thedrifter
11-17-08, 09:28 AM
Navy carrier makes maiden voyage in Pacific
By Eric Talmadge
The Associated Press
Monday, November 17, 2008
ABOARD THE U.S.S. GEORGE WASHINGTON: Rear Admiral Rick Wren's office is near the flight deck, above the two nuclear reactors. When the mood strikes, he can take a short walk to the bridge and look out at his new neighborhood, though most of the time that's just blue water from horizon to horizon.
Wren has a unique command.
No country in the world has anything like the George Washington. It is a floating air base with 67 aircraft ready to fly; it's a city unto itself, with a population of around 5,000; and it's an armory carrying about 4 million pounds, or 1.8 million kilograms, of bombs.
It is, Wren likes to say, the big dog on the block.
And a big part of being the big dog is being seen.
Just two weeks into its maiden voyage in the Pacific, the GW has been to Japan, its new home port; South Korea; and Guam. It will be at sea probably about half the year, supplied by incoming cargo planes and desalinating its own water.
Down in the hangar bay, the scuttlebutt among the sailors is that a Chinese sub is out there somewhere chasing the carrier and its battle group - a pair of cruisers, plus a sub and a destroyer, which Wren also commands.
Wren doesn't doubt for a minute that he is being watched. That is, after all, part of the game. But he is coy when it comes to specifics.
"Most of what I do is classified," he said.
Especially when it comes to the other big dog out there - China.
"Enemy" and even "threat" are words officers aboard the George Washington avoid.
"China" is another.
Wren, the most senior officer aboard, is no exception regarding the first two. But he is quick to talk about China and the challenges it poses.
"This is where the submarines that we look for live and operate," Wren said. "I look for, and count the best I can, Chinese submarines twice a day."
Wren said that one of the primary missions of the aircraft carrier is to "sanitize" the seas around it. That means using active and passive sonar, helicopters and an array of secret gadgetry to inspect the surrounding waters for Chinese submarine activity.
"They are tough to hunt," he said.
Encounters rarely are made public. But two years ago, off Okinawa and far from Chinese waters, a Chinese submarine came within torpedo range of the Kitty Hawk - the George Washington's predecessor in the Pacific Ocean.
The following year, the Kitty Hawk was at the last minute denied a port call in Hong Kong, and China has never offered an explanation.
Occurring while the Chinese military, and particularly its submarine capabilities, are rapidly modernizing, these and other incidents have left many U.S. military planners concerned.
Traditionally, much of the U.S. focus has been on China's hostility toward Taiwan, which it sees as a secessionist province. As the George Washington began its Pacific cruise, Washington and Beijing were again at odds over a multibillion-dollar weapons deal the United States had just signed with Taipei.
But Wren said China increasingly presents a broader strategic rivalry.
"Our presence, we believe, adds to the stability and security of the Pacific theater," Wren said. "We all encourage China to become a responsible global participant. But the way they are growing their military is confusing. Why do you need a missile that can go thousands and thousands of miles if you are a defensive force? The total number of submarines they have, and their capabilities, sure doesn't point to a defensive or even an 'active defense force,' as they like to call it.
"To me, it points to establishing an offensive, blue-water navy."
Wren stressed, however, that "no one wants a confrontation with China."
The carrier is the crown jewel of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, a huge armada of 60 to 70 ships, 200 to 300 aircraft and 20,000 sailors and marines, most of whom are, like the George Washington, based just south of Tokyo.
The fleet is responsible for everywhere from the international date line to the east coast of Africa, pole to pole - in all, 52 million square miles, or 135 million square kilometers. That is a vast expanse of the globe. Within its watery realm operate ships from five of the world's largest militaries - China, Russia, India and North and South Korea.
At the front of a ready room for fighter pilots attached to the George Washington's Carrier Air Wing 5, a photo of Mao Zedong, Communist China's founding father, is projected onto a white board above the caption, "We Stood Up."
Experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Naval Postgraduate School have just finished a get-to-know-the-neighborhood lecture, focusing on regional politics, and the pilots are breaking up into little groups to digest what they have learned.
If a crisis occurs, these pilots, mostly men in their 20s, are sure to be in the thick of it.
But Captain Michael White, the air wing commander, says that for the pilots the location of the ship - be it the western Pacific or the Gulf off Bahrain - doesn't matter that much. They are trained to fly multiple missions and are prepared to use their fighters in many conditions and theaters.
When deployed in this complicated and increasingly crowded sea, however, politics can't be completely ignored.
"Working in this area of the world, we have to be knowledgeable of the major players, their governments, their economies and their capabilities," he said.
On that last topic, he said, the George Washington speaks for itself.
An aircraft carrier is one thing the Chinese don't have, and aren't likely to acquire for quite some time, though there has been a lot of talk that they want one.
In the meantime, White has a dog analogy of his own.
"The way I see it is that there are a lot of sheep out there, and some wolves," White said. "We are the sheepdogs."
Ellie
By Eric Talmadge
The Associated Press
Monday, November 17, 2008
ABOARD THE U.S.S. GEORGE WASHINGTON: Rear Admiral Rick Wren's office is near the flight deck, above the two nuclear reactors. When the mood strikes, he can take a short walk to the bridge and look out at his new neighborhood, though most of the time that's just blue water from horizon to horizon.
Wren has a unique command.
No country in the world has anything like the George Washington. It is a floating air base with 67 aircraft ready to fly; it's a city unto itself, with a population of around 5,000; and it's an armory carrying about 4 million pounds, or 1.8 million kilograms, of bombs.
It is, Wren likes to say, the big dog on the block.
And a big part of being the big dog is being seen.
Just two weeks into its maiden voyage in the Pacific, the GW has been to Japan, its new home port; South Korea; and Guam. It will be at sea probably about half the year, supplied by incoming cargo planes and desalinating its own water.
Down in the hangar bay, the scuttlebutt among the sailors is that a Chinese sub is out there somewhere chasing the carrier and its battle group - a pair of cruisers, plus a sub and a destroyer, which Wren also commands.
Wren doesn't doubt for a minute that he is being watched. That is, after all, part of the game. But he is coy when it comes to specifics.
"Most of what I do is classified," he said.
Especially when it comes to the other big dog out there - China.
"Enemy" and even "threat" are words officers aboard the George Washington avoid.
"China" is another.
Wren, the most senior officer aboard, is no exception regarding the first two. But he is quick to talk about China and the challenges it poses.
"This is where the submarines that we look for live and operate," Wren said. "I look for, and count the best I can, Chinese submarines twice a day."
Wren said that one of the primary missions of the aircraft carrier is to "sanitize" the seas around it. That means using active and passive sonar, helicopters and an array of secret gadgetry to inspect the surrounding waters for Chinese submarine activity.
"They are tough to hunt," he said.
Encounters rarely are made public. But two years ago, off Okinawa and far from Chinese waters, a Chinese submarine came within torpedo range of the Kitty Hawk - the George Washington's predecessor in the Pacific Ocean.
The following year, the Kitty Hawk was at the last minute denied a port call in Hong Kong, and China has never offered an explanation.
Occurring while the Chinese military, and particularly its submarine capabilities, are rapidly modernizing, these and other incidents have left many U.S. military planners concerned.
Traditionally, much of the U.S. focus has been on China's hostility toward Taiwan, which it sees as a secessionist province. As the George Washington began its Pacific cruise, Washington and Beijing were again at odds over a multibillion-dollar weapons deal the United States had just signed with Taipei.
But Wren said China increasingly presents a broader strategic rivalry.
"Our presence, we believe, adds to the stability and security of the Pacific theater," Wren said. "We all encourage China to become a responsible global participant. But the way they are growing their military is confusing. Why do you need a missile that can go thousands and thousands of miles if you are a defensive force? The total number of submarines they have, and their capabilities, sure doesn't point to a defensive or even an 'active defense force,' as they like to call it.
"To me, it points to establishing an offensive, blue-water navy."
Wren stressed, however, that "no one wants a confrontation with China."
The carrier is the crown jewel of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, a huge armada of 60 to 70 ships, 200 to 300 aircraft and 20,000 sailors and marines, most of whom are, like the George Washington, based just south of Tokyo.
The fleet is responsible for everywhere from the international date line to the east coast of Africa, pole to pole - in all, 52 million square miles, or 135 million square kilometers. That is a vast expanse of the globe. Within its watery realm operate ships from five of the world's largest militaries - China, Russia, India and North and South Korea.
At the front of a ready room for fighter pilots attached to the George Washington's Carrier Air Wing 5, a photo of Mao Zedong, Communist China's founding father, is projected onto a white board above the caption, "We Stood Up."
Experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Naval Postgraduate School have just finished a get-to-know-the-neighborhood lecture, focusing on regional politics, and the pilots are breaking up into little groups to digest what they have learned.
If a crisis occurs, these pilots, mostly men in their 20s, are sure to be in the thick of it.
But Captain Michael White, the air wing commander, says that for the pilots the location of the ship - be it the western Pacific or the Gulf off Bahrain - doesn't matter that much. They are trained to fly multiple missions and are prepared to use their fighters in many conditions and theaters.
When deployed in this complicated and increasingly crowded sea, however, politics can't be completely ignored.
"Working in this area of the world, we have to be knowledgeable of the major players, their governments, their economies and their capabilities," he said.
On that last topic, he said, the George Washington speaks for itself.
An aircraft carrier is one thing the Chinese don't have, and aren't likely to acquire for quite some time, though there has been a lot of talk that they want one.
In the meantime, White has a dog analogy of his own.
"The way I see it is that there are a lot of sheep out there, and some wolves," White said. "We are the sheepdogs."
Ellie