What the Lull in Aircraft Carrier Deployments Means
Proceedings Magazine - November 2018 Vol.
144/11/1,389
By Lieutenant Commander Tony Kochanski, U.S. Navy
During the past year I have written several articles about naval aviation readiness and retention , and much is being done to reset the force in line with the 2018 National Defense Strategy and its focus on great power competition. Part of that reset involves a calculated reduction in deployments across the force. As USNI News reported last month, U.S. aircraft carrier deployments this year have been at a 25-year low, and there were 22 days in 2018 when no carriers were deployed at all. Some pundits might speculate what the Navy is up to, but overall there is good news and some key takeaways.
First, dynamic force employment (DFE) is an innovative Department of Defense (DoD) strategy to keep U.S. adversaries guessing. Historically, when U.S. carrier strike groups operate on the doorsteps of America's adversaries, they have been a powerful force to curb unwanted behaviors. Unfortunately, over the past three decades, the DoD got too predictable with how, when, and where it was deploying its forces, making it easy for adversaries to know how the United States would respond to aggression.
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2018-11/what-lull-aircraft-carrier-deployments-means
