OK, so how many active, and inactive, carrier battle groups do we have?
And where are each of them now?
Why, you ask?
Better to understand these published orders.
Thanks.
This should be in MPSS…or Cafe Society…
Seems like a real GQ, but why ask? a sleeper sell getting bored and lookin’ for action?
They are commin’ and they got the biggest can of whoop ass that it probably don’t matter how much info gathering the enemy gathers.
This site mentions that there are a total of 11 active carriers (with associated battle groups), and one reserver/training carrier (the John F. Kennedy) which can be deployed, if necessary. There are typically three Carrier Battle Groups (CVBGs) and three Amphibious Ready Groups (ARGs) deployed at any given time.
This site has some info as to where (generally speaking - specifics aren’t typically made public for security reasons) the carriers are currently (more or less).
From Darwin’s Finch’s cite:
USS Kitty Hawk - Japan
USS Constellation - in the mix right now, scheduled for decommissioning in nine months
USS Enterprise - scheduled to come out of a one year dry-dock next month, Norfolk, VA
USS John F. Kennedy - scheduled to go in the shop for nine months in a few weeks, Mayport, FL
USS Nimitz - scheduled to deploy anyway, San Diego, CA
USS Dwight D. Eisenhower - Home Boat to our own ChiefScott, in the shop for three years
USS John C. Stennis - San Diego
USS Harry S. Truman - just deployed, hit the Med last week
USS Carl Vinson - Bremerton, WA, schedule to go into the shop in about two years for a long stay
USS Teddy Roosevelt - scheduled to deploy in a few months, Norfolk, VA
USS Abraham Lincoln - has been in the mix, scheduled to head home now, but there are still thinking about that. Waiting for word in Australia, I think.
USS George Washington - JUST got home last week from the Persian Gulf, was in the mix, now Norfolk, VA.
Wouldn’t you like to know…Sheik Duckster ? 
What did Sen. John C. Stennis do to deserve the honor having a carrier named after him?
Just curious.
The Navy knows which side its bread is buttered on. From a description of the seal of the USS John C. Stennis:
A slight hijack -
What’s a carrier group the equivalent of, in military terms? A division or a corps?
It represents an enormous investment in personnel and capital. http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:BaP7uIc6czEC:navweb.secnav.navy.mil/pubbud/03pres/highbook/SectionI_Introduction.pdf+carrier+battlegroup+manpower+cost&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
They were originally designed to counter the threat of the Soviet Union. There is no country on Earth today that is anywhere near the level of opposition potentially faced from the Soviets.
In direct answer to your question, certainly more than a division, probably more than several divisions making up a corps.
Money aside, how many stars does the guy in charge have? One usually means division, two means corps.
Alessan,
You cannot make a direct comparison between ground force units and Naval units. The two are nothing alike.
A typical carrier battlegroup consists of:
plus the Carrier Air Wing.
That link also states in the first paragraph that the composition of a Carrier Battlegroup has varied composition over the years, whereas IIRC, the definition of a unit, division, etc has remained constant over the years.
The “person in charge” doesn’t wear any stars, unless they’re on the tie he chose to wear off of Air Force One (g,d,r).
Sorry. Couldn’t help it :).
Actually, I have seen 1 AND 2 star Admirals in charge of battle groups, but they’re mostly Read Admirals (Lower Half).
critter42
Actually, just wanted to know how thinly spread we may turn out to be. Since Rumsfeld boasted we can fight a three front war (Afghanistan, Iraq and North Korea) I just want to know some simple logistics.
quote:
Originally posted by Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor
Wouldn’t you like to know…Sheik Duckster ?
Typed while he tapped out a coded Morse message on the Shortwave set he keeps concealed in his hat.
OK Duckster…what famous Duck wears a sailor suit?
I would wager the US is more than happy to let everyone know where the carrier battlegroups are. They act as a deterrent in their own right and I think there have been several times where merely deploying a CVBG to a region has cooled itchy trigger fingers. Hell, IIRC just stationing a battleship off the coast in Vietnam was enough to give the North Vietnamese fits and bring them back to the negotiating table. I would think a modern carrier can carry a similar message.
Knowing where a battle group is deployed doesn’t help you much anyway. While at sea woe be to the person or people who try to go after one. Heavily armed hardly does them justice. Most countries would have to deploy their entire air force in one go just to have a decent shot at doing them damage (most countries have nowhere near the naval capacity to probably even get within sight of one). Even if the carrier is taken out they will almost certainly exact a heavy toll on the country that did it and they are then doubly screwed when the next carrier shows-up on their doorstep.
At one time that may have been true. But, it would seem, such is no longer the case:
Also, from USS Kitty Hawk’s homepage:
Ok, I can see the importance of not specifying a mission and I also wouldn’t want to specify with GPS precision the location of our forces. Still, you often here that Battle Group X is being deployed to the Indian Ocean. That narrows things down a bit but it’s still a helluva big place to go looking for them and anyone in the region knows that at most it might be a day or three before they are parked off shore. You still get the deterrent effect without spilling all your beans.
That said isn’t it regular for CVBG’s to be deployed one in the Indian Ocean, one in the Pacific somewhere and one in the Med (I think)? Thus everyone knows that at least one fo these beasts can crawl most anywhere in the world in a matter of days?
The biggest issue I could see is not specifying a return to port date as I would think that is when the carrier is at its weakest against terrorist attack.
Can’t be Donald because he doesn’t wear pants!
Why is the USS Constellation being decommissioned?