Charting a course: USN rolls out future carrier air wings

摘要

As the wider world transi-tions its combat aviation assets from the fourth to the fifth generation of capa-bilities, the US Navy (DSN) is embarked on its own effort to reconfigure and recapitalise its carrier air wings (CVWs) for the 21st Century. Speak ing under the Chat ham House Rule at the virtual Defence iQ International Fighter conference in mid-November 2020, a senior official noted that the service is currently in a state of transition as it moves towards a fixed-wing CVW that will comprise the Boeing F/A-18E/ F Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning Ⅱ strike fighters, Boeing EA-18G Growler airborne electronic attack (AEA) aircraft, Northrop Grumman E-2D Advanced Hawkeye air-borne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, Bell Boeing CMV-22B Osprey carrier onboard delivery (COD) aircraft, and the Boeing MQ-25A Stingray unmanned refuelling and intel-ligence, surveillance, and recon-naissance (ISR) platform.