Posted on 04/26/2003 8:50:42 AM PDT by microgood
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii -- With five of six carrier battle groups deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Pacific Fleet was nearly tested to its limits. The ability to deploy the fleet's assets -- ships, subs and personnel -- quickly has given Navy leaders a great sense of pride.
"That's a phenomenal undertaking," Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Walter Doran said in his historic Pearl Harbor office. "That underlines the commitment we have made over the last couple of years in short-term readiness and maintenance. And it talks very, very highly about training and the readiness capability of the sailors."
However, it also leaves the Navy with plenty of questions in regard to aircraft carrier deployments.
Currently, the 2004 schedule is a blank slate ready to be filled in, and the top brass is trying to solve the problem.
"It's going to be a challenge," said Doran in his first one-on-one interview with a U.S. journalist since taking command a year ago. "We have to look at innovative ways of maintenance, to be efficient, to be effective and to make sure we re-cock this force."
Doran said the Navy is examining how to better marry the workload on nuclear-powered vessels between naval and private shipyards, including at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
As the Everett-based USS Abraham Lincoln pulls into Hawaii today for a one-day stop, it's already planning for a 10-month drydock maintenance period at PSNS beginning in late June. That will leave it unavailable for deployment until late 2004 at the earliest.
In addition, once the Bremerton-based USS Carl Vinson returns from deployment, likely in late July or August, it will head for its second shipyard stay in a year.
And USS Constellation, on its way home from the Persian Gulf, will be decommissioned in three months, leaving the Pacific Fleet with only five carriers until the new USS Ronald Reagan is available for duty in 2005.
"Because the global war on terrorism is continuing and not over, we are going to have to continue to be a responsive Navy," Doran said.
"We proved by our ability to move forward quickly in Operation Iraqi Freedom the value of naval forces at sea. We're going to have to maintain that. We're going to have to be a force that has a surge capability.
"Now, that's going to have an impact across the board on deployment schedules, on maintenance schedules and lots of things. We're giving it a lot of thought right now."
The Abraham Lincoln, scheduled to arrive Friday in San Diego to drop off its air wing personnel, is finishing up a deployment that will be 9 1/2 months long by the time it reaches Everett -- the longest carrier cruise since Vietnam.
With the Abraham Lincoln's late arrival and the Carl Vinson's early one, the schedule at PSNS has been virtually thrown out from where it stood at the start of 2003.
The shipyard, which had scheduled no overtime for its work force this year, is already refueling and overhauling two fast-attack and one Trident submarine in addition to offsite work in Florida, Georgia and California.
"When we bring her (the Lincoln) home, we're going to have to find time do that, and that's going to have a ripple effect," Doran said. "So we're going to have to look at and find more efficient, more effective ways to take care of this work load. But there's a commitment to do that.
"The global war on terrorism isn't over with what happened in Iraq. And so we have got to reconstitute this force in pretty short order."
USS Kitty Hawk, based in Japan, is headed for its home port, but will undergo maintenance before it's back at sea. That's why the Carl Vinson will remain in the Western Pacific, which could be the world's next hot spot with North Korea admitting Thursday that it has nuclear weapons.
As the Kitty Hawk was sent to the Persian Gulf in February, the Carl Vinson, heading for home after a short training mission, was given deployment orders and sent to Japan.
It was the Vinson's rapid training schedule, which led it to being deployment-ready in four months rather than the standard year, that the Navy is using as an example of its ability to prepare its forces quickly.
"With Vinson, we compressed that a little bit," Doran said. "We watched very carefully that they were getting what they needed and made sure they were combat capable."
And with the Vinson patrolling the waters near Japan and Korea, it maintained the stability in that region, Doran said.
"We also had a responsibility to maintain our commitments in the Western Pacific, and we've been able to do that," he said.
"All you have to do is pick up a magazine or a newspaper and read the headlines and obviously the Pacific Rim is very important to the United States. ... Those forward-deployed naval forces are just a key underliner of stability in the Western Pacific."
Reach ChrisBarron at (360) 792-9207 or at cbarron@thesunlink.com.
Is he talking about eliminating women on the ships?
.....only five carriers until the new USS Ronald Reagan is available for duty in 2005.
The Reagan will be commissioned this summer. You're an expert on this....why so long (2 yrs) for the shakedown?
And staff them with who? I don't know that there are enough Sailors in the Navy to man more ships. All the people on shore duty are where they need to be.
All the downsizing, top to bottom reviews, base closure and realignments that took place two seconds after the Berlin Wall fell. Liberals in search of their "peace dividend." We might never see the 600-ship Navy that Reagan was aiming for.
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