Tag Archives: CVW 9

Seeing the sights along Battleship Row

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How about these great RAF images from Ford Island at Pearl during last month’s RIMPAC?

U.S. Navy and partner nation ships dock at Ford Island and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, during Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2026, July 3, 2026. Note USS Missouri at dock at the top left of the island and the USS Arizona Memorial just ahead of her. (RAF)

Clockwise from bottom, U.S. Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), Peruvian Navy tank landing ship BAP Pisco (AMP 156) and Royal New Zealand Navy Polar-class auxiliary ship HMNZS Aotearoa (A11) dock at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, during Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2026, July 3, 2026. (RAF)

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) stands proud in the above image. Other vessels identified alongside include the 11,000-ton Peruvian Navy Makassar-class landing ship BAP Pisco (AMP-156) and the 26,000-ton Polar-class New Zealand Navy tanker HMNZS Aotearoa (A11). The USS Essex (LHD 2), a 40,000-ton Wasp-class amphibious Swiss army knife, is in the top right.

The San Diego-based TR for nearly a decade had an “All-Hornets-All-The-Time” air group, CVW-11,  including four strike squadrons with F-18Es (VFA-154, VFA-211, VFA-34, and VFA-25), as well as the EA-18G Growlers of VAQ-115, fleshed out by MH-60S/Rs of HSC-8 and HSM-75, and a Hawkeye det of VAW-115. Last year this was changed as VFA-34 was replaced by F-35C Lightnings from the “Sidewinders” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 86. You can spot at least 35 Rhinos on TR’s deck along with 10 F-35Cs, four Hawkeyes, and six MH-60s.

Of interest, the Peruvian Navy assumed command of the Combined Amphibious Task Force 176.1, a first in the 55 years of the exercise, based on Pisco, under Peruvian VADM Gian Marco Chiapperini Faverio.

VADM Favero with Pelotón de Operaciones Especiales commandos

VS22 Looking Flat

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It is just a little bit over 80 years after the Plum/Pensacola/Republic Convoy was ordered to make for Australia instead of reinforcing the Philippines– a good call because the 2,000 mobilized National Guardsmen and two warships (the cruiser USS Pensacola and gunboat USS Niagra) of Task Group 15.5 would have had little-to-no effect on the disastrous Dec. 1941-May 42 Fall of the Philippines, only adding to the number of 78,000 surrendered American and Allied troops.

However, in a reboot of naval power on display, Valiant Shield 2022 was just held in the Philippine Sea and the ninth biennial U.S.-only exercise was a decent show of strength, at least in terms of carrier power.

VS22 this year included both two carrier strike groups —USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) with Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5 embarked, and USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) with CVW 9 embarked– along with USS Tripoli (LHA-7), the latter of which recently showed off a 16-strong F-35B loadout as part of the “Lightning Carrier” concept.

Roll that beautiful bean footage:

How about those stills: 

(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Gray Gibson)

(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Gray Gibson)

(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Gray Gibson)

(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Gray Gibson)

On the downside, I would love to see two or three times that amount of escorts around three flattops, as the carriers are only trailed by two elderly Ticos (which are soon to be retired)– USS Mobile Bay (CG 53) and USS Antietam (CG 54)— and three Burkes: USS Benfold (DDG 65), USS Spruance (DDG 111), and the recently-rebuilt USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62).

It really is sad that the vast squadrons of CGNs, CG-converted DLGs, DDG-2s, Spru-Cans, Knoxes, and FFG-7s were slaughtered in the 1990s and early 2000s without replacement other than the Navy continuing to order $1.8-Billion-per-hull Burkes.

Appropriately, the pinnacle event of VS22 was the sinking exercise (SINKEX) on the decommissioned FFG-7, ex-USS Vandegrift (FFG 48).

Fab Flattop Five! 365K tons of Good Times

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What do you get when you take two 105,000-ton supercarriers, add two chunky 42,000-ton Goula-built LHD/LHAs, and a 20,000-ton Japanese “helicopter destroyer” along with their five principal surface warfare escorts in one big photo-ex? 

This: 

PHILIPPINE SEA (Jan. 22, 2022) Aircraft assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2 and CVW 9 fly over the Philippine Sea, Jan. 22, 2022. Operating as part of U.S. Pacific Fleet, units assigned to the Carl Vinson and Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Groups, Essex and America Amphibious Ready Groups, and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force are conducting training to preserve and protect a free and open Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Haydn N. Smith)

PHILIPPINE SEA (Jan. 22, 2022) Aircraft assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2, CVW 9, and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) fly over the Philippine Sea as Nimitz-class aircraft carriers USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) and USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), JMSDF Hyuga-class helicopter destroyer JS Hyuga (DDH 181), America-class amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6), Wasp-class landing helicopter dock USS Essex (LHD 2), Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Spruance (DDG 111), USS Chafe (DDG 90), and USS Gridley (DDG 101) and the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers USS Mobile Bay (CG 53) and USS Lake Champlain (CG 57) transit the Philippine Sea Jan. 22, 2022.

“Operating as part of U.S. Pacific Fleet, units assigned to Carl Vinson and Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Groups, America and Essex Amphibious Ready Groups alongside Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, are conducting training to preserve and protect a free and open Indo-Pacific region.”

(U.S. Navy video)