Fly Navy
For all you USAF pilots: here is a quick refresher about the great job Naval Aviators are doing. (With a special thanks to all the hot sh*t SpecOps guys on the ground lasering that ordinance in on target.)
Navy News & Undersea Technology
January 22, 2002 Pg. 1
Navy Pilots Set Flying And Target Records In Afghanistan
By Lisa Troshinsky
SAN DIEGO, CALIF. -- The success of Operation Enduring Freedom
validated many Navy assets by setting Navy flying and target hit records,
said Navy top officials at last week's AFCEA/Naval Institute conference,
titled "West 2002."
Operating against a landlocked nation, over 70 percent of the strike
sorties were flown by naval aviation, said Vice Adm. Mike Mullen, Deputy
Chief of Naval Operations for Resources, Requirements, and Assessments.
"Eighty percent of our sorties hit targets; 84 percent of our strikers
[4,000 sorties] who dropped ordnance hit at least one target; and 93
percent of the ordnance dropped were Precision Guided Munitions," Mullen
said. "And the Navy was over the target 24/7, and still is. In addition,
the only significant conventional land force presence in country for the
opening phases of the campaign was provided by the Marine Corps 15th
Marine Expeditionary Unit from the Peleliu Amphibious Ready Group."
Plus, "80 percent of Navy sorties that delivered [ordnance] did so against
targets unknown to the pilots when they landed," said Vice Adm. John
Natham, Commander, Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet.
"Afghanistan was the complete opposite from what happened in Desert
Storm, where the Navy averaged 10 aircraft per target," Natham said.
"In Afghanistan, there were two targets per aircraft."
"Also, the Navy's strike missions in Afghanistan averaged between seven
and 10 hours per flight," Natham said. "In fact, over half the pilots in
Air Wing 11, Pacific Command, set flying hour records-recording 1,400
hours in one month, while the average is 72 hours a month. Air Wing 11
also had a two percent higher than average maintenance ready rate."
In order to gain air supremacy, the Navy used its EA/6Bs for electronic
jamming of communications, its F-14 Tomcats for precision targeting
coordinates, and Navy fighters escorted Air Force bombers, Natham said.
Tomcats passed Global Positioning System coordinates to aircraft so they
could load up JDAMS (Joint Direct Attack Munition).
The Navy, in turn, was assisted by the Air Force for lift, munitions, and
for shared intelligence and surveillance to reach targets in northern
Afghanistan, he said. JFAC (Joint Force Air Component) escorted forces
until air supremacy was established, then their aircraft flew without
escorts, Natham said.
"Our on-station attack submarines launched over 50 percent of all the
Tomahawk strikes," Mullen said. "Within days, our naval forces were
critical to establishing complete maritime situational awareness, on which
we have built with the most extensive maritime interdiction operations
ever-a model for future operations in the global war on terrorism."
"Since 1989, even though the Navy's battle force has been reduced by 43
percent, strike missile magazine space has actually increased and the
accuracy, flexibility, responsiveness and lethality of each weapon in the
magazine has improved-in some cases by an order of magnitude," he said.
"An example: In Desert Storm in 1991, the Tomahawk targeting cycle was
three days. During Allied Force in 1999, that targeting cycle was reduced
to 101 minutes. In Enduring Freedom it was down to 19 minutes in some
cases. We are now planning systems that allow near real-time targeting
and retargeting in flight by 2004," Mullen said.
"For thousands of years-the conventional wisdom has required a five to
one advantage of offense to defense to predominate in an assault," Mullen
said. "We rewrote the rule book in Afghanistan. Using Joint Special
Operating Forces, persistent intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance, strategic airlift and in-flight tanking from the Air Force
and sea-based precision strike, our Afghan allies, though outnumbered
two-to-one by a dedicated and well-resourced Taliban and al Qaeda foe,
overran Afghanistan in a campaign so short we didn't even have time to
negotiate the basing rights in neighboring allied countries."
Readiness On Target
The Navy's state of readiness was key to success in the recent conflict in
Afghanistan, Natham and Mullen said.
"On Sept. 11, based on CNN press reports, and acting on their own
initiative, the Enterprise Battle Group reversed the course they had
shaped to return home from their six-month deployment and were on
station the next morning, ready to answer the nation's call," Mullen said.
"Literally within hours, Navy assets were in place to conduct strikes
against targets in Afghanistan, well ahead of all other elements of the
joint team," Mullen said. "Under verbal orders, while mission planning was
in progress, and with a small air wing detachment, one of our carriers
[USS Kitty Hawk] steamed 6,000 miles at flank speed to establish a forward
operating base for our joint special operating forces. They are now looking
to
the Navy to capture this sea based capability for the future."
At the same time, an amphibious ready group were immediately ready to
deploy in the conflict. They were later joined by USS Carl Vinson, the
USS Teddy Roosevelt, and the USS John C. Stennis, Natham said.
Natham added that sovereignty of U.S. Naval forces was proven, especially
by the fact that three countries, which he declined to name, that are
located close to the Area of Responsibility (AOR), didn't "roll up their
sleeves to help," he said. "And finally, the conflict in Afghanistan
proved the enabling of joint forces," he said. This included working
closely with NATO allies in figuring out what the battlespace looked
like."
