U.S. Navy showcases "Future Air Wing"
2024-08-26
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The US Navy's aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson participating in the Rim of the Pacific Exercise.
For the US Navy, the 2024 Rim of the Pacific Exercise, which ended in early August, was an important occasion for it to demonstrate its strength. The USS Carl Vinson, as the core of the participating forces, moved forward from its home port in San Diego, California, to the waters around Hawaii. Its carrier-based aircraft units demonstrated a series of new combat capabilities during the exercise, which attracted much attention and intensive reports.
The range of air-to-air missiles has increased dramatically
The USS Carl Vinson is the first pilot unit of the US Navy to implement the concept of "Future Air Wing". Its second carrier-based aircraft wing includes F-35C stealth fighters, F/A-18E/F fighters, EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft, E-2D early warning aircraft, MH-60R/S helicopters and other aircraft. However, compared with these "familiar faces", several new airborne weapons unveiled during the exercise can better reflect the true face and development trend of the US Navy's "Future Air Wing".
The most eye-catching is the AIM-174B long-range air-to-air missile. During the exercise, the USS Carl Vinson sent out F/A-18E/F fighters carrying this type of missile to take off and land several times, indicating that this weapon has achieved initial combat capability. This type of missile is an improvement on the Standard-6 ship-borne air defense missile. The maximum range of the Standard-6 missile launched from a ship is about 240 kilometers. After being launched from the air, the strike distance can reach more than twice that of a general air-to-air missile, and the range and killing performance even exceed the AIM-120D-3 missile. This missile also supports the "A-shooting B-guiding" mode, that is, it can receive target information from another aircraft after launch, and has high tactical flexibility.
Some commentators pointed out that since the next generation of long-range air-to-air missiles jointly developed by the US Navy and the Air Force have not yet matured, the service of the AIM-174B long-range air-to-air missile can fill the gap in the US long-range air firepower to a certain extent. As early as the Cold War, the US military proposed the concept of "peripheral air combat" and expanded the attack and defense radius through the AIM-54 long-range air-to-air missile. Today, the service of the new long-range air-to-air missile allows the US aircraft carrier battle group to obtain a larger firepower coverage.
Electronic warfare: both hard and soft tactics
The EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft equipped with the 136th Electronic Attack Squadron on the USS Carl Vinson also gained new "soft kill" means after installing the AN/ALQ-99F-V electronic warfare pod. The pod is the first model launched among the next generation of airborne electronic warfare equipment of the US military. It will be delivered in the second half of 2023 and the first batch is expected to be deployed before October this year. The USS Lincoln aircraft carrier formation recently deployed to the Middle East is also equipped with this pod.
Raytheon, the manufacturer of the AN/ALQ-99F-V electronic warfare pod, said that the pod is the most advanced electronic attack means of the US military, mainly used to destroy and weaken the enemy's high-tech weapons, especially communication tools and air defense systems. Due to the use of composite phased array radar, this pod can not only fight multiple threats simultaneously in a wide area, but also carry out network attacks by "remote code insertion" and emit high-power microwaves to physically destroy precision instruments. It is reported that after the AN/ALQ-249 (V) 1 medium-frequency electronic warfare pod is included in the US Navy, it is expected to be deployed to the 136th Electronic Attack Squadron first, and its power will be 10 times that of the AN/ALQ-99F-V.
Currently, the U.S. Navy's carrier-based aircraft force is the only combat unit in the U.S. military that has tactical-level electronic warfare aircraft and is capable of providing accompanying cover, and often undertakes cross-service support and intelligence gathering missions. The U.S. military believes that in regional armed conflicts, the EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft carrying advanced electronic warfare equipment can protect friendly forces from air defense fire attacks.
While conducting "soft kills", the aircraft carrier-based aircraft of the USS Carl Vinson can also use AGM-88G anti-radiation missiles to carry out "hard destruction" of enemy radars and air defense positions. The AGM-88G is the latest improved version of the "HARM" series of anti-radiation missiles, which began to be delivered at the beginning of this year. It uses multiple guidance modes and can strike both mobile and fixed targets, aiming to enhance the air wing's out-of-area strike capability. During the "Guardian of Prosperity" escort operation in the Red Sea led by the US military, the EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft on the USS Eisenhower used anti-radiation missiles to destroy a helicopter of the Yemeni Houthi armed forces.
There are variables in future development
According to reports, the U.S. Navy's "Future Air Wing" concept includes dozens of new combat capabilities. After multiple tests, it will be gradually extended to all U.S. carrier-based aircraft wings in the next few years. The deployment and use of the "Carl Vinson" aircraft carrier is aimed at promoting the implementation of these advanced capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region as soon as possible, so as to accelerate the shift of the U.S. military's strategic focus to the Asia-Pacific region. While testing these new functions, the U.S. military will also integrate the capabilities of allies and partners in corresponding fields, improve interoperability through joint actions, and ultimately integrate these capabilities into the alliance combat system.
However, some analysts pointed out that the above-mentioned new equipment of the US Navy cannot change the many problems faced by its aircraft carrier battle groups, and it is difficult to suppress the calls for reducing aircraft carriers in the United States.
From the perspective of the U.S. military, this has not narrowed the gap between the U.S. aircraft carriers and the U.S. Air Force in terms of ground strikes. Although the F/A-18E/F fighters are equipped with air-to-air missiles with a sharply increased range, their main responsibility is not air combat, but ground strikes. With the entry of the F-35C stealth fighter, this trend has become more and more obvious. However, the maximum bomb load of the F-35C does not exceed 8 tons, and the bombing capacity of each attack wave is only equivalent to that of a strategic bomber of the U.S. Air Force. After the popularization of new precision-guided munitions, the single-strike effectiveness of the U.S. Air Force strategic bombers has been greatly improved, and the gap in ground strike capabilities with the U.S. aircraft carriers has widened, and the "voice" of aircraft carriers in the U.S. military combat system has been restricted.
From the perspective of responding to so-called external threats, the range of US aircraft carriers to strike at the ground is limited. With the development of intelligent equipment such as unmanned systems, the types of anti-ship weapons are increasing, and the range is getting longer and longer. The range of anti-ship ballistic missiles is mostly over 1,500 kilometers, and the range of long-range anti-ship missiles launched from the air, submarines and ships has increased to over 500 kilometers. Using the platform's maneuverability to further push the strike range forward, it can launch attacks 1,500 kilometers from the coast, which is beyond the attack range of US aircraft carriers. This means that US carrier-based aircraft may find it difficult to find an opportunity window to display their electronic countermeasures.
(Source: China National Defense News)
