{"id":16149,"date":"2019-12-06T15:15:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T15:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/12\/06\/with-china-gunning-for-aircraft-carriers-the-us-navy-says-it-must-change-the-way-it-fights\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:34:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:34:48","slug":"with-china-gunning-for-aircraft-carriers-the-us-navy-says-it-must-change-the-way-it-fights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/naval\/2019\/12\/06\/with-china-gunning-for-aircraft-carriers-the-us-navy-says-it-must-change-the-way-it-fights\/","title":{"rendered":"With China gunning for aircraft carriers, US Navy says it must change how it fights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 Just because China might be able to hit U.S. Navy aircraft carriers with l<a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/naval\/2015\/09\/03\/china-s-parade-puts-us-navy-on-notice\/\" target=\"_blank\">ong-range anti-ship missiles<\/a> doesn\u2019t mean carriers are worthless, the service\u2019s top officer said Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The chorus of doom and gloom over China\u2019s anti-access weapons is too simplistic, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/naval\/2019\/12\/04\/the-us-navys-new-top-officer-issues-his-orders-five-takeaways\/\" target=_blank>Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday<\/a> said, but that doesn\u2019t mean the Navy should refrain from adjusting the way it fights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLet\u2019s look at this like a physics problem,\u201d Gilday proposed. \u201c[People will say]: \u2018Hypersonics go really fast and they travel at long ranges. Carriers can only travel [\u2018X\u2019 distance], so carriers are going to have to go away.\u2019 That\u2019s a very simplistic way to look at the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I\u2019ve been in two big war games since I\u2019ve been [CNO], and I absolutely believe that we have to wring more out of what we have today in terms of how we are going to fight with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/digital-show-dailies\/navy-league\/2019\/05\/06\/whats-killing-the-us-navys-air-wing\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1_coverjump_airwing.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">What\u2019s killing the US Navy\u2019s air wing?<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The U.S. Navy is on the brink of an explosion in research and development funding for its next-generation fighter program \u2014 an effort that could make or break the mainstay of the fleet\u2019s powerful strike arm.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gilday\u2019s comments come as the fleet is gearing up for the first of what it intends to be annual \u201clarge-scale\u201d exercises this summer, a major muscle movement that will allow the Navy to test new concepts and play with new technologies. The Navy is shifting from fighting as an aggregated force, clustered around an aircraft carrier serving as the main strike arm of the U.S. fleet, to a more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/naval\/2019\/12\/05\/the-us-navy-and-air-force-have-teamed-up-a-new-manhattan-project\/\" target=_blank>distributed and spread-out force<\/a> that it hopes can stretch Chinese surveillance assets and frustrate their ability to impose unacceptably high losses on the U.S. Navy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But to get there, the Navy must come up with new ways of fighting, Gilday said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere are alternative concepts of operations that we must develop and we have to test, and we\u2019re not going to do it during the certification phase of a carrier strike group for a combat deployment,\u201d he told the audience at the USNI Defense Forum in Washington. \u201cWe have to do that in large-scale exercises, that\u2019s where we are going to experiment with unmanned. That\u2019s where we are going to experiment with new capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gilday acknowledged that his fleet is not optimized today to fight the way it thinks it must to beat China, but that can\u2019t lead the Navy to just throw its hands up, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur fleet is too small, and our capabilities are stacked on too few ships that are too big,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that needs to change over time. [But] we have made significant investments in aircraft carriers and we\u2019re going to have those for a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLook, people don\u2019t give us enough credit for the gray matter between our ears, and there are some very smart people we have thinking about how we fight better. The fleet that we have today, 75 percent of it, will be the fleet we have in 2030 So, we have to think about how we get more out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The CNO\u2019s defense of the carrier comes after two separate op-eds in Defense News by active and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/naval\/2019\/11\/22\/former-4-star-fleet-commanders-dont-give-up-on-carriers\/?utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=Socialflow+DFN\" target=\"_blank\">former senior Navy officials<\/a> defending the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/naval\/2019\/09\/27\/the-us-still-needs-aircraft-carriers\/\" target=\"_blank\">carrier\u2019s continued utility<\/a> in the era of long-range anti-ship missiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"4391\" height=\"3057\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/HST.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-29484\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/HST.jpg.jpg 4391w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/HST.jpg.jpg?resize=300,209 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/HST.jpg.jpg?resize=768,535 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/HST.jpg.jpg?resize=1024,713 1024w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/HST.jpg.jpg?resize=1536,1069 1536w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/HST.jpg.jpg?resize=2048,1426 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 4391px) 100vw, 4391px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An F\/A-18F Super Hornet from the &#8220;Red Rippers&#8221; of Strike Fighter Squadron 11 takes off from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman on Sunday in the Atlantic Ocean.   (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Victoria Sutton\/Navy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>New CONOPs<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The discussion around making the carrier relevant in an anti-access environment is nothing new, but in the past several months the topic has gained traction because of a recent report from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments that called for the Navy to build its capabilities to fight at extended ranges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The study called for the carrier air wing of the future to be able to hunt submarines (serving as a replacement for the S-3 Viking aircraft), provide surveillance and targeting, and destroy ships and land targets with standoff weapons, all while fighting at nearly double the range of today\u2019s air wing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If the Navy wants to counter China\u2019s anti-ship cruise missiles and increasing naval capabilities, it must resurrect the Cold War-era Outer Air Battle concept, which focused on longer-range aircraft to counter Russia\u2019s bombers. However, instead of fighting at 200-plus nautical miles, the air wing will have to fight at 1,000 nautical miles, according to the study\u2019s lead author, retired submarine officer and analyst Bryan Clark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe air wing of the future is going to have to be focused less on attacking terrorist training camps and huts in Syria, and more focused on killing ships and submarines at sea \u2014 dealing with naval capabilities and island-based littoral capabilities,\u201d Clark said in a telephone interview earlier this year. \u201cThose are the challenges: Range and the mission set is changing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In other words, the entire air wing, both the range at which it can fight and the missions it is set up to execute, must be completely overhauled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Clark called for the effort to start with the Navy fully committing to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/naval\/2018\/08\/30\/us-navy-selects-builder-for-new-mq-25-stingray-aerial-refueling-drone\/\" target=\"_blank\">MQ-25 Stingray autonomous refueling drone<\/a>, which when operational will be able to drag the current air wing out to the 1,000-nautical-mile range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Boeing inked an $805 million contract award last year for the first four aircraft, and in September the company announced that the Stingray\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/naval\/2019\/09\/19\/the-us-navys-new-autonomous-refueling-drone-takes-historic-first-flight\/\">prototype had taken its first flight<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Navy can&#8217;t afford to throw up its hands when it come to the vulnerability of aircraft carriers, its new top officer says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":16,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"7":{"categories":["daily-news-roundup","newsletters","your-navy","news"],"primary_category":"your-navy"}}},"categories":[160,16,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3361],"class_list":["post-16149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-naval","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"HS5VN4AIONENZOLT66RD4I2NZQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/naval\/2019\/12\/06\/with-china-gunning-for-aircraft-carriers-the-us-navy-says-it-must-change-the-way-it-fights\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>With China gunning for aircraft carriers, US Navy says it must change how it fights - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The U.S. Navy can&#039;t afford to throw up its hands when it come to the vulnerability of aircraft carriers, its new top officer says.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"With China gunning for aircraft carriers, US Navy says it must change how it fights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The U.S. Navy can&#039;t afford to throw up its hands when it come to the vulnerability of aircraft carriers, its new top officer says.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/naval\/2019\/12\/06\/with-china-gunning-for-aircraft-carriers-the-us-navy-says-it-must-change-the-way-it-fights\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-12-06T15:15:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-07T21:34:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David B. 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