Japan-based Carrier USS Ronald Reagan Will Make Rare Middle East Patrol to Cover Afgh

[Boats]

Japan-based Carrier USS Ronald Reagan Will Make Rare Middle East Patrol to Cover Afghanistan Withdrawal
By: Sam LaGrone - USNI News - 05-26-21
Re: https://news.usni.org/2021/05/26/jap...tan-withdrawal

Photo link: https://news.usni.org/wp-content/upl...F825-1010.jpeg
USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) steams off the coast of Iwo To on May 22, 2021. US Navy Photo

The American aircraft carrier based in Japan will make a rare deployment to U.S. Central Command to support the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan later this summer, two defense officials confirmed to USNI News on Wednesday.

USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), its escorts and Carrier Air Wing 5 will replace USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) and its strike group as part of the movement of U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by the Sept. 11, 2021 deadline announced by the Biden administration earlier this year, the officials confirmed to USNI News.

Navy officials did not comment on the move to USNI News on Wednesday and messages left with the Office of the Secretary of Defense were not immediately returned.

The move to place the Navy’s forward-deployed carrier will be the first time the Japan-based strike group and air wing will operate in the region since the former USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) deployed to the Persian Gulf to cover the early invasion into Iraq in 2003.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that Reagan would head to CENTCOM.

In late April, USNI News reported that Eisenhower would cancel planned operations outside of the Middle East to remain on station in the North Arabian Sea to provide additional airpower for the withdrawal under orders from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, at the request of U.S. Central Command commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie.

“We will bring additional resources in [to the region] in order to protect the force as it comes out. That’s normal in any kind of disengagement operation, and I don’t want to go into the detail of those operations right now, but we will have additional capabilities and I’m confident that we and our coalition partners will be able to extract ourselves,” McKenzie told the Senate Armed Services Committee last month.

Moving the Japan carrier to the Middle East is a further sign of strain in the U.S. carrier force, as the Navy has extended and deployed carriers back-to-back without repair periods to meet the demand of combatant commanders. Since May of 2019, Central Command has had a carrier strike group operating in a small area of ocean between the North Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman, with only a brief gap earlier this year.

Earlier this month, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said the Pentagon was assessing the potential to reduce carrier presence in the Middle East after the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“We need to be present. The question is, what should that posture look like for the United States Navy in that [area of responsibility] on a day-to-day basis? My take is that we continue these negotiations with Iran on a [new nuclear deal], that hopefully Iran begins to behave in an acceptable way, and that would lead to a reduced requirement for… a carrier strike group presence,” Gilday said while speaking at the United States Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C.
“I do think we need to maintain a presence in that AOR, and the Global Posture Review will help inform the secretary of defense on what that posture ought to be.”

In 2020, the Middle East commanded almost as much carrier presence as the entire Pacific, according to USNI News’ carrier deployment database.

Total carrier days deployed per year, 2016-2020

In 2018, the National Defense Strategy called for the military to focus on top-tier priorities – China, then Russia – even if it comes at the expense of persistent but lower-tier priorities such as combatting violent extremist organizations in the Middle East. That year, carrier operations in the Middle East dropped, allowing for a much-needed overall dip in carrier employment globally. However, in 2019, then-National Security Advisor John Bolton and head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie ratcheted up carriers in the Middle East to push back against Iranian aggression – not in line with NDS priorities – and partly as a result of the renewed push for permanent carrier presence in the Middle East, carrier operations this year have soared again to recent highs.

Chart schedule's on site for years 2016 thru 2020.

Since 2019, the Pentagon has elected to extend carrier deployments to cover the combatant commander requirements in the Middle East, in part as a hedge against Iran, rather than leave a gap in carrier coverage.

However, Eisenhower – on its second deployment within a year – is mechanically unable to extend past its planned deployment length and will need to leave the Middle East in July for repairs, USNI News understands.

Ahead of the announcement to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, the U.S. was signaling it would dial back the near-constant carrier presence in the Middle East. In February, Austin ordered USS Nimitz (CVN-68), its escorts and air wing back to the U.S. after being deployed for eight months – not counting the isolation periods sailors underwent to prevent the spread of COVID-19 aboard the ship. By the time the carrier pulled into its homeport in Bremerton, Wash., the sailors aboard had been separated from their families for 11 months.

Carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) returned from its own double dump deployment this week.

For its part, Reagan left its homeport of Yokosuka last week ahead of the start of its annual spring patrol in the Western Pacific. As of Wednesday, the carrier was still undergoing qualifications to certify the air wing after the end of a recent repair period, USNI News has learned.

The next carrier available, West Coast-based USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70), won’t be ready to deploy until later this summer and might not be able to reach Central Command until late summer or early fall, USNI News understands.

Article Keywords: Forward Deployed Naval Force Japan, Naval Station Yokosuka, South China Sea, Taiwan, USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70), USS Halsey (DDG-97), USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), USS Shiloh, USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71)

Categories: Budget Industry, Foreign Forces, Iran, News & Analysis, Surface Forces, U.S. Navy

About this writer: Sam LaGrone is the editor of USNI News. He has covered legislation, acquisition and operations for the Sea Services since 2009 and spent time underway with the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and the Canadian Navy.

[Boats]

Pentagon sends sole aircraft carrier in the Pacific to the Middle East
Re: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...pacific-middl/

Photo link: https://www.washingtontimes.com/mult...atch_74740jpg/
In this Aug. 7, 2019, file photo, rain clouds loom over the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan as it is anchored off Manila Bay, Philippines for a port call. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez

The sole U.S. Navy aircraft carrier in the Indo-Pacific region is being sent to the Middle East to help provide security for the ongoing withdrawal of American troops and equipment from Afghanistan.

The USS Ronald Reagan is expected to remain in the U.S. Central Command region for up to four months. President Biden has ordered all American troops out of Afghanistan by Sept. 11, and the pullout may be completed even more quickly than that. The Reagan will take the place of its sister aircraft carrier, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

With the Reagan temporarily detached to Central Command, the waters of East Asia will be without a Navy aircraft carrier in the region for the first time in years. Mr. Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin have characterized China as the “pacing threat” for the U.S., but have found it difficult to unwind from U.S. military commitments in the volatile Middle East.

Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, blasted the Biden administration for the decision to pull the carrier from the Pacific area and its home port of Yokosuka, Japan, at a time of stepped-up aggression by China.

“This sends a terrible signal to Beijing, who will also take note of this aircraft carrier leaving the Western Pacific,” Mr. Inhofe said. “The reported redeployment of the Reagan from Indo-Pacific Command to Central Command underscores that we are asking the military to do too much with too little.”

Navy officials in the Pentagon declined Thursday to comment on the aircraft carrier’s temporary reassignment.

After Mr. Biden announced his plans last month to order the last U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, officials at the Pentagon said they would keep an aircraft carrier strike group in the area for security during the withdrawal. Pentagon officials say they will keep an “over-the-horizon” watch on Afghanistan to make sure it does not re-emerge as a breeding ground for terror groups like al Qaeda.

A military analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) said he understood how critical it is to protect troops during the Afghan withdrawal.

“It can be a period of vulnerability for our troops. We need to do whatever is necessary to protect them,” said Bradley Bowman, director of the FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power.

One of the central arguments from those who advocate a complete U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is that the resources are needed in the Pacific to counter an increasingly aggressive China, he said.

“And now we’re taking that flagship and moving it in a way we haven’t done in years — out of the Indo-Pacific,” Mr. Bowman said. “It really is a tangible manifestation of this competition for finite resources that all combatant commanders engage in.”

Mr. Inhofe acknowledged that officials at the Pentagon had few good options, and said the mission was an argument for the Biden White House to boost the defense budget.

“There are no other carriers available and the [USS Gerald R.] Ford remains far behind schedule,” he said. “The secretary of defense should not have to choose between providing force protection and keeping an aircraft carrier in the priority theater.”

By: The Washington Times, LLC