For the first time in nearly four years, the US Navy deploys four aircraft carriers on active duty at the same time around the globe. Two other carriers are in training for a total of six out of ten aircraft carriers currently underway. And a seventh aircraft carrier is ready to go.
Last 4 June, the USS Ronald Reagan he left Yokosuka while the USS Eisenhower is traveling to the Mediterranean. There USS Harry S. Truman it is operating against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, launching its own raids from the Mediterranean. There USS John C. Stennis operations in the South China Sea are continuing. There USS Carl Vinson , USS George Washington they are in training respectively off the west and east coasts of the USA. The seventh vector USS George H. Bush, is in Norfolk for training operations: he should go on a mission by the end of the year.
The last nine-week deployment of four US battle groups around the globe dates back to the August of 2012. The movements are not in response to a given crisis. A Navy note reads: "Everything was planned as planned in Global Force Management." According to US Navy officials, carriers should spend more time in the Mediterranean region in support of the Sixth Fleet to counter the growth of Russian operations in the eastern Mediterranean off the coast of Syria.
La Truman, after leaving Norfolk last November, he spent most of his deployment in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, entering the Mediterranean only on 2 June. His one-month stay with respect to standard shifts will cost US taxpayers nearly 100 million dollars.
In the Pacific, the Stennis has operated exclusively in the western Pacific to establish a continuous presence in response to China's growing activity.
La USS Nimitz is currently under review in Bremerton, Washington.
La USS Theodore Roosevelt is undergoing "lower readiness" in San Diego.
La USS Abraham Lincoln it is found in the yards of Newport News (photo), in Virginia from the 5 November of the 2014 for the phase of Refueling and Complex Overhaul lasting three years.
La USS Gerald R. Fordfinally, it should enter the fleet by the end of the year, restoring the standard number of eleven carriers provided for in the Navy's strategic doctrine.
The philosophy of the US Navy, in peacetime, calls for three carriers to remain in as many strategically vital regions as the western Pacific and the Middle East. When not required by a crisis situation, the United States has only a small part of the fleet at sea.
According to official US Navy data, updated to June 6, at sea there are 62 ships, equal to 23% of the fleet. The other ships are in maintenance or training. With eleven active aircraft carriers, the US Navy is able to guarantee an average of 3.5 carriers at sea. It must be considered, in fact, that the alternation between two aircraft carriers entails the need to have another carrier at sea, which is why there would be a fourth unit in navigation (and not on patrol). With ten aircraft carriers, the average drop to 3.0, while with nine the deployment drops to 2.5 units. Eight aircraft carriers would mean having at sea a force of two aircraft carriers with obvious problems in keeping them active.
Not to forget that the "Refueling Complex Overhaul" which provides for modernization and periodic refueling for each aircraft carrier, can last up to three years, while the "mid-life nuclear refueling" requires up to four years.
La USS John F. Kennedy, second of the Ford Class, should be completed by the 2019. There USS Enterprise (image below), finally, it should come into service between the 2025 and the 2027.
The US Navy will always have an aircraft carrier called Enterprise in service.
(photo: US Navy / Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.)
