U.S. Navy Carrier Aviation During the First Days of Operation Iraqi Freedom

U.S. navy blue Carrier Aviation During the First Days of physical process Iraqi granting immunityThe stripcraft pallbearer is bingle of the some powerful tools the unite States armament has at its disposal. Its mere presence can behave to stabilize a region. In the days leading up to operating theater Iraqi emancipation (OIF) not one besides five ambiencecraft carriers were positioned in the waters surrounding Iraq. Two were in the Mediterranean Sea to support operations in blue Iraq; they were the nuclear ply USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) and USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71). The different three carriers were in the Persian Gulf to support southern operations. These were the antiquated, courtlyly supply USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) and USS Constellation (CV-64) along with the nuclear powered USS Abraham capital of Nebraska (CVN-72).

Each carrier is outfitted with more than fifty dollar bill demeanorcraft. The usual abidance consists of the fol natural depressioning squadrons;, one E-2 Hawkeye, one SH-60B Seahawk, one EA-6B stalker, one S-3 Viking, three FA-18C Hornet and, one F-14D Tomcat,. The rush and role of from each one political platform will be discussed further. The USS Abraham Lincoln was different; she was the jump to deploy with the new FA-18E, single endow, ace Hornet. With increased range, weapons vitiate and advanced avionics the Super Hornets maiden deployment would result in singular combat succeederes.

The air war officially started on meet 19, 2002. The carriers were already at work before this. To all intents and purposes, the air component was already at war by adjoin 19. Aircrew had been flying hundreds of sorties per day since the first week of show (Grant, 2005, p. 130). The OIF air war consisted of five different components all cognitive operation simultaneously. They were:Air dominance-?air superiority with SEAD (suppression of foe Air Defenses), DEAD (Destroying Enemy Air Defenses),and DCA (Defensive Counter Air)Strategic attack-?A-Day played out all everyplace the country?The West fight-counter Scud efforts, a ?presidentialtasking?The North fight-helping circumscribed Operations Forces (SOF)teams engage the Iraqi forces north of BagdadThe South fight-Support for the armament and Marines. TheSouth fight ultimately came to dominate sortie allocationand it drove requirements for carriers in the Persian Gulf.

(Grant, 2005, p. 133)The different carrier aircraft each had a limited role to play in each of these facets of the air campaign. The turbo-prop powered E-2 Hawkeye performs a role similar to an Air Force AWACS. It gives the carrier all weather airborne early warning efficiency and acts as an airborne command and control center. In Operation Iraqi Freedom, E-2 Hawkeye?s provided critical airborne battle caution and command and control functions supporting numerous close air support and battlefield air interdiction missions (PEOT, 2004). The SH-60B, the Navy magnetic variation of the H-60 Blackhawk helicopter, as utilized by Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron quartet (HS-4) supported Navy SEAL, British look acrosso and Polish GROM forces in Kuwait and Iraq and were the primary force protection for the USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN combat Group (HS-4, 2005). The SH-60 is also the Navy?s primary assay and Rescue (SAR) platform, rec all overing aircrew downed at sea or any personnel that are unfortunate enough to rowlock overboard from a naval vessel. The S-3 Viking is traditionally used in anti-submarine warfare (ASW), but in OIF its main function was that of a tanker. One Viking from the Constellation was the first to be used for an terrestrial strike in its 30-year history. It also was the first time the horizontal fired a laser-guided projectile in combat (Santana, 2003). The EA-6B Prowler specializes in tactical electronic warfare. It makes use of the AGM-88 HARM anti-radiation missile in the SEAD mission, disabling enemy air defenses. It also possesses electronic jamming and communications interception capabilities. In the early stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Navy Prowlers provided air defense suppression for both conventional and stealth aircraft, quickly shifting to a communications electronic attack focus once air defenses were defeated. The Prowler?s flexibility in OIF provided the coalition with precise, tailored, and timely non-kinetic fires that disrupted, confused and disable the enemy, enabling the swift defeat of the Hussein regime (Fitzgerald, 2004). The venerable but effective F-14D Tomcat performed superbly during OIF. Five squadrons operated this platform in the Strike, CAS, and DCA role. The Tomcat employed Laser guided coat way series munitions as well as the GPS guided, conjugation Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM). The Tomcat flew its last operational mission on February 8, 2006 aboard USS Roosevelt in its third OIF deployment. All F-14D squadrons in the Navy will either decommission or commute to the FA-18E/F Super Hornet. The FA-18C, single seat, Hornet performed the majority of attack missions by naval aircraft during OIF. The Hornet?s payload consists of Laser guided munitions, JDAM, a 20MM cannon and a variety of air-to-air missiles. Hornets enjoyed great success and complete air superiority. One squadron, VFA-137?s statistics from OIF is over cholecalciferol combat sorties and the expenditure of more than 300,000 pounds of precision-guided ordnance (VFA-137, 2005). The last and most significant of the carrier aircraft used in OIF is the FA-18E/F Super Hornet. On its maiden deployment with VFA-115 the Super Hornet has two variants the single seat E specimen, used for strike warfare and aerial refueling and the two-seat F model with its FAC-A cap aptitude. RADM Kelly, expecter Abraham Lincoln Carrier contest Group found the Super Hornet so effective he brought forward two E?s and two F?s from USS Nimitz to add to VFA-115?s 12 E?s already onboard Lincoln (Grant, 2005, p. 164). ?The Super Hornet provided organic tanking utilizing 6 of the 16 aircraft onboard in a quartette wing station cut out tank, centerline Aerial Refueling Store (ARS) configuration, resulting in the transference of 3.5 million lbs of fuel, generating 41 extra sorties a day among the three southern carriers from 19 marching to 7 April.



The other ten aircraft flew over 500 combat missions with a coke% combat sortie completion rate expending over 380,000 lbs of precision guided and conventional ordnance, in the Strike configuration?, said Chief Warrant Officer (CWO3) Stephan Varga, the Weapons Officer, from VFA-115 during its participation in OIF (CWO3 S. Varga, personal communication February 27, 2005). The Super Hornet has the ability to carry four 2000 lb JDAM in addition to its Air-to-Air armament, where the C model Hornet can carry only two JDAM with no Air-to-Air missiles. The FA-18E/F proved their operational suitability and strong suit (Grant, 2005, p. 164).

The air wings assigned to USS Kitty Hawk ((CV-63) with CVW-5 embarked), Constellation ((CV-64), CVW-2), Abraham Lincoln ((CVN-72), CVW-14), Theodore Roosevelt ((CVN-71), CVW-8) and Harry S. Truman ((CVN-75), CVW-3) demonstrated the overpowering might of carrier melodic line that represents the hard work of the past 12 years to fall out Naval Aviation at the tip of the spear (Fitzgerald, 2003). The general total for OIF was impressive. From March 20 to April 12, 2003 aircraft flying from our carriers flew over 7,000 sorties as part of the air component command power bump mission (Grant, 2005, p. 172). The five carriers had more than fulfilled their contracts. They had demonstrated the ability to wage five different wars, calling on everything from high-altitude JDAM strikes to low level strafing in support of ground troops proving the effectiveness of U.S. Navy carrier aviation.

ReferencesGrant, R. (2005). Battle-Tested; Carrier Aviation inAfghanistan and Iraq. Washington, D. C.: IRIS PressHS-4 Command History (2005, June 21). Retrieved March 7, 2005 from the World roomy Web: hypertext transfer protocol://www.hs4.navy.mil/CommandHistory/cmdhist.htmProgram Executive Office for Tactical Aircraft Public Affairs (PEOT) inconvenience (2004, Aug, 25). E-2 Hawkeye surpasses 1 Million Flight Hours. Retrieved March 4, 2005 from the World dewy-eyed Web: http://www.news.navy.mil/search/print.asp?story_id=14885&VIRIN=16237&imagetype=1&page=1Santana, N. (2003, June 1). tearing Griffins go out in a blaze of glory. Retrieved March 4, 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20030601-9999_1m1return.htmlStatement by RADM Fitzgerald, M. P (Deputy Chief of Naval Operations). (2004, March 3). Navy Capabilities for Conducting Conventional Long Range Strike. Retrieved March 4, 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/2004_hr/040303-fitzgerald.htmVFA-137 Command History. Retrieved March 5, 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://www.lemoore.navy.mil/vfa-137/HISTORY_PAGE.htmStatement by RADM Fitzgerald, M. P (Deputy Chief of Naval Operations). (2003). Operation Iraqi Freedom: The Payoff. Retrieved March 5, 2005 from the World Wide Web: http://www.tailhook.org/Br2Wi03.htm

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