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CNN Saturday Morning News
The Navy's Role in Afghan Strikes
Aired October 13, 2001 - 09:20 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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: As you know, Afghanistan is a landlocked nation, but that is not to say that the U.S. Navy doesn't have a very specific role.
Kyra Phillips joins us with more and a look at what their role is -- Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Marty.
Well, in 1991, it seemed like it was the Army and the Air Force receiving all the headlines in the military buildup. But it's important to point out how the United States Navy plays a crucial tactical role in winning any war, especially this one.
Its military presence will not be quickly overshadowed this time around. Our military analyst, General Donald Shepperd, is here to explain the lessons learned and the changes that were made since Operation Desert Storm.
Good morning once again, sir.
MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Hi, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about how the U.S. Navy is definitely a major player here.
SHEPPERD: Well, the Army and the Air Force were the story in the Gulf War, although the Navy was very heavily involved. The Navy at that time did not have stealth aircraft, it did not have a lot of the precision-guided munitions. Now we have an awesome Navy, made awesome strides in the last few years.
The main story is in weapons and the capability of the aircraft carrying them. It's a -- our Navy is literally an awesome Navy. "Forward from the Sea" is their motto, and we're seeing it in action right now in Afghanistan.
PHILLIPS: Yes, let's look at the battle groups, shall we?
SHEPPERD: Absolutely.
PHILLIPS: Let's take a look at this graphic here, this animation. SHEPPERD: Yes, we're starting in the Mediterranean, moving to the Arabian Sea. This is a typical battle group in the Arabian Sea. Now, this is just a demonstration, if you will, nothing to do with Navy tactics. We're very careful about that.
Think of this as a football team, and these are the offensive or defensive ends. The submarines under the sea, Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine, it can fire Tomahawk missiles from under the sea. During the Iran-Iraq conflict, they had to surface.
We'll move on to the next ship here, and we think of these as the tackles, the cruisers, if you will, the Aegis cruisers, out there for air defense and missile defense of the fleet, basically a command-and- control ship as well, 300 feet long, a crew of about 300 -- 500 feet long, crew of about 300.
Going on into the destroyers, which we can think of as the guards, antisubmarine as well as the ability along with the Aegis cruisers to launch Tomahawk missiles. And of course the centerpiece of this, all of this is designed to protect and shield a carrier. The floating air base, if you will.
Awesome capabilities. They used to have the older airplanes on these. Now we've got the F-18 Hornet and the F-14, and all of these are capable of launching offensive weapons.
Here we see from under the sea and on the surface, Tomahawk missiles being launched from all of these, and then the F-18s being launched off the carriers carrying precision-guided munitions. This is a tremendous capability, and a tremendous naval capability for this nation.
PHILLIPS: You put that all together. Now, of course, you mentioned the F-14, the F-18s, also the E-2 and the S-3. Let's talk a moment how all the aircraft integrate to make an attack so successful.
SHEPPERD: Yes, basically you launch the F-14 first for fleet air defense. Then you launch the E-2 to look out further with its radar. Then you launch the tanker aircraft, the S-3s, the fighters, F-18s, come next. They fill up on the tanker. And of course you launch the EA-6 Prowler as well to give them jamming capability.
They go in, they do their work, they come back, they tank again, and they land. Tremendous floating capability for this nation.
PHILLIPS: And then of course you have the satellites bringing this together.
SHEPPERD: Indeed, and we'll talk about those later, tremendous space capability that makes all of this possible, our space warriors as well as tremendous Navy out there.
PHILLIPS: General Don Shepperd, thank you so much.
SHEPPERD: Pleasure.
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