Aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has carried out live-fire exercises in the South China Sea as part of routine operations by the carrier strike group in the Indo-Pacific, according to the U.S. Navy.
Photographs released by the service show the Nimitz-class carrier firing its Close-In Weapon System during drills conducted on 8 January while underway with the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group. The Navy said the strike group is operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility, where forces conduct regular patrols intended to deter aggression and reinforce alliances.
The U.S. Navy stated that units assigned to 7th Fleet “conduct regular Indo-Pacific patrols to deter aggression, strengthen alliances and partnerships and advance peace through strength.” The live-fire serials formed part of that broader operational posture.
USS Abraham Lincoln is operating alongside embarked Carrier Air Wing 3 and escorted by destroyers USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., USS Spruance and USS Michael Murphy. The carrier strike group has been active in the Philippine Sea since departing Guam in mid-December following a port visit, according to U.S. Navy reporting. Elsewhere in the region, the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli and the attack submarine USS Seawolf are also operating in the Indo-Pacific, contributing to sustained U.S. naval presence during a period when other ships have returned to homeports or conducted holiday port visits.
USS Abraham Lincoln, commissioned in 1989, is one of the U.S. Navy’s Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and can embark around 90 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. The ship is equipped with layered defensive systems including the Phalanx CIWS, Rolling Airframe Missile and Sea Sparrow to protect against air and missile threats.
90 aircraft, layered air defence and not a word on FOD damage. Hmm.
British carriers are a tad underarmed, it might seem.
Cue the experts…
Couldn’t agree more! Charles de Gaulle has Aster 15 – why can’t our carriers?? Simple – no money….
The Aster 15 on the Charles de Gaulle are over the top, no carrier needs to have Meduim range AAW missile if it has escorts…what it should have is a good inner ( short and very short range ) range AAW capability so that’s within 10nm that can be gun or missile or both as long as it’s our to short range and also has a very short range ( CIWS) capability.. personally I never understand why the RN did not settle on the superrapid 76mm with dart munition.. a very good gun with local radar direction that is effectively out to the 8-10km band ( a dart round has about an 8o percent hit rate on fast moving high g targets).
Ha ha, not that old chestnut again !
Should have had Sampson, Sea Ceptor, Cat’s and Traps, Nuclear power, Angled Deck, Sea Typhoons so on and so forth ! 😁
Would have loved tempest going off the carriers aswell 👀
No, I think there’s space for 15” guns as well!
But they’re only 15″ big!! 😛
I do wonder how long it will be viable for the US to keep 2 carriers deployed in exposed positions.. it I suppose really depends on if the U.S. can hold a line of deterrent.. because if it looks like the deterrent will fail then those two carriers become an opportunity to kill 33% of the USNs deployable carrier force.. because the reality is if it kicked off a single carrier battle group isolated in the first island chain will be nothing more that a target to overwhelm before it can run away.. and run away it will have to do, because the USN could no fight gain sea control in the first island chain and have a chance of winning without its full six carrier battle groups that it could deploy.