What should the carrier air wing (CVW) of the future look like? This
rather abstruse topic has taken on new significance of late as a
consequence of the article in the July issue of Proceedings
by Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert. The title of
the article, “Payloads over Platforms: Charting a New Course,” the
discussion in it of the diminishing value of stealth, and the positive
mentions of both the F/A-18 Hornet and unmanned systems such as the Scan
Eagle and Fire Scout led some observers to accuse the CNO of somehow
being secretly opposed to the carrier variant of the F-35 Joint Strike
Fighter. Under intense criticism, Admiral Greenert and his staff appear
to be employing the “Humpty Dumpty” defense (“When I use a word, it
means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”), asserting
that the article did not refer in any way to the F-35 but instead to
stealth in the future.
Link:
http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2012-09-0/new-kind-carrier-air-wing
Link:
http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2012-09-0/new-kind-carrier-air-wing
