that pose such targeting difficulties today. In plain English, Network Centric Warfare (NCW) is about getting the right information to the right shooter at the right time.

For ease of understanding, the effects of NCW as a warfighting concept and organizing principle for naval forces can be thought about as occurring on three different levels or planes: the planning and coordination plane, the force command and control plane, and the engagement plane. On the planning and coordination plane, new state-of-the-art, network-linked, computer-based planning systems will compress the time it takes to do mission planning and significantly increase the fidelity of the product. On the force control plane of NCW, naval aviation will enable naval forces (as well as joint forces) to engage targets through the E-2C, equipped with Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC). Because of the uniquely mobile nature of aircraft, naval aviation has more dispersed platforms and sensors on the engagement plane of NCW than any other force. The potent new-generation strike fighters, armed helicopters, and Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM)-capable maritime aircraft all deliver precision ordnance and provide today's strike force an unsurpassed level of lethality and versatility.

Upcoming weapon system upgrades will dramatically increase the combat capability of these already potent platforms. JSOW and JDAM will be greatly enhanced with Automatic Target Acquisition/Recognition systems. Synthetic-aperture radar and electronically scanned radar systems will provide high-resolution data for engaging targets at long range through all weather. These powerful systems will then be netted together via the next-generation network communication/information system, Link-16. Netting offboard and onboard sensors will not only give aircrews better situational awareness at the tactical level, improving their effectiveness, but will also contribute to building battlespace awareness at the operational level--enabling intuitive command-and-control decisions by operational commanders.

CVNX: Smart Carriers

The central role of our aircraft carriers themselves, operating within a Network Centric Warfare environment, is another critical aspect of the vision for Naval Aviation. More than the "flattop" at the heart of our striking capability which provides for fueling, arming, launch, recovery, and turnaround of our tactical aircraft (as important as that is), our carriers possess a tremendous potential to enable operational-level command and control of expeditionary naval and joint forces. The Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers of today's fleet will continue to serve as the backbone of Naval Aviation to 2050 and beyond--their flexibility and capacity for adaptation to new aircraft, new weapons, new command-and-control systems, and enhanced communications and connectivity serve as a testament to the strength of their design and the foresight of the teams that conceived and built them. The next 10 years, however, will usher in the dawn of an evolution in carrier design, with a new generation of aircraft carrier currently known as the CVNX.

The CVNX will incorporate several major improvements over the Nimitz design based on today's cutting-edge technology. These include new high-density nuclear reactors, a new electrical power-generation and -distribution system, and internal redesign of spaces within the hull. This smart, reconfigurable design will be focused to fully support Network Centric Warfare and maximize the carrier's capabilities as a command platform. Equipment will be installed in modules to allow selected computer and combat systems to be replaced or modified several times over the ship's life span, giving CVNX greater flexibility and more longevity than even the highly successful Nimitz-class carriers.

In summary, it is clear that there is an increasing demand for expeditionary forces and that this demand has placed a premium on the inherent flexibility and responsiveness of U.S. naval aviation. The ability of carrier battle groups and amphibious ready groups to rapidly respond across the spectrum of conflict only reinforces their value and credibility to theater commanders and national leaders.

Revolutionary improvements in combat capabilities and effects, spearheaded by the men and women of naval aviation and supported by enablers such as the Super Hornet, are giving U.S. forces the ability to dominate the battle space from the littoral. In addition to the presence they maintain in areas of national interest around the globe, naval forces bring the right mix of capabilities to be decisive upon arrival. Whether shaping the deep battle, supporting the Marine maneuver scheme, or simply demonstrating U.S. resolve, no force is better suited to meeting the challenges faced by the United States at the dawn of the 21st century.

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