How does an aircraft carrier support the tactical, strategic, and Essay

How does an aircraft carrier support the tactical, strategic, and operational objectives of the United States - Essay Example The US aircraft carrier and its evolution and employment is the most advanced of its type on planet earth. The United States force projection afloat is the primary means of conducting a number of operations along the civil military spectrum to include everything from peace operations to evacuation of non-combatants to full scale military offensive operations. Since the end of WWII, the US Navy has dominated the blue water and littoral capabilities of naval operations around the globe. The US Navy far outstrips the sheer numbers and size of operational carriers around the globe. It currently rotates eleven carriers with one being decommissioned in 2014-15 and one under construction and two more planned. The carriers have a global presence and a steaming speed depending on weather conditions that can move the carrier close to one thousand miles in just over a day. The nuclear power plants provide an astonishing loiter capability in theater but it is still severely dependent on a long a nd robust logistical tail to remain fully operational. Jets and helicopters are hungry for fuel and a veritable replenishment and protective flotilla accompanies the carriers in their traditional battle group formations. The carrier forces provide a huge menu of force projection options for the President and the capability of the United States to exert influence and power around the world. The US Department of Defense (DoD) conducts the full spectrum of operations along the force spectrum with layers of institutionalized echelons of warfare familiar to most practitioners in the Western world: tactical, operational and strategic. The tactical level is the point of the spear as it were. The operational level is the intermediate level, the interim which takes the strategic vision and provides the means to translate the strategic vision into reality through actual use of forces for the desired outcome. In this case, the carrier battle group also allows National Command Authority to impl ement what some call strategic compression which is the use of tactical forces for strategic outcomes. For instance, a show of force scenario off the coast of a country threatening the national security of the United States could defuse the situation before any shots are fired and avoid hostilities altogether. There is a subtle parsing between grand strategy and strategy in the upper echelons of security policy that would employ longer range planning coupled with political and diplomatic elements to inform strategy and on down to the tactical level. The tactical level is the carrier and its battle group formation itself. Whether the support of Marine forces ashore or the evacuation of civilians or the historical fights between ships where only the pilots of attacking aircraft saw the other ship, the tactical means is the business end of the fight. They can deploy 60+ aircraft off their decks subject to sea conditions and have a force protection envelope that is virtually unlimited f or the aircraft capable of refueling in the air. This does not account for the naval gun fire and over the horizon capabilities for the surface warfare ships and submarines which accompany the carrier on her missions. This normally comprised of the following: one CV/CVN One Carrier Air Wing 50 Strike/Fighter A/C (Peacetime Norm) four E-2C AEW four E-A6B SEAD/EW eight S-3B two Es-3A six H-60 Six Surface Combatants comprising at