How many aircraft carriers do we currently have in our fleet? How many vessels in a carrier task force? I am thinking eleven carriers and 12 vessels in a task force, but I could be way off.

Enterprise
Eisenhower
Bush
Truman
Roosevelt

Vinson
Reagon
Lincoln
Stennis
Nimitz

GW

Ford (under construction)

Called a Strike Group:
1 carrier
1 cruiser
2 destroyers
Sometimes 1 sub

OK.

I know the history behind the Enterprise from Revolutionary times, etc plus I have been on that vessel.

Lincoln, Reagon, Roosevelt, Truman, Bush, Eisenhower, GW (Washington), Ford are all presidents.

Nimitz was an admiral; John Stennis was a Sec of Defense, correct? Who was Carl Vinson?

At one time wasnt a carrier strike force larger? Maybe supply ships, etc? Not questioning your reply as if you are wrong, I just always thought they (strike groups) were larger.

AA

[This message has been edited by monarch (edited 2/11/2012 4:26p).]

vinson summary from wiki:

"... was a United States Representative from Georgia. He was a Democrat and the first person to serve for more than 50 years in the United States House of Representatives."

"He later was primarily responsible for additional naval expansion legislation, the Second Vinson Act of 1938 and the Third Vinson Act of 1940, as well as the Two-Ocean Navy Act of 1940. The ambitious program called for by this series of laws helped the U.S. Navy as the country entered World War II, as new ships were able to immediately match the latest ships from Japan."

Monarch,

They may have been bigger in the past but the Navy has downsized dramatically in terms of ships in the recent decades. The composition of vessels from above are what the Strike Groups are now. Hope that makes sense.

Sfwsl:

And maybe that is what I am thinking: larger groups from back in the day, so to speak.

My background is that I majored in Modern Japanese History at Fullerton State and I did a lot of work on the Japanese military prior to and during WWII; of course, you cant sudy Japan without studying America during that same time frame. To top all of that, when he retired, my dad was the highest ranking civilian employee at the Long Beach Naval Supply Center in Long Beach, Cal. I have no clue what his GS rating was, but he ran the Navy yard on the civilian side while there also was a Naval officer of some rank that was responsible for the militairy side. This was during and after the Vietnam War, so I was able to see a lot of things that a lot of other American citizens had no clue about. Obviously, todays battle groups have more fire power with a smaller compliment of vessels due to technology, weapons advancement, etc.

Appreciate your input. I was out running earlier this AM and my mind started to wander, but I knew if I posed the question on this board, I would get a response relatively quick.

Thanks.

AA

[This message has been edited by monarch (edited 2/11/2012 4:25p).]

[This message has been edited by monarch (edited 2/11/2012 4:30p).]

www.wikipedia.com

Ship mix, and larger tactical considerations are being used now.

In the days of the CBG--Carrier Battle Group--the escort mix needed to be larger, since the ships were smaller, weapons-wise, individually. So, you needed more vessels to better balance the anti-air and ASW coverage. Back in the FF & FFG days, those vessels were almost only anti-aircraft oriented. Which was still good, as we had Forrest Sherman "gun" DDGs which combined ASW and anti-surface capabilities.

All of which pretty much necessitated including at least an AO to the CBG, just to keep it moving.

But, since the "fast" AO did not really work out, what became much easier was to just send the AO/AOE/AOF/AOR ahead to rendezvous with the CBG en route.

Similarly, after the California/Truxtun/Texas CGNs retired, and we went to the various Spru-Can escorts, things changed. You only needed a Tico CG to carry Aegis, and to be the battle coordination network hub. VLS really solved the magazine/launcher limitations, too.

Back in the days of having 5-6 (or more) escorts also meant that there was far more risk of the brown-shoes in the birdfarm running one of the "small boys" over as they played their aviating reindeer games.

And, the capabilities surface-to-air or surface-to-surface combat ought to be well covered by the air group--unless an alpha strike is called away, naturally.

As to ASW, well, there's a reason it's called Amazingly Slow Warfare. And, "slow" is not an aspect of flight ops, whether by CBG or by CSG. Your best bet there is to just not engage belligerents with a credible sub threat; and to use your elint/humint to put your subs on the other guy's subs before they get to your carriers.

My buddy told me once that certain systems on a Navy ship have back ups, redundant power, etc., in case of a hit you won't be completely dead in the water. He also said that coffee is included on that list of critical systems, and has back ups. Is that just some Navy joke, or is it true?

Off topic from the OP's question, but I agree with Capnmac's comments about ASW.

ASW's every bit as much an art as it is a science, and training to the standards we did during the height of The Cold War just hasn't happened over the past fifteen, twenty years. Sadly, if we end up toe-to-toe with the Chinese -or even the Iranians with their DE boats- I think we'll see some disastrous fallout from the years we've shoved this crucial, boring piece of the pie onto the back burner. I just hope our submariners aren't a bunch of zero-defect careerist nuke-pukes when the balloon goes up

Bigtruckguy,

Although I only spent time aboard gator freighters, I can honestly say, if a Navy ship ran out of coffee their would be a mutiny. Sailors and Marines do not function well without that life-giving, black sludge.

I agree about Marines and coffee. While we are discussing the Navy, I like their Women Cheerleaders.

Wolf, I think you ought to post that photo about a dozen more times. The first 15-20 weren't enough.

The chick on the bottom row, second from the right, still has milk colored legs...

Ummm back when Amphibs went out the carrier groups they were larger but now the larger Amphibs have their own groups and support ships. Sub wise they're either part of the amphib/carrier group or independent.

As a former bubble head I can assure you we good. WE real good....... ASW is force fed out of boot and never stops, it is our primary tactical focus...... I won't say anything else on this subject.....

Holy camoley! How did those two chubettes at the bottom of the right stack even make it onto the squad???

And where's Bop when we need him to complain about the blue panties sneaking out from under the one on top left's skirt?!

Lee:

Any structure of any type needs a solid, wide foundation...