The Navy’s carrier air wing community is not prepared for a high-end fight. This is because of an almost myopic focus in fleet training on independent (non-joint) air operations that are not representative of how carrier strike groups should be used in modern, contested air warfare. To fix this, the carrier-based Navy must stop paying lip service to joint cooperation and begin developing foundational knowledge of integrated joint air operations by implementing more joint training requirements and opportunities throughout the Optimized Fleet Response Plan (OFRP) and various Air Combat Training Continuum syllabi that carrier air wing aircrew must complete.
The highly successful air campaign of Operation Desert Storm is an example of why the Navy must adopt more integrated joint air operations training.
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