Chapter 3 - A Changing Role

(Part 6)

Carriers and September 11th

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the role of aircraft carriers in the United States' response in Afghanistan changed the debate about the relevance of the aircraft carrier in the 21st Century. An article by Vice Admiral John B. Nathman in the March 2002 issue of Proceedings, the magazine of the U.S. Naval Institute, is worth quoting here in part:

The dates 7 December 1941 and 11 September 2001 will forever be ones of infamy for our country.... on 7 December, the USS Enterprise (CV-6) was 400 nautical miles southwest of the Hawaiian Islands.... Then-Rear Admiral Bull Halsey, who was riding the carrier as his flagship, on hearing of the air raid on Pearl, ordered her captain to put his rudder over and launch search and strike sorties to find the Japanese carrier striking force.

Almost 60 years later, Vice Admiral Charles Moore, Commander, Fifth Fleet, on seeing the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, ordered the USS Enterprise (CVN-65), to put her rudder over and close the North Arabian Sea at full speed, join the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70), and prepare for war.

The USS Enterprise CVN-65 steams to the Afghanistan war zone after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks

In his article, Vice Admiral Nathman goes on to outline a number of important attributes of naval aviation's participation in the initial attacks on terrorist targets in Afghanistan. First, the Enterprise and Carl Vinson were on scene immediately and ready to go to war. Also, the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) was rapidly deployed from its base in Japan and was ready for special missions. Second, the carriers represented sovereign U.S. soil in the area after several potential allied countries refused to allow U.S. deployment of aircraft from their territory. And third, the carriers allowed for joint operations with other U.S. military services. The Kitty Hawk was the forward base for U.S. Army special forces. Navy EA-6B Prowlers engaged in electronic suppression and communications jamming missions that allowed U.S. forces to pinpoint the location of enemy targets. Navy strike fighters escorted U.S. Air Force bombers into Afghan airspace until air supremacy was established. And, Navy aircraft provided 24/7 strike sortie coverage in support of ground forces. As Vice Admiral Nathman concluded in his article, the popular position in recent years was that the big bombing power of the Air Force's strategic bomber force should be the central weapon of U.S. military strategy. But Operation Enduring Freedom showed that what's really needed is a mix of the Air Force's "big guns" and the fast and nimble responsiveness of naval aviation. With the war on terrorism likely to continue for years in remove locations like Afghanistan, the participation of the U.S. Navy and its aircraft carriers remains as important today as it was in World War II.

F-14 and F/A-18 fighters aboard the USS Enterprise prepare for attacks against terrorist forces in Aghanistan

The War with Iraq

In March 2003, as the United States began its build-up of military forces for a war to unseat Saddam Hussein from leadership of Iraq, carriers again played a pivotal role -- this time with greatly enhanced capabilities over what existed during the 1990-91 Gulf War. In addition to the introduction of the upgraded F/A-18E and F Super Hornets to the carriers' arsenal, the carriers and their air wings were also equipped with laser- and GPS-guided weapons that weren't available to them during the Gulf War. Even the carriers' older F-14D Tomcats were now equipped with GPS-guided precision weapon capability that allowed them to be major contributors in the ground attack role, instead of being available only in the air superiority role as during the Gulf War. There was also better integration of carrier airpower with land-based operations. Also, with many of the neighboring countries reluctant to fully support the planned attacks on Iraq, the U.S. found itself having to place a greater reliance of naval airpower over that which could be provided by land-based Air Force aircraft. By the time the war began in earnest with 24-hour bombing strikes against key targets in Baghdad and other areas of Iraq, six carriers were on station and within striking distance: the USS Harry S. Truman and USS Theodore Roosevelt in the eastern Mediterranean and the USS Lincoln, USS Nimitz, USS Kitty Hawk, and USS Constellation in the Persian Gulf. By mid-April 2003, with U.S. forces clearly in control of the country, the need for 24-hour air coverage had diminished to the point where two of the carriers were relieved from active duty status. The non-nuclear powered USS Kitty Hawk returned to its homeport at Yokosuka, Japan, while the USS Constellation (also non-nuclear powered) returned to the U.S. to eventually be decomissioned. The USS Lincoln returned to her Washington state homeport in early-May 2003, while the last three Nimitz-class carriers remained on station.

In a more humanitarian role, U.S. carriers, in the form of the USS Abraham Lincoln and amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard, used their embarked helicopters and Marine troops to bring food, water, and medical supplies to the victims of the catastrophic tsunami that struck Indonesia in late December 2004. Closer to home, the carrier USS Harry S. Truman and the amphibious assault ships USS Bataan and USS Iwo Jima rescued more than 1,500 civilians stranded by the floods caused when Hurricane Katrina struck the Louisiana Gulf-coast, including New Orleans, during the summer of 2005. The ships and their crews also helped in the evacuation of over 8,000 civilians from their storm-ravaged homes and delivered more than 2 million pounds of food and water. In the words of Carrier Strike Group Ten's commanding officer, Rear Admiral Joe Kilenny, in this case, the U.S. Navy "did what we were asked to do: lend a helping hand . . . from the sea."

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Last Updated: June 5, 2005