America at war

Dr Farrukh Saleem

The writer is an Islamabad-based
freelance columnist
farrukh15@hotmail.com

Is Carl Vinson coming to Pakistan? Who really is Carl Vinson? What is even more important is that what is Carl Vinson and why is he or she getting close to Pakistan?

Carl Vinson's nickname is "Gold Eagle". At 19 years of age he is 24-storeys tall and weighs 97,000 tons. Built at a cost of $3.9 billion it has two reactors (enough electricity for Lahore), nuclear propulsion (with enough fuel for 20 years of normal operation), four aircraft elevators, a 2,500-ton air-conditioning plant, a 4.5-acre flight deck and a daily capacity of distilling 400,000 gallons of fresh water (enough for the entire city of Islamabad).

Gold Eagle is part of the Carl Vinson Battle Group (CVBG). What always comes with the Eagle are a couple of attack submarines, a guided missile cruisers, two destroyers, a frigate, amphibious assault ships, landing ships, fast combat support ships, command vessels, mine sweepers, combat supply ships, oilers, ammunition ships and hospital ships.

Whenever there is trouble the very first question that American generals ask is: Where are the carriers? An aircraft carrier, in essence, is American sovereign but mobile territory projecting American war power wherever it is needed. According to the Department of Defence, carriers "provide a credible, sustainable and independent forward presence."

The Eagle's usual partners include a Carrier Air Wing, USS Antietam, USS Princeton, USS Columbus, USS Pasadena, USS Fitzgerald, USS Oldendorf, USS McClusky, USS Rainer, the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and an Assault Craft. The Air Wing has some seven dozen state-of-the-art Hornets, Tomcats, Prowlers and Seahawks. The usual load is three squadrons of FA-18s, a single squadron each of F-14s, S-3s, EA-6Bs, E-2Cs and a helicopter squadron (Pakistan Air Force has three squadrons of F-16s or a total of 32 operational F-16s).

The FA-18 is a single-seat all-weather fighter and attack aircraft. Tomcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, variable sweep wing, two-place strike fighter capable of delivering Phoenix, Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles. The S-3s are jet aircraft that hunt and then destroy enemy submarines. These aircraft also provide surveillance of surface shipping. The E-2C Hawkeye are all-weather, tactical warning and control system aircraft. The Prowlers jam enemy radar, electronic data links and communications. The Seahawk is the Vinson's anti-submarine, search and rescue, anti-ship, cargo lift, and special operations helicopter. This is what the Air Wing is all about.

Besides the Air Wing, the accompanying Antietam is an Aegis cruiser equipped with air search radar, a surface search radar, an electronic warfare suite, two guided missile launchers and torpedo tubes. USS Columbus is one of the most advanced submarines of its kind. Its stealth technology enables it to deploy special forces, mine-laying, precision land attack and anti-submarine or surface warfare while remaining undetected. Columbus is equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles. USS Pasadena is the other submarine that accompanies the Vinson. Pasadena's specialty is anti-submarine warfare and strike warfare.

Vinson's two destroyers are Fitzgerald and Oldendorf. Fitzgerald is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer designed to conduct simultaneous operations against land, air, surface, and subsurface threats. Oldendorf has two Phalanx anti-missile guns, Tomahawk cruise missiles, Harpoon Anti-ship missiles and two triple torpedo tubes.

Tomahawk is the weapon of choice of the US forces. These are long-range, 1,600 km, subsonic missiles launched from either surface ships or submarines. Tomahawks, while en route to their target, fly at an extremely low altitude and are piloted by a whole host of guidance systems. The first one of these is a Terrain Contour Matching system. The other is a Digital Scene Matching Area Correlation system. Radar detection of the Tomahawk is next to impossible. It comes with either a 1,000 lb fragmentary unitary warhead or a general-purpose submunition dispenser.

McClusky is an Oliver Hazard Perry Class frigate (frigates escort aircraft carriers). It has six torpedo tubes, one Phalanx anti-missile gun and Harpoon anti-ship missiles (In 1987, two such frigates were damaged in the Persian Gulf during Kuwaiti tanker re-flagging).

The Boxer Amphibious Ready Group includes USS Cleveland and USS Harpers Ferry. Cleveland is an old (commissioned: 1967) amphibious transport vehicle with two AV-8B Harriers on it. Harriers do attack surface and air targets (day and night visual conditions) but their primary mission is to provide air support to ground forces.

Carl Vinson is only one of the nine Nimitz-class carriers. Whether it really is Vinson that comes to Pakistan or USS Dwight Eisenhower, USS Nimitz, USS Theodore Roosevelt, USS Abraham Lincoln, USS George Washington, USS John Stennis or USS Harry Truman. They all have similar configurations and always travel with submarines, cruisers, destroyers and frigates (Pakistan has a total of three destroyers and eight frigates). These are in addition to USS Enterprise, USS John Kennedy, USS Kitty Hawk and USS Constellation.

If the Desert Shield/Storm is any guide, then Naval Battle Groups won't be alone. John Kennedy and Theodore Roosevelt were both deployed as part of the Desert Shield/Storm operation. Additionally, there were battleships, Missouri and Wisconsin plus 17 cruisers, 13 destroyers, 16 frigates, 8 amphibious assault ships, 3 oilers and 2 hospital ships.

The US Air Force brought in fighters, bombers and support squadrons. Fighters included F-15s, F16s, F-117s and A-10s (Tomcats, Eagles, Falcons and Hornets). Bombers came in as B-52 and F-111s. The Army had 245,000 troops, 75,000 Marines, 2,400 tanks and 1,900 helicopters including Apache, Cobra, Black hawk, Sea Stallion and Chinhook. Missiles included cruise, TOW, SCUD and EXOCET. Attack aircraft included Thunderbolts, Intruders and Stealths.

That's a sample of what is coming either our way or going over us. To be certain, not everything in the Carl Vinson Battle Group - or other battle groups for that matter - works as planned. If a quarter of whatever is there actually works only fools would want to get into its way.