Foreboding
Caught this, via Lileks; apparently an immense proportion of our fleet is at sea.
As a seafaring friend of mine once remarked, an aircraft carrier is not really listed on the books as a "ship," but as a "strategic asset." And when a country starts to move 7 out of 12 of these assets around on the global chessboard, it might betoken something more than just a summer 'exercise.'
Indeed, if this were wartime (What? It is? Who knew?) moving this much killing power out onto the seas would be thought of as a fleet surge.
Truman, Enterprise, Stennis, Washington, Kennedy, Reagan, Kitty Hawk. It could all be, of course, just prudent planning and practice. On the other hand, given the various signals being sent by Homeland Security, the nearness of the Olympics, and the advent of the elections, it may be a case of "Fortune favors the forward deployed."
Forward deployed...against what?
Against this?
The war on terrorism is again at Minnesota's front door after federal authorities arrested a man who they suspect has terrorism ties.
Federal sources told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS the man was arrested last Wednesday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Sources in the Twin Cities and in Washington D.C. said the man arrived on a flight and was taken into federal custody. Along the way, customs agents found disturbing items in his possession...A federal source would not say where Almosaleh's final destination was, but that source did indicate it appears Almosaleh had plans to travel beyond the Twin Cities.
One federal official in Washington noted, this is a "very sensitive" investigation.
Much more to come.
Posted by Mitch at
July 15, 2004 01:26 AM
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I actually read recently about an exercise involving seven of our carrier groups. Meant as a message to china and france as its intended location is south of taiwan and in conjunction with their navy.
Posted by: Aodhan at July 15, 2004 09:43 AMHmm...the article was in the straits times website, http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/topstories/story/0,4386,259015,00.html, but is now archived.
Posted by: Aodhan at July 15, 2004 09:48 AMThe Navy came up with the surge idea (apparently it was a Senior Chief Petty Officer that floated it first) back during Afghanistan when it realized that despite having 12 carrier battle groups, it could only put four or five of them to sea at any one time because of the maintenance and deployment cycle that it had been using for decades. That's a big waste of steel. The good folks at one of the Navy's think tanks called Deep Blue, then under RADM Crowder, came up with the surge plan. The plan makes for fewer regular deployments, and, instead, puts carrier battle groups, now called Carrier Strike Groups into deployment windows. Scheduling long underway periods for an aircraft carrier, her airwing, and all her escorts is an intense paperwork drill whose planning starts years in advance. Planning for deployment windows is just as intensive, but gives you tons more flexibility. Imagine, that you are China, and seven CSGs show up off of Taiwan one day and they hang around for weeks on end playing and practice blowing stuff up and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. Scary, huh? That would make you think twice about starting anything.
As far as the number of carrier battle groups and their intended exercise destination, I don't want to comment on that (because I don't know anything), except that this has been in the planning for a long time.
Posted by: Hans at July 16, 2004 12:56 PM