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American Morning

America Strikes Back: Look at an Aircraft Carrier

Aired October 16, 2001 - 09:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: When we talk about an aircraft carrier, we're talking about a floating city, 5,000 people onboard, 85 aircraft. About of 50 of them are attack aircraft. But it's probably worth a few moments to explain to you exactly how that all is orchestrated, how it works, and how the planes are launched and in what order, and to help us understand that, we will turn to a general who is retired from the Air Force. A little bit out of expertise, but he's good at this stuff, General Don Sheppard, our military analyst.

And, General Sheppard, I guess your friends at the Air Force Academy will have to close their ears for now as we talk about Naval aviation.

And let's begin with, the order has come down to stage some sort of an attack, and the fist thing to leave the deck of an aircraft carrier is what?

GEN. DON SHEPPARD, (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, normally, the first thing to leave the aircraft carrier is the plane guard, which is the helicopter, that provides antisubmarine warfare, and also protects, or picks pilots up out of the drink should somebody get lost on the launch. Now the whole idea to protect this floating base from surface ships and submarine while it's launching offensive operations. It's an awesome, awesome capability from an awesome Navy, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, so that helicopter will be orbiting there. Search-and-rescue possibility, maybe looking for submarines. Of course aggressive submarines in this case probably isn't a big consideration, as much as there is no opposing navy.

Now what's comes next off the deck of a carrier typically?

SHEPPARD: Well, again, we're getting Concepts here, so it doesn't -- it's not the same every time. But normally, what would be launched is an F-14, which provides fleet air defense, and shortly behind that will be an E-2 Hawkeye, which is their mini AWACs. These things go out from the tanker and provide an air picture of everything that's airborne and anything that's on the surface, back to the control center in the Aegis cruisers that can be used to defend the fleet while the offensive operation comes next.

O'BRIEN: OK, so the airborne radar system is sort of a flying flight control system for an attack group and the F-14 serves a dual role here. We'll show the F-14s a little bit later. It actually serves to protect the fleet and also has an attack role. Let's go to the next aircraft off the deck, as we take a look at our animation, and this one is an important one. It's a tanker, the S-3. Tell us about this one.

SHEPPARD: This is S-3 Viking. You launch that, so that as you launch the strike fleet, if necessary, they can top off before they go inbound. Not only can the Navy planes refuel from the S-3, which will also provide post-strike refueling as the airplanes come back to the tanker, but they may also join up with an Air Force tanker en route. Part of the joint team that we've been constructing, this S-3 is a vital part of the whole thing, providing gas for the strikers inbound and outbound.

O'BRIEN: All right, and so next off the deck is going to be an aircraft that is designed for aggressive aircraft to go into the area. This is the A-6, the Prowler. Tell me about this one.

SHEPPARD: Yes, more great animations. This, the A-6 Prowler, provides electronic warfare capability to jam radars for the strikers. So he'll normally go up next. He's got more range than the strike aircraft. So he'll go off next, may top off on the tanker. Then he's en route to the targets, provides that jamming necessary when the bombs show up.

O'BRIEN: So the surface-to-air missile aren't as much of a problem. And finally, after all that groundwork is laid, the aircraft which are actually involved in the attack launch off an aircraft carrier deck. Let's take a look at what we've depicted here on the animation. F-18s obviously play a big role. Let's take a look at that launch if we can, let's put that up. Can we do that? There we go. And there go the F-18s. Also involved in these attacks ,the F- 14. So the role of the 18 and the 14 is kind of both attack and protection of the fleet, right?

SHEPPARD: Absolutely. These things have prevision-guided munitions on them. And again, the message of all of this, we have a magnificent Navy. What these folks do on high seas and all kinds of weather day and night is absolutely awesome. They are wonderful. They're part of a joint team. You've got bombers coming from the United States. You've got satellites provided sensor information for this Navy strike, and so far, the word has been, or the story has been tactical aviation off the boats and forward from the sea from our Navy -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, and finally, we'll take one quick look at the F-14s launching, so we don't have any Tomcat drivers mad at us. The F-14 fighters in this case headed of on a attack mission. As we said, they serve a dual role.

Generally Don Sheppard, thanks very much for your help explaining how this complicated piece of multibillion dollar machinery all fits together. We appreciate it, as always.

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