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 werent kidding. The type I was familiar with had two squadrons of F-14s, two squadrons of F/A-18s and (Im still fuzzy on this last one) one or two squadrons of A-6s. I think it was just one squadron of A-6s but Im 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.
Agreed that it takes a carrier to practice traps and launches, but wasn’t that what the Lexington (and wasn’t there another carrier assigned to take the Lexington’s place as a training carrier?) was for until recently? Everything else was done from shore, to the best of my knowledge. Granted, I never was more than a sideliner and never served, but it seems that there’s some seriously flawed logic in the way the Navy has been handled since Reagan left office.
Wait a second, I just caught that last part. The Navy did away with the S-3? WTH? When did this happen and what’s pulling ASW duty now?