I was aware of the overhaul periods, but I was always under the impression that the Air Wings had similar “down time” periods where they were in intensive training on land. I may have been wrong, but that was my understanding.
And when you said old air wing type, you weren’t kidding. The type I was familiar with had two squadrons of F-14s, two squadrons of F/A-18s and (I’m still fuzzy on this last one) one or two squadrons of A-6s. I think it was just one squadron of A-6s but I’m not sure.
Training for a carrier air wing requires a carrier. Where else would you get the requisite traps and catapult takeoffs? The navy as never in my memory had a 1 for 1 carrier to air wing ratio.
And when you said old air wing type, you weren’t kidding. The type I was familiar with had two squadrons of F-14s, two squadrons of F/A-18s and (I’m still fuzzy on this last one) one or two squadrons of A-6s. I think it was just one squadron of A-6s but I’m not sure.
The standard pre-F18 airwing had two squadrons of F-14s, two squadrons of A-7s, and a squadron of A-6s. Each of those had, if memory serves, 12 aircraft but a couple of the A-6s were tanker versions. They also had a squadron of E-2s and a squadron of EA-6s, each with 4 aircraft. And then they had a squadron of S-3s and a squadron SH-3s, each with 8 aircraft. I may be off on the numbers for each squadron but it made for a pretty full deck. Today's carriers have one less strike squadron and they've lost the S-3s as well.