The US Second Fleet remains set to achieve full operational capability (FOC) in 2019, reaching this milestone by the end of December, Second Fleet commander Vice Admiral Andrew Lewis told Jane’s .
The US Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman and elements of its carrier strike group (CSG) are pictured during the CSG’s recent COMPTUEX. COMPTUEX processes have helped the US Second Fleet achieve FOC by building force generation capacity. (US Navy)
The Norfolk, Virginia-based Second Fleet was formally re-established on 24 August 2018. It reached initial operational capability (IOC) in May 2019, before commanding its first exercise – ‘BALTOPS’, in the Baltic Sea in June – as a major milestone in its operational command validation process.
“We have the capability now; it’s just a [question] of capacity,” Vice Adm Lewis told Jane’s .
Several milestones in the process will be achieved in the coming months. “One is operating as an expeditionary forward headquarters [HQ] with a ‘reach-back’,” he said. This means part of the fleet’s HQ remaining in Norfolk or elsewhere on the US east coast, with the expeditionary part forward deployed with required command-and-control (C2) capability but having “an ability to reach back to that rear HQ for planning or more detailed intelligence that we have access to inside the HQ”.
Looking to read the full article?
Gain unlimited access to Janes news and more...
