Sailors direct flight operations while an F-35C Lightning II prepares to launch off the flight deck ... [+]
The U.S. Navy has laid out plans for its next-generation carrier air wing. One with drones, new stealth fighters and better munitions.
And just in time. Because the Chinese navy is moving quickly to begin matching the American fleet’s current wing.
The U.S. Navy today maintains nine carrier air wings, or CVWs, to fly from its 11 nuclear-powered supercarriers, or CVNs.
The current CVW structure includes four fighter squadrons, each with 11 F/A-18E/Fs, plus a squadron with five EA-18G electronic-warfare jets and another unit with four E-2 radar early-warning planes. MH-60R and MH-60S helicopters and C-2 supply planes round out the wing.
Over the next few years, however, the CVWs will settle on a new mix of planes that should remain standard for a decade or so. USS Carl Vinson in early August sailed from San Diego with the first of the fleet’s redesigned wings.
The new structure swaps out one squadron of F/A-18s for a squadron flying 10—later 14—F-35C stealth fighters. There are two extra EA-18Gs and one extra E-2. New CMV-22B tiltrotors replace the C-2s. In a few years, each CVW also will get a handful of MQ-25 tanker drones that also can perform surveillance missions.
The F-35C is the key to the CVW’s effectiveness as Chinese ships, planes and missiles grow more sophisticated and more numerous. “The F-35C of 2030 and beyond will serve as an invaluable force multiplier for the [carrier strike group],” the Navy explained in its new aviation strategy document. “The F-35C’s stealth and passive detection capabilities will allow the platform to gain critical intelligence and share throughout the CSG, significantly aiding the kill chain.”
The stealth fighter is getting three new weapons, the Navy explained: a networked model of the Joint Standoff Weapon glide bomb, the radar-homing Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile Extended Range and the swarming Small Diameter Bomb II.
The F-35s and new munitions could preserve the Navy’s striking power until the mid-2030s, the fleet posited in its strategy document. After that, all bets are off as Chinese deploys its own new carriers and air wings.
At present, the Chinese navy operates two medium carriers. They have ramps instead of the catapults that are standard on American flattops. Low-energy ramp-launch limits how much fuel and weaponry the carrier’s J-15 fighters can carry—and totally precludes the operation of heavier aircraft in the class of the U.S. E-2.
But China’s third carrier, which is nearing completion in Shanghai, does have catapults—as will any future Chinese flattops, most likely. And Beijing is developing new aircraft to embark on the new carrier.
The J-35 stealth fighter and KJ-600 radar plane—respectively the Chinese equivalents of the F-35C and E-2—apparently both flew for the first time recently. Photos of those first flights circulated online last week.
It’s not clear how quickly or in what quantity the Chinese navy will deploy new carriers, J-35s and KJ-600s. But the U.S. Navy is assuming that Chinese developments will blunt the effectiveness of its own carriers and CVWs around 2035.
That’s when the U.S. fleet will need a new carrier fighter, the F/A-XX. “The advanced carrier-based power projection capabilities resident in F/A-XX will maintain CVN relevance in advanced threat environments,” the Navy explained.
Unlike the U.S. Air Force’s own secretive new stealth fighter, which already has flown, the F/A-XX at present is a paper airplane. The service knows what it wants the F/A-XX to do, however. “Analysis shows it must have longer range and greater speed, incorporate passive and active sensor technology and possess the capability to employ the longer-range weapons programmed for the future.”
It’s an open question whether the Navy will meet its 2035 deadline for fielding the new fighter. It’s equally unclear that the fleet can afford the hundreds of F/A-XXs it would need to replace all 600 or so F/A-18E/Fs.
If the Navy is slow, it could give the Chinese fleet a chance to leap ahead in capability if not in numbers. If the Navy is cheap, it might have to reduce the number of carriers and wings in order to re-equip those that remain.
