MORE THAN JUST A FIRE: THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE BONHOMME RICHARD CATASTROPHE
After this article went to press, the fire has been ended. The Navy will next go compartment to compartment to do a damage assessment and decide whether the ship can be repaired or not.
As I write this, the USS Bonhomme Richard — a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship — burns at Pier 2, Naval Station San Diego. Scores of Navy and civilian firefighters have fought the blaze for over 72 hours and it is difficult to tell from afar how much progress is being made. One thing is clear: The ship will likely be, at best, out of action for years or, at worst, stricken from Navy rolls. In either case, there will be considerable impact to ongoing naval operations, force development efforts, and naval integration initiatives. While navalists tend to judge navies by the number of ships that comprise them, the plain truth is that not all ships are created equal. The loss of some ships is much worse than others. That is what Americans are watching happen before their eyes. Confidence in the Navy is shaken.
To provide conventional deterrence and forward-deployed assurance, the U.S. Navy relies on a finite number of force packages. They include the carrier strike group — comprised of a large, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, a carrier air wing, and three to five surface combatants (cruisers and destroyers) and logistics ships — and the expeditionary strike group — comprised of an amphibious assault ship (such as the Bonhomme Richard), two additional amphibious warships, and a Marine expeditionary unit of over 2,000 marines whose mobility is provided by the ships and aircraft of the overall expeditionary strike group. Additionally, one to two surface combatants provide offensive and defensive power to the expeditionary strike group. Attack submarines may be associated with a larger formation but generally operate independently. Moreover, ships deploy independently or in small groups to support combatant commander requirements for exercise participation and other allied engagement.
The carrier strike group and the expeditionary strike group are, however, the basic formations of U.S. naval power. The ships at the heart of these formations — known colloquially as “big decks” — are large, capable, expensive, and critical. In the case of the aircraft carrier, such ships are so critical that Congress has set a minimum of 11 as the number of aircraft carriers the Navy must maintain by law. There is not a similar requirement for the number of amphibious assault ships like the Bonhomme Richard that the Navy must maintain, though there are currently 11 in the inventory. Unlike aircraft carriers, which are optimized for maritime power projection and sea control missions (anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, and integrated air and missile defense), amphibious assault ships are optimized to project U.S. Marine Corps power ashore through a mix of fixed-wing attack aircraft, armed helicopters, and combat infantry. Because of the central role played by the limited number of aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships in command and control, warfighting, and logistics, the Navy’s approach to force readiness is built around the cycle of upkeep, maintenance and modernization, training, and deployment of these ships. Under the “Optimized Fleet Response Plan,” the employment cycles of the ships in an expeditionary strike group or carrier strike group are built around the big deck, with the end product being a deployable expeditionary strike group or carrier strike group capable of meeting the desired missions of combatant commanders.
Based on this description, it should be clear why the loss of the Bonhomme Richard — even for only a few years — would be disruptive to the Navy’s provision of ready forces forward.
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