Navy plans more frequent carrier deployments

Published on HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com (http://hamptonroads.com)

Navy plans more frequent carrier deployments

The Navy is working on a plan that would lead to more frequent deployments -- and as a result, defense officials say, more predictability -- for thousands of sailors in Hampton Roads.

The plan would overhaul the deployment cycle of aircraft carrier strike groups, which have been stretched thin during more than a decade of war in the Middle East.

Under current operations, aircraft carrier crews spend months training for a single deployment that is billed to last seven to eight months. But due to global demands, the cruise is often stretched to eight or nine months, said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Navy’s chief of information.

The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln arrived in Norfolk last year following a 10-month deployment.

That wouldn't happen under the Navy’s Enhanced Carrier Presence Plan, Kirby said in an online video announcing the proposal this week.

Instead, there would be one pre-deployment work-up period followed by two seven-month deployments before carriers are sent into shipyards for overhauls. Today, carrier strike groups deploy once every 32 months. Under the new plan, the ships and their air wings would deploy twice every 36 months.

“You’ll be at sea a little bit longer than you are now, but it will be on a much more predictable, stable schedule,” Kirby said in the video, emphasizing that the change was still in the planning phases and would require additional funding from Congress.

The new cycle would mean more ships at sea at any given time, allowing the service to respond to crisis without forcing ships on unplanned deployments.

The Navy hopes to implement the new deployment plan by the end of 2014.

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Source URL (retrieved on 04/24/2013 - 20:53): http://hamptonroads.com/2013/04/navy-plans-more-frequent-carrier-deployments