COVID-19: The “New Normal” Anti-Ship Weapon?
Guest “shades of Tom Clancy” by David Middleton
This may come as a surprise to some people, but prior to January 20, 2009, fighting climate change had never been one of the core missions of the US Navy. Thankfully, it no longer is…
Navy quietly ends climate change task force, reversing Obama initiative
J.D. Simkins
August 26, 2019When he took office as secretary of defense, retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis urged the armed forces to battle the effects of global climate change.
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But the Navy quietly shut down its specialized U.S. Navy Task Force Climate Change in March, reversing an Obama-era initiative designed to prepare naval leadership for global shifts in sea levels, melting ice sheets and ocean temperatures.
Navy officials told E&E News, which initially reported the termination of the program, that the task force’s mission was one that was “no longer needed.”
But questions soon arose into whether the task force’s demise could be traced to ongoing efforts by President Donald J. Trump to end numerous federal climate change initiatives, reversing policies instituted by the previous administration beginning in 2009.
“I believe that there’s a change in weather, and I think it changes both ways,” Trump said in a June 2019 interview on “Good Morning Britain.”
“Don’t forget it used to be called global warming. That wasn’t working. Then it was called climate change. Now it’s actually called extreme weather, because with extreme weather, you can’t miss.”
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While the Navy does continue to pay attention to the weather, as it pertains to naval operations, climate change is not a core mission of the US Navy.
The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression and maintaining freedom of the seas.
From the Barbary to the Somali pirates, “maintaining freedom of the seas” has been one of the Navy’s primary missions. Since World War II, the backbone of the US Navy has been the fleet or attack aircraft carrier. Aircraft carriers are like mobile diplomatic outposts, with a “runway” capable of handling a wide range of combat aircraft (a very “big stick.”)
the first question that comes to everyone’s lips is:
‘Where’s the nearest carrier?‘”
President Bill Clinton
March 12, 1993
aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt
Global Security Dot Org
The US Navy is the only navy in the world operating large “super-carriers.” With 90,000-100,000 ton displacements, the Nimitz and Gerald R. Ford class aircraft carriers are 40-50% larger than they next largest, the UK Queen Elizabeth Class, just coming into service.
Aircraft carriers operate in strike groups. A US Navy strike group generally consists of 1 carrier, 1-2 Ticonderoga class guided missile cruisers, 4-6 Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers and are often accompanied by 1-2 Virginia, Sea Wolf or Los Angeles class attack submarines, along with other support vessels. Being a floating airbase, unescorted carriers would be vulnerable to air, surface and submarine attack.
It also appears that aircraft carriers are particularity vulnerable to the vector-borne COVID-19 disease.
French carrier surpasses Theodore Roosevelt with over 1,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19
J.D. Simkins
April 20Recent reports out of France say that more than 1,000 sailors aboard the country’s aircraft carrier, Charles de Gaulle, have tested positive for COVID-19, a number that could continue to surge as the crew awaits approximately 930 more test results.
The outbreak onboard the French navy’s flagship forced leadership to call off the remaining two weeks of the carrier’s scheduled deployment to the North Atlantic. The ship, which carries a crew of nearly 1,800, pulled into port last week at Toulon Naval Base in southern France.
In all, 1,081 crew members from the Charles de Gaulle naval group have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. That total comes almost entirely from the carrier, and includes at least two U.S. sailors who were assigned to the ship as part of the U.S. Navy’s Personnel Exchange Program.
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Partially complicating the early detection process onboard Charles de Gaulle was the rate of asymptomatic carriers. Of the confirmed cases, nearly half showed no symptoms, according to a New York Times report.
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The debilitating spread of the virus onboard Charles de Gaulle, France’s lone carrier, has sparked concern about the nation’s ability to remain ready to fight.
Unlike the U.S. Navy, which touts 10 other active carriers in addition to the coronavirus-stricken Theodore Roosevelt, losing the Charles de Gaulle for an extended period could cripple France’s nuclear deterrence capabilities, the Times report said.
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Yes… France has a nuclear powered aircraft carrier, albeit about half the size of US carriers.
Bullet Points
- Nearly half of all confirmed infections were asymptomatic.
- France’s only carrier was rendered combat-ineffective by ChiCom-19.
- The US Navy has eleven aircraft carriers.
Aircraft carriers are the US Navy’s primary tool for force projection. A Nimitz Class nuclear powered aircraft carrier (CVN) carries an air group with substantial hitting power.
A typical carrier air wing can include 24–36 F/A-18E or F Super Hornets as strike fighters; two squadrons of 10–12 F/A-18C Hornets, with one of these often provided by the U.S. Marine Corps (VMFA), also as strike fighters; 4–6 EA-18G Growlers for electronic warfare; 4–6 E-2C or D Hawkeyes for airborne early warning (AEW), C-2 Greyhounds used for logistics (to be replaced by MV-22 Ospreys); and a Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron of 6–8 SH-60F and HH-60H Seahawks.
The F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is possibly the best fighter-bomber in naval aviation history.
60 Hornets and Super Hornets can pack quite a punch as both fighter and attack jets.
Are eleven aircraft carriers a lot of flattops?
Over most of the past 20-25 years, the US Navy operated with at least twelve aircraft carriers. At any one time, four carriers would be deployed or available for deployment, and four would be in the early to mid stages of maintenance cycles and four would be completing maintenance cycles and/or preparing to deploy, two of which could be “surged” on relatively short notice. In September 2018, US Navy carrier deployments reached a 25 year low.
U.S. Aircraft Carrier Deployments at 25 Year Low as Navy Struggles to Reset Force
By: Sam LaGrone
September 26, 2018THE PENTAGON – Aircraft carriers – the most visible tools of U.S. military power – are spending more time in maintenance and at home even as the Pentagon has declared it’s entered a new era of competition with China and Russia.
According to a USNI News analysis of more than 50 years of carrier air wing deployments over the last 15 months, the Navy has seen the lowest number of carrier strike groups underway since 1992, the year following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The Navy has deployed about 22 to 25 percent of its carriers since 2013. That total — which excludes training missions and exercises — is down from a 28-percent average for the rest of the era of the global war on terror. In 2018, to date, that number has been down to an average of about 15 percent of the Navy’s carriers committed to operational deployments.
For 22 days this summer, the Navy did not have a full carrier strike group deployed anywhere in the world available for national tasking, the service confirmed to USNI News. That’s the longest gap in the years USNI News studied.
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Of the eleven currently commissioned US aircraft carriers, only five are currently deployed. However, the forward-deployed USS Ronald Reagan is undergoing maintenance at Yokosuka, Japan and USS Theodore Roosevelt (The Big Stick) is docked in Guam due to the COVID-19 outbreak on board. This leaves the Western Pacific without an effective carrier strike group (CSG). Amphibious assault ships (LHA & LHD) generally carry six USMC AV-8B Harrier jump jets. The Marine attack squadrons are in the process of transitioning to the more advanced F-35B Lighting II. The amphibious assault ships (“Gators”) can be deployed as “sea control ships” with less helicopters and up to twenty Harriers or Lightnings.
With major freedom of the seas commitments from the Middle East to the Western Pacific, the US Navy was already spread thin when COVID-19 disabled The Big Stick…
How (or why) was The Big Stick infected?
Part of The Big Stick’s mission was to “maintain freedom of the seas” in and around the South China Sea.
Carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt Leaves San Diego for Indo-Pacific Deployment
By: Gidget Fuentes
January 17, 2020Family and friends said goodbye on Friday to more than 6,000 sailors with the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, which is leaving for a scheduled deployment to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command region.
The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) is departing its home berth at Naval Air Station North Island along with six ships with Carrier Strike Group 9 and aircraft with Carrier Air Wing 11, according to Naval Air Forces.
Joining the Theodore Roosevelt for the deployment is the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG-52). Guided-missile destroyers USS Russell (DDG-59), USS Paul Hamilton (DDG-60), USS Pinckney (DDG-91), USS Kidd (DDG-100), USS Rafael Peralta (DDG-115) are also part of the CSG along with the commander and staff of Destroyer Squadron 23 embarked on the carrier. The deployment will mark the first overseas assignment for the San Diego-based Peralta, which the Navy commissioned in July 2017.
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The carrier strike group “will provide maritime security, maintain freedom of the seas in accordance with international law and customs, and operate with international partners and allies to promote regional stability and prosperity,” Naval Air Forces officials said in a statement announcing the deployment.
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On March 5, 2020, The Big Stick made a port call at Da Nang, Vietnam.
Theodore Roosevelt Strike Group Arrives in Vietnam
| Theodore Roosevelt Public Affairs | March 5, 2020DA NANG, Vietnam — USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) and USS Bunker Hill (CG 52) arrived in Da Nang, March 5, for a scheduled port visit commemorating 25 years of U.S.-Vietnam diplomatic relations.
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Sailors will participate in cultural and professional exchanges, community service projects, sports competitions, and receptions during the port visit.
“This visit will not only serve to strengthen our bilateral defense relationship, but also help further advance our cultural and professional ties,” said Capt. Brett Crozier, Theodore Roosevelt’s commanding officer. “We are honored to take part in this important port visit and to receive such a warm welcome.”
Theodore Roosevelt is America’s fourth Nimitz-class aircraft carrier with a crew of 5,000 Sailors who support and conduct air operations at sea. The strike group is comprised of a total of 6,500 Sailors, an aircraft carrier, an air wing, a cruiser, and six destroyers.
U.S. 7th Fleet conducts forward-deployed naval operations in support of U.S. national interests in the Indo-Pacific area of operations. As the U.S. Navy’s largest numbered fleet, 7th Fleet interacts with 35 other maritime nations to build partnerships that foster maritime security, promote stability, and prevent conflict.
The first three cases of the COVID-19 were reported in 24 March 2020. It was initially thought that the infection was related to the Da Nang port call, but the outbreak on USS Kidd (DDG-100) casts doubt on this.
USS Kidd Arrives in San Diego to Treat COVID-19 Outbreak; First Cases Emerged More than A Month After Hawaii Port Visit
By: Sam LaGrone
April 28, 2020The second deployed U.S. warship to suffer a COVID-19 outbreak pulled into San Diego on Tuesday to begin the process of offloading, testing, isolating and treating the crew and disinfecting the ship to prepare to head back to sea.
As of Tuesday, 64 sailors on guided-missile destroyer USS Kidd (DDG-100) have tested positive for the virus, with 63 percent of the crew tested.
Two Kidd sailors have been medically evacuated to the United States, while 15 were transferred to amphibious warship USS Makin Island (LHD-8) for monitoring, the Navy announced on Tuesday.
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In addition to the isolation and cleaning measures, the Navy Bureau of Medicine and the CDC will undertake a voluntary serology (pronounced: SIR-all-ah-gee) study of the crew to learn more about the spread of the virus, a Navy official confirmed to USNI News. That will involve collecting blood samples and swabs from the crew to learn how the virus spread throughout the ship. A similar study is underway aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), which was the first deployed ship to suffer a COVID-19 outbreak.
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The aircraft carrier has been in Guam since March 27 as the service works to mitigate the outbreak that infected 940 sailors and resulted in one death. Officials have told USNI News repeatedly that the service may never learn how the virus came aboard Theodore Roosevelt.
The same may be true for Kidd. The first sailor began to show symptoms of the virus on April 22, more than 30 days after the ship’s last port visit in Hawaii, according to a status update provided to Congress and reviewed by USNI News. The time between port visits and the first reported case of symptoms have raised questions inside the Navy as to how the virus operates and how long it could exist undetected on a ship.
Two sources familiar with the procedures on the ship told USNI News that Kidd had adhered to all of the CDC and Navy recommendations to keep the virus from spreading. Aside from underway replenishments, the ship’s crew did not have any interactions off the ship after leaving Hawaii, USNI News understands.
Kidd, initially deployed with the TR Carrier Strike Group, was detailed to a quickly-planned counter-narcotics operation in the Eastern Pacific when the first sailor began exhibiting symptoms of an “influenza-like illness” or ILI on April 22. The next day an eight-person medical team brought an Abbott machine with a COVID-19 testing ability aboard to start screening the crew.
From there, the outbreak spread rapidly among the crew, forcing the ship to head to port to purge the virus from the sailors and the ship.
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The new “prime suspect” is the carrier’s air group.
COVID-19 outbreak on Theodore Roosevelt sparked by flight crews, officials believe
J.D. Simkins
April 15By the time the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt was ordered to port in Guam on March 26, the hulking ship was already being ambushed by the outbreak of an invisible enemy.
At sea on March 24, the first three cases were reported. Within 24 hours, the number of infected more than doubled. Each subsequent day yielded more confirmed cases, numbering 615 as of Wednesday. A 41-year-old chief petty officer became the first to succumb to COVID-19 on Monday, four days after being found unresponsive by other quarantined sailors.
Officials retracing the ship’s activity pointed to a scheduled port stop in Da Nang, Vietnam, as the source of the outbreak.
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As Navy officials analyzed the ship’s chronological movement, however, the once-firm belief of where the virus first meandered onto the ship was called into question — and potentially debunked.
According to a Wall Street Journal report Wednesday, Navy officials now believe the outbreak on the carrier Roosevelt was initiated by the ship’s routine flight operations.
Numerous carrier on-board delivery flights originating in Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam occurred in the days following the ship’s departure from Da Nang, the report said. With some of the first Roosevelt sailors to contract the virus coming from the carrier’s air wing, the picture began to clarify.
Furthermore, the eight sailors who first tested positive did so over the course of March 24 and 25, more than two weeks after the ship departed Da Nang — a time period in excess of the virus’ incubation. A Navy Times request for officials to confirm which units the first infected sailors belonged to was not returned as of publication.
Additional evidence materialized when the Navy pinpointed a hotel in Da Nang, where 30 sailors had stayed while Roosevelt was in port. Two British nationals who stayed at the same hotel later tested positive for COVID-19, the WSJ reported.
What does any of this have to do with COVID-19 being a potential anti-ship weapon?
Navy conducts year’s first FONOP in South China Sea
Geoff Ziezulewicz and Shawn Snow
January 28When the U.S. Navy’s littoral combat ship Montgomery on Saturday skirted a disputed island in the South China Sea, Beijing scrambled two armed fighter-bomber jets and “expelled it” from the area, the state-run media reported.
Montgomery’s “freedom of navigation operation” was the first Navy FONOP this year in the South China Sea. The sea service conducts FONOPs to reemphasize that it’s an international byway, open to all shipping.
Beijing’s response also served as a reminder that China exerts large territorial claims across the Western Pacific and backs them up with a string of fortified atolls.
“On Jan. 25, a U.S. warship asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the Spratly Islands, consistent with international law,” Lt. Joe Keiley, a U.S. 7th Fleet spokesman, said in a statement.
The Montgomery’s FONOP “challenged the restrictions on innocent passage” in those waters imposed not only by China, but also Vietnam and Taiwan, Keiley said.
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Where was the Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group when Montgomery conducted its FONOP? In the Western Pacific, operating in the 7th Fleet area of responsibility.
In 2019, the US Navy conducted more FONOP’s in the South China Sea than any prior year. USS McCampbell (DDG-85) conducted the second 2019 South China Sea FONOP on March 10 and participated in the second 2019 Taiwan Strait FONOP on March 27. Last Wednesday, the US Navy conducted back-to-back FONOP’s in the South China Sea.
The US Navy has been very aggressively conducting FONOP’s in these waters because the PRC illegally claims them as territorial waters.
PRC’s claim was ruled invalid under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
Beijing ignored the ruling.
Needless to say, the Peoples Republic of China considers these FONOP’s to be acts of provocation. Denying US naval air cover for such operations seems like a worthy military objective, particularly if it could be done in a relatively non-violent and untraceable manner. While, there is no evidence that the PRC intentionally disabled USS Theodore Roosevelt, they certainly would have noticed that COVID-19 easily rendered two western aircraft carriers combat-ineffective.
What’s so important about the South China Sea?
SOUTH CHINA SEA
February 7, 2013
Update: October 15, 2019
Since the publication of the South China Sea Analysis Brief in February 2013, world energy markets have continued to evolve.
To reflect these changes, EIA has updated its estimates of oil and liquefied natural gas flows through the South China Sea to include estimates for 2016. A complete update of the South China Analysis Brief will be available.
Overview
The South China Sea is a critical world trade route and a potential source of hydrocarbons, particularly natural gas, with competing claims of ownership over the sea and its resources.
Stretching from Singapore and the Strait of Malacca in the southwest to the Strait of Taiwan in the northeast, the South China Sea is one of the most important trade routes in the world. The sea is rich in resources and holds significant strategic and political importance.
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Several of the countries bordering the sea declare ownership of the islands to claim the surrounding sea and its resources. The Gulf of Thailand borders the South China Sea, and although technically not part of it, disputes surround ownership of that Gulf and its resources as well.
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With Southeast Asian domestic oil production projected to stay flat or decline as consumption rises, the region’s countries will look to new sources of energy to meet domestic demand. China in particular promotes the use of natural gas as a preferred energy source and set an ambitious target of increasing the share of natural gas in its energy mix from 3 percent to 10 percent by 2020. The South China Sea offers the potential for significant natural gas discoveries, creating an incentive to secure larger parts of the area for domestic production.
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Global trade
More than half of the world’s annual merchant fleet tonnage passes through the Straits of Malacca, Sunda, and Lombok, with the majority continuing on to the South China Sea. Almost a third of global crude oil and over half of global LNG trade passes through the South China Sea, making it one of the most important trade routes in the world.[…]
Debunk House 
December 16, 2021 at 10:29 |
[…] only forward deployed aircraft carrier in the Western Pacific, CVN 71 USS Theodore Roosevelt was knocked out of action by COVID-19, shortly after Red […]
December 17, 2021 at 17:00 |
[…] only forward deployed aircraft carrier in the Western Pacific, CVN 71 USS Theodore Roosevelt was knocked out of action by COVID-19, shortly after Red China […]
December 17, 2021 at 17:37 |
[…] only forward deployed aircraft carrier in the Western Pacific, CVN 71 USS Theodore Roosevelt was knocked out of action by COVID-19, shortly after Red China unleashed it […]
December 17, 2021 at 17:57 |
[…] only forward deployed aircraft carrier in the Western Pacific, CVN 71 USS Theodore Roosevelt was knocked out of action by COVID-19, shortly after Red China […]
December 17, 2021 at 18:47 |
[…] only forward deployed aircraft carrier in the Western Pacific, CVN 71 USS Theodore Roosevelt was knocked out of action by COVID-19, shortly after Red China unleashed it […]
December 18, 2021 at 08:18 |
[…] solely ahead deployed plane service within the Western Pacific, CVN 71 USS Theodore Roosevelt was knocked out of motion by COVID-19, shortly after Red China unleashed it […]
December 18, 2021 at 09:03 |
[…] only forward deployed aircraft carrier in the Western Pacific, CVN 71 USS Theodore Roosevelt was knocked out of action by COVID-19, shortly after Red […]
January 25, 2022 at 04:56 |
[…] 유일의 전방 배치 항공모함 CVN 71 USS Theodore Roosevelt는 Red China가 전 세계에 확산시킨 직후 COVID-19로 인해 […]