Posted on 10/02/2001 12:05:40 AM PDT by kattracks
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Navy is committing a fourth aircraft carrier to President Bush's war on terrorism, but not in the usual way.
The USS Kitty Hawk, which departed its homeport in Japan on Monday, will be available in or near the Arabian Sea as a floating base for other forces, defense officials said.
An aircraft carrier normally has about 75 Navy planes on board for a variety of missions, including fighters for land attack.
In keeping with the administration's policy of not discussing details of military activities related to the anti-terror campaign, the Navy would not comment Monday except to say the Kitty Hawk does not have its usual number of aircraft aboard.
Two defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Kitty Hawk was headed toward the Arabian Sea to be available for use by U.S. special operations forces or by Navy aircraft other than its own.
Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Gordon, a spokesman at Pacific Fleet headquarters in Hawaii, said the Kitty Hawk left a portion of its air wing behind at Atsugi Air Base in Japan when it departed. He said he could not provide more details.
One defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Kitty Hawk left Yokosuka Naval Base outside of Tokyo with a "representative mix" of strike and support planes on board, including combat aircraft like the F-18 Hornet and F-14 Tomcat. He would not say how many planes were on board but made clear it was much fewer than normal.
A carrier has fighter aircraft aboard not only for offensive strikes but also to help defend itself.
Other than Afghanistan, U.S. officials have refused to discuss which nations might be military targets. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the first phase of retaliation will be aimed at Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network. In an interview on "CBS Evening News," Powell would not rule out a strike against Iraq.
Bush "has ruled nothing out with respect to second, third or fourth phases of our campaign militarily," Powell told CBS. "What we really have to do is shut down terrorism, not just find a single place to take revenge out on, or a group of people to take revenge out on."
The Kitty Hawk is the only one of the Navy's 12 carriers to be stationed permanently abroad. If, in combat operations against Afghanistan, the Kitty Hawk were used primarily as a launch platform for other kinds of U.S. forces, it would be unusual but not unprecedented.
When U.S. forces assembled in the Caribbean Sea for a planned invasion of Haiti in the early 1990s, one aircraft carrier had soldiers from the Army's 10th Mountain Division on board instead of its full air wing. Another carrier had special operations forces aboard.
Two aircraft carrier battle groups - the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Enterprise - already are in the Arabian Sea or Persian Gulf, and a third - the USS Theodore Roosevelt - is headed there via the Mediterranean Sea.
Bush on Monday mentioned the growing U.S. naval firepower converging on the region near Afghanistan.
"On the military front we're making progress," Bush said in remarks at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "We've deployed 29,000 military personnel in two carrier battle groups as well as an Amphibious Ready Group and several hundred military aircraft."
An Amphibious Ready Group is a self-contained contingent of 2,100 Marines aboard Navy ships. The core of the Marine group with the Vinson is the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
In addition to the naval forces in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea, the Pentagon has dispatched more than 100 additional Air Force planes to the region since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. They are based in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and other Gulf nations.
Wait, wrong war...
This Kitty is not the purring type.
And I doubt that any aircraft were cannibalized. They're simply being deployed one at a time on new missions - in a way that doesn't attract a lot of press attention.
Michael
In order to be effective this war cannot have a sofa-view-seat on the evening news. In order to be effective we need 24x7 capabilities to land delta/commandos anywhere around the globe, get in, whoop ass, get out, and then maintain deniability.
We need to keep these groups off balance and wondering what it was that actually was that light at the end of the tunnel that ran them over.
From a PR perspective this is not what the public wants but is the most effective way to meet this challenge.
(sarcasm) I'm surprised CNN has not dispatched a helicopter to tail these carriers... (/sarcasm)
Continuing to do us proud. Part of me will always be out there with all of you. Godspeed.
They'd never get within 200 miles of the carrier.
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