Uscg Aircraft Fleet - This led to fast, life-saving responses. When the USS Hornet (CV-8) was sunk in the World War II battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, the Navy moved quickly to get the crew off the stricken ship.
Within six hours of the initial morning attack, at least three destroyers went alongside, rescuing 800 non-essential personnel and 75 wounded. As the risk of an at-sea confrontation looms in the Pacific, the U.S. Navy has an obligation to reinvest in long-lost organic salvage and medical "ambulance-like" assets.
Uscg Aircraft Fleet
Given the risk, sending multiple carrier strike groups into potential combat without attending support craft is irresponsible. Unlike other VIP military transport aircraft, the Gulfstream jet is parked at Ronald Reagan National Airport, where the Coast Guard maintains an air station.
What The Navy Should Do
The aircraft is an unmistakable Coast Guard aircraft, with the branch's racing stripe and emblem located on the front of the aircraft with "United States Coast Guard" emblazoned on the fuselage. The C-40 Clipper is rarely used by the president and vice president, with cabinet secretaries, military leaders, elected officials, and other high-ranking government officials using the aircraft instead.
The military offers two variants of the aircraft, the C-40B for use by military combatant commanders and the C-40C for use by government officials, according to the Air Force. In World War II, carrier battles were fought in close quarters, with escort ships sailing close by the aircraft carrier.
When a carrier took a hard hit, escorts rushed alongside to directly support battle damage recovery and remove crew. The recently christened USNS Cody (T-EPF-14), a fast biomedical support catamaran, is a step in the right direction, but the Navy needs to think much harder about how it will recover sailors from hurt and sinking ships.
The old, World War II-era ambulance boats—called PCE(R)s—offer a good template, but they are too slow to keep up with the modern carrier strike group. The Navy needs a simple, speedy lifesaving craft that is capable of both quickly recovering adrift sailors and able to go alongside a stricken carrier, quickly receiving hundreds—if not thousands—of crew members.
The World War Ii Experience
Those rescued need to be stabilized and quickly moved to a safe area. A good test solution might come through enhanced—and speedy—naval collaboration with the U.S. Coast Guard. The Coast Guard—America's at-sea lifesaving service—is already very worried about safely getting thousands of passengers off mega-sized cruise ships in a hurry.
And, in the Pacific, Cutter captains have expressed the desire for a support ship, capable of holding suspected drug runners and fast enough to move about the fleet, allowing cutters to remain on-station for drug interdiction work.
These options show that some sort of a fast-rescue craft is likely to have wide utility and may be well worth exploring. Today, America employs far fewer ships than escort carriers. In the South China Seas, the core escort group for the USS Nimitz (CVN 68), Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 11, consists of only three destroyers and one cruiser.
In World War II, the two U.S. carriers at the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands split a large escort force of one battleship, six cruisers and twelve destroyers. For the U.S., the prospect of a 90% post-attack survival rate leads to the daunting challenge of getting more than 4,000 potentially hurt, traumatized, or radioactively contaminated people off the stricken carrier, out of the danger zone, and into a safe haven
How To Handle A Hurt Carrier?
where they can be stabilized. Although its full amenities and capabilities are classified, the aircraft has a private office for the president, a conference room, passenger seating section, medical suite, and a communications hub upgraded after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to the Air Force
. The modified 747 can also be refueled while in the air to remain flying for as long as the Air Force can keep it fueled and until the food runs out. The most iconic aircraft to currently roam the skies, the VC-25 is used exclusively by the president and operated under the famous call sign when the commander-in-chief is onboard.
It's the military variant of the Boeing 747-200, used primarily as a passenger liner in its peak and can now be seen flying cargo around the world. The small fleet of three aircraft is solely based in Afghanistan, far from the other converted private jet aircraft based in Washington.
One Air Force E-11A recently crashed in Afghanistan, with the cause of the incident still unknown. The president will typically use the VC-32 when the modified Boeing 747 is too big for the task. President Obama used the aircraft to visit smaller cities during his re-election campaign and President Trump used the aircraft for a quick hop between the Indian cities Delhi to Agra when touring the Taj Mahal during his visit.
If we assume that China's initial acts of aggression will be aimed at shaping America's will to fight, this oversight poses a serious risk. The trauma of leaving a founding ship's crew to their own devices—in a larger-scale repeat of the horrible World War II USS Indianapolis (CA-35) disaster—or, worse, watching helplessly as thousands of U.S.
sailors are "rescued" by an opposing force, would be tough for the American public to bear. The political consequences would be immediate and massive. The most notable user of the fleet is the President of the United States, who flies primarily in a modified Boeing 747 that bears the name Air Force One when the president is on board, although that represents a fraction of the private jets currently enlisted in the military
service. To address this shortage, the Navy is building Navajo class (T-ATS-6) rescue and salvage ships, but Navy progress towards building out an expected nine-ship fleet is painfully slow. The lead ship, awarded back in 2018, is still incomplete.
Salvage assets are in short supply. During the Cold War, the U.S. maintained a big salvage fleet. In 1983, the U.S. The Navy had 10 salvage, tug, and rescue ships in commission, 7 seagoing tugs in the Military Sealift Command, and several others in reserve.
Today, those salvage and deep-water towing assets, replaced by commercial contractor support, have virtually disappeared from the U.S. arsenal. Only one large tugboat and two salvage ships remain in the fleet. In a battlefield contingency, nothing will be available quickly.
As high-value military assets in themselves, America's carrier escorts are unlikely to come alongside to help evacuate the crew and assist firefighting efforts. Even if they did—and it is unclear if modern cruisers and destroyers have ever tried to come alongside a Nimitz class carrier before—survivors of the 5,000-strong carrier crew would overwhelm the escorts, eliminating their combat effectiveness.
Add in the complexities of managing survivors potentially contaminated by radioactivity from the hurt carrier's nuclear power plant, and a well-meaning rescue effort can quickly become a fiasco. The aircraft are mixed-use cargo and passenger aircraft with changeable configurations depending on the needs of the mission, according to the Navy.
The aircraft rarely carry VIP government officials as they are largely based outside of Washington, although the secretary of the Navy may use them. The Air Force operates multiple Gulfstreams, some are painted in the blue-and-white livery and others are painted more low-profile.
While most branches of the military use the Gulfstreams to fly officials within the branch, the Air Force uses its Gulfstreams to fly officials throughout the US government including cabinet secretaries and others in the presidential line of succession.
Chinese military theorists regularly trumpet China's ability to strike American aircraft carriers. The U.S. Navy, confronted by China's vast land-based missile arsenal and a doctrine aimed at exploiting decisive surprises, is confident that the fleet can survive whatever China throws at it, but it is quietly balancing risk with operational resilience.
The Air Force has two of the aircraft in its fleet to ensure that the president can always access his flagship plane. The two VC-25s are identical on the inside and travel together frequently on presidential missions.
Over the intervening hours, Japan pressed more attacks at home. After the ship was formally abandoned in the late afternoon, nearby escorts needed less than two hours to recover "all but two rafts and two boatloads of survivors".
Despite facing repeated attacks and a hail of fire, only 140 of the carrier's 2,200 sailors were lost. Twenty-one of the carrier's eighty or so aircraft went down the ship. Although the aircraft does not feature all the same amenities as Air Force One, the VC-32 does feature a stateroom for its primary flyer, communications suite, and a range of 5,500 nautical miles, according to the Air Force.
The secretary of the Navy is one of the primary users of the aircraft, which is used for official travel and visits to bases and combat zones. Along with the Coast Guard, the aircraft do not feature the blue-and-white livery found on Air Force jets, but rather a low-profile paint with "Department of the Navy" written on the fuselage of some aircraft.
The US Coast Guard's C-37A aircraft is primarily used for transporting leaders such as the secretary of homeland security and the commandant of the Coast Guard. Although a branch of the military, the Coast Guard is under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security and does not have its own cabinet secretary, unlike the Army, Navy, or Air Force.
The range of the aircraft is 4,500-5,000 nautical miles, according to the Air Force, which is comparable to the VC-32, and it can carry over 100 passengers depending on the configuration. The C-40B is known for its extensive communications apparatus and is referred to as an "office in the sky" by the Air Force.
The C-37A is an older model which costs $37 million, according to the Air Force, with a range of 5,500 nautical miles. The C-37B is a newer aircraft produced by Gulfstream in the early 2000s, which has a unit cost of $64 million, according to the Navy.
Naval service is never risk free, and everyone in the maritime security business knows that aircraft carriers will be high-priority targets for any adversary. China, according to Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, is "going to go after the will of the United States Public" and "erode support for the conflict."
It is obvious that Chinese strategists believe that a sunk carrier is a great way to do this. Similarly dressed in blue-and-white, the VC-32 occasionally flies the president but is one of the aircraft of choice for high-ranking government officials.
Although not as iconic as the VC-25, the modified Boeing 757 is frequently tasked with high-profile missions as it frequently flies the vice president and secretary of state around the world. The unmistakable livery has even gotten the aircraft in trouble, with a plane spotter photographing the plane while it was flying over the UK and ruining the president's surprise trip to Afghanistan.
With the words "United States of America" emblazoned on both sides in all caps and two American flags on the tail, there is no question of what the plane represents. Not all Clippers are painted in the iconic blue-and-white livery as some are painted in less noticeable colors, ideal when traveling to destinations where a low profile helps mitigate safety concerns.
Large congressional delegations frequently use the aircraft because of its capacity. The military variant of the Gulfstream IV business jet, the C-20G is used by the Navy and Marines for the transport of military leaders, government officials, and other dignitaries.
The aircraft is almost half the cost of the larger C-37 with a unit cost of $37 for the C-20G and can fly around 5,100 nautical miles, according to the Navy. The Navy's lack of interest in exploring recovery of battle-damaged combatants may reflect the deterrence-minded idea that, if China hits an aircraft carrier, the conflict will be headed towards an irrecoverable escalation, and that, in the face of a nuclear exchange,
the fate of the 5,000-6,000 personnel aboard the hit carrier will prove insignificant. That is wrong. China has repeatedly engaged in direct conflict with at least two nuclear-armed neighbors, and may very well engage in a dust-up with other Pacific stakeholders that, over the next decade, will also be fielding large combatants, amphibious ships, and aircraft carriers
too—just like China. A modified Bombardier Global Express aircraft, the E-11A is a communications node that acts as a flying repeater and facilitates communications between various forces. The aircraft is particularly useful in allowing forces to communicate with their base when separated by mountainous terrain or other obstructions.
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