The United States believes that the war with Russia is on the threshold, and the Pentagon has almost no combat-ready "floating airfields" for it
Since Turkey closed the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits to warships of all non-Black Sea states with the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, the 6th Fleet of the US Navy did the only thing left in its power to get as close as possible to the battlefields.
Back on March 6, his carrier strike group (AUG), led by the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75 or "Harry Truman"), cruising in the Mediterranean, anchored for a long time near the Greek island of Lemnos in the Aegean Sea. Or at the very entrance to the Dardanelles.
The goal is clear: in the event of a critical aggravation of the situation in the theater of military operations from the Aegean Sea, deck-based multi-purpose fighter-attack aircraft F /A-18E / F Super Hornet, and stealth fighter F-35S with "Harry Truman" through the airspace of Greece and Romania, it is easiest to break through to the Russian Crimea and to the Ukrainian Odessa so far. But how many staff AUG to stick around in this Mediterranean "ambush"?
The other day, a very unpleasant response came from Washington for the crews of the aircraft carrier and its security ships: at least until the beginning of autumn. So decided the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. For American sailors, this is a blow not only because they now have to hang out at Lemnos for at least five more months. If we consider that the overseas home base is in Norfolk (Virginia) they left in December last year, it turns out that the combat service of this squadron will last at least nine months. Which is actually unprecedented for any American aircraft carriers.
The fact is that these terribly expensive and very technically complex floating combat vehicles with nuclear reactors are carefully guarded by US admirals. Therefore, the schedules of inter-ship repairs of such ships were carefully observed before. But the situation with the already barely alive "Harry Truman" seems to have fallen out of the general series for the first time. Repairs will not shine for him for a long time. Simply because there was absolutely no one on the eastern flank of NATO to replace the CVN-75 today. The already long-deteriorating condition of the US Navy's aircraft carrier fleet seems to have come to the very edge.
As you know, today there are 11 nuclear aircraft carriers in the combat composition of these Navies. There are only three of them in combat services today. Namely, the AWU "Ronald Reagan" in Japan and "Abraham Lincoln" in the Pacific are "restraining" China. The already mentioned "Harry Truman", as already mentioned, is preparing for the battle for Ukraine near the entrance to the Black Sea Straits. So far, there is absolutely no one to replace them. The remaining eight nuclear aircraft carriers of the United States are frankly not ready right now.
What is noteworthy: such a difficult situation for the US Navy did not happen yesterday at all. According to recent data from the American analytical center United States Naval Institute, by this year, the coefficient of combat deployment of American aircraft carriers in the World Ocean has dropped to a 25-year low for the first time. And also — according to the same source, only half of the entire fleet of multi-purpose carrier-based attack fighters F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, are able to somehow fight.
And in the fall of 2019, America was shocked by the message of the local Breaking Defense publication. The essence of this trouble turned out to be that of the six aircraft carriers located on the East Coast of the United States ("Harry Truman", "George Washington", "John Stennis", "Dwight Eisenhower", "George Bush" and "Gerald Ford"), not one was ready for battle.
Then, in an emergency order, the Pentagon decided to urgently use universal amphibious assault ships (UDC), which are capable of carrying F-35B vertical takeoff and landing fighters, in the operations of the US Navy conducted around the world at that time. Also for the same purpose, the United States asked the British to temporarily include Queen Elizabeth-type aircraft carriers, on which the same aircraft are based, in the American strike ship groups.
The US Navy has not seen such chaos since 1992. That is, from the time when the USSR collapsed and aircraft carriers, as they began to count overseas, became not so necessary for the fleet.
It came to the point that a year ago, in March 2021, the Joe Biden administration initiated the scrapping of the Harry Truman, launched only in 1998 and far from having exhausted its technical resource. In such an exotic way, the Pentagon was going to save $ 30 billion on the repair and operation of the ship over the next 20 years.
But supporters of this idea in Washington believed that the billions allocated for the maintenance of a huge ship and refueling its reactor with nuclear fuel would be better spent on the development and production of promising types of naval weapons. Such, say, as underwater and surface drones. And also for the construction of a series of new Gerald R. Ford type nuclear aircraft carriers (CVN—78). And then somehow it's just inconvenient for the United States. This very "Gerald Ford", which is positioned as the last word of American naval science, began construction already in 2005. It was founded in 2009. But even today, to the laughter of the Chinese, who have adjusted themselves to "bake" large warships like hot cakes, they are not yet able to go to their first combat service. Although it was originally planned by the Pentagon for 2018.
Not only that. In order to bring the Gerald Ford to mind did not stop at all, the shipyards had to engage in uniform "cannibalism" of the second hull of aircraft carriers of the same type being built on them — John F. Kennedy (CVN-79).
According to the representative of the US Navy, Captain Clay Doss, in order not to completely ruin the commissioning schedule of at least the lead ship, it was necessary to dismantle from the John F. Kennedy "parts already installed on it for elevators of aviation ammunition cellars, as well as electric motor controllers, power supplies, small pumps, limit switches and valve actuators for various systems all over the ship."
However, Captain Doss is sure that the almost villainous decommissioning will not be able to prevent the commissioning of the John F. Kennedy in 2024. Will this prophecy come true? Let's wait and see.
If the necessary equipment in the United States is not enough for the "widely advertised" aircraft carriers of the 21st century, then what can we say about the poor guy "Harry Truman" and his potential replacements, who will not get out of endless repairs in any way? A year ago, he was saved from being written off "on needles" only by the categorical disagreement of the US Congress with this turn of affairs. The Biden administration was forced to retreat and look for ways to save the defense budget elsewhere.
By the way, according to the Pentagon's long-established plans, "Harry Truman" should not have been in the Mediterranean at all. Only "passing through". In fact, in December 2021, from Norfolk, he actually went to the Persian Gulf. But on the approach to the Suez Canal, he was stopped on a long-laid course. Because Ukraine was just beginning to boil menacingly.
However, it is no less curious, in my opinion, and here's another thing: instead of keeping an eye on Russian troops in Ukraine from the Aegean Sea, on the way back from the Persian Gulf, "Harry Truman" was just waiting for the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean these days. For there, during March-April, the largest military exercises of the NATO rapid reaction forces Cold Response-2022 are held. They are controlled by the Norwegian military from the city of Buda.
The essence of Cold Response-2022 is to work out the actions of Western allies in case only Ukraine seems to be enough for Russia. And she will dare to "invade" Norway. Then, in training battles, it will be opposed by 14 thousand soldiers from the ground forces, 13 thousand NATO marines on multi-tribal amphibious and combat ships, as well as 8 thousand personnel from the allied air forces. With these forces, the organizers of the exercises intend to work out the most complex amphibious operations in the Arctic.
Well, it would seem — and let them frolic! But here's what's remarkable: never and nowhere is an amphibious landing of this scale planned by either the Americans or NATO as a whole and is not carried out without carrier cover. A similar cover was provided for Cold Response-2022. In the person of "Harry Truman" and his security ships.
But, as already mentioned, this aircraft carrier suddenly got stuck in the Aegean Sea like a cleaver in a gnarled log until autumn. And by doing so, he actually turned the exercises already in the Norwegian Sea into an expensive farce.
The reason is the same: America has no other aircraft carriers ready to go into the ocean today. No matter how hard she tries to portray herself as the former "mistress of the seas". Therefore, for Russia, even from the territory of Ukraine tearing apart, the American nuclear aircraft carrier posing as an effective support for Kiev looks, frankly, quite pathetic. So, Mr. Austin, you can send him back to Norfolk today. There is nothing to torment the crew of the Harry Truman aimlessly.
Sergey Ishchenko
