By making a string of similar decisions, naval aviation leadership fostered a two-decade-long Dark Age that denied them some of the best that modern aerospace technology had to offer. The result was the near-mortal wounding of naval aviation as a community in the early 1990's, just at the time that they were being forced to find new roles, new missions, and even new enemies in the post-Cold War world. In an era when military power was becoming more "precision" oriented, naval aviation still valued how well a pilot could deliver a "stick" of unguided iron bombs. As of this writing, it has been over fifteen years since the Navy has taken delivery of a completely new tactical aircraft for fleet use. During that same period, over a half-dozen other major aircraft programs have been canceled or terminated. Desert Storm found the fleet ill-equipped for the first major post-Cold War conflict, and the part it did play was poorly publicized to a world hungry for the high-tech images of LGBs hitting their targets with eye-splitting precision.[43]
Even worse, following the Persian Gulf war, it began to appear that the top leadership of U.S. naval aviation could not even buy the aircraft and weapons they would need to fit into the new "littoral warfare" strategy planned for the 21st century. There was even an attempt by the top leaders of the USAF to replace carrier aviation with a concept called "Virtual Presence." This was the notion that long-range bombers based in the continental U.S. and armed with precision weapons could threaten potential enemies enough that forward-based forces like carrier battle groups would not be necessary.[44] "Virtual presence" was a nice idea, especially if you wanted to justify the purchase of additional B-2A Spirit stealth bombers. Unfortunately, it was completely unrealistic in a world where "presence" really is the sight of a gray-painted USN ship near where a crisis is breaking. Clearly, naval aviation had to "get well" so that it could fulfill its essential task in the national security of the U.S.
All Fall Down: Naval Aviation in the 1980s
Earlier (see the third chapter), we saw how the culture of naval aviators has been forced to deal with changes in the society of the nation they serve. Unfortunately, there was more than just a morale problem to be dealt with. Material problems were also at the heart of the questioning of the credibility of naval aviation by the national leadership. Not that these were new problems-they first started over two decades ago. Naval aviation's downward slide really began back in the 1970s, when the administration of President Jimmy Carter cut off the funds for services to upgrade their equipment, an action that was coupled with an almost complete moratorium on the buying of replacement weapons and spare parts for aircraft. Carriers frequently went on cruises short of airplanes with only partially filled magazines, requiring the "cross-decking" of planes, munitions, and equipment from ships headed home. Naval aviation was being forced to eat its "seed corn" to fulfill the missions it had been assigned. Though the Carter Administration did eventually reverse policy and spend some badly needed funds on procurement for the sea services, by then it was too late. The damage had been done.
The next Administration-that of President Ronald Reagan and his Secretary of the Navy, John Lehman-attempted to rebuild naval aviation in the 1980's. Lehman was a smart, energetic man, with a strong sense of purpose. But he could not instantly do everything that needed to be done, so priorities had to be set. His vision of a "600 Ship Navy," for example, meant that since naval vessels had the longest procurement time, the largest portion of early funds from the huge Reagan-era defense expenditures would have to go into shipbuilding. He did find funds to replenish the weapons and spare parts inventories, however, and within a few years, the existing aircraft fleet was flying and healthy. But the question of how to build the right mix of aircraft in adequate numbers was a problem that would defy even Secretary Lehman's formidable powers of organization, persuasion, and influence. Under his "600 Ship" plan, the numbers of carriers and air wings (CVWs) were to be expanded and updated. An active force of fifteen carriers would be built up, with fourteen active and two reserve CVWs to fill their decks. To provide some "depth" to the force, the reserve CVWs would be given new aircraft, so they would have the same makeup and equipment as the active units.
Unfortunately this plan contained the seeds of a disaster. The basic problem was airframes-or more specifically, the shortage of them. Because of financial constraints, the Navy had not bought enough aircraft in the 1970's to flesh out sixteen CVWs. Furthermore, the sea services were already heavily committed to the replacement of their force of F-4 Phantom fighters and A-7 Corsair II attack jets with the new F/A-18 Hornet. Normally, the Navy tries to stagger such buys, so that only one or two aircraft types are being modernized at any given time. Now, however, Secretary Lehman was faced with buying or updating every aircraft type in the fleet virtually simultaneously. Either way, the cost would be astronomical.
During this same time, the Soviet Union, under the new leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, was not quite the "evil empire" it had been under Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Andropov. Meanwhile, the growing federal budget deficits began to take their toll on the defense budget. At a time when the Navy's budget needed to be increasing, the decline of the Soviet Empire and growing domestic problems at home made a continued arms buildup seem unnecessary, and so the Navy was not able to obtain the funding it needed.
When John Lehman left the Administration in 1986 for a career in the private sector, the budget for procuring new aircraft was already being slashed. Far from building sixteen fully stocked CVWs, the Navy's focus now became building just one new type of aircraft for the 1990s. That one airplane, the A-12 Avenger II, came close to destroying naval aviation. Few people outside the military are aware of the A-12 program. Though not actually a "black" program, the shadow of secrecy that shrouded it was at least charcoal gray.[45] The A-12 was designed to replace the aging fleet of A-6 Intruder all-weather attack bombers, but the exact roots of the aircraft are still something of a mystery, though some details have come to light.
Back in the 1980s, the first major arms reduction accord signed between the Reagan and Gorbachev governments was a controversial agreement known as the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. The INF treaty completely eliminated several whole classes of land-based nuclear weapons, and severely restricted others. Under this agreement, both sides would remove land-based nuclear missiles based in Europe, and aircraft capable of nuclear weapons delivery would be limited and monitored. This was a significant reduction in theater nuclear stockpiles, and at least gave the appearance of a reduced threat of regional conflict. The appearance was not quite the reality, however, because both sides wanted to maintain as large a regional nuclear stockpile as possible. As might be imagined, both sides began looking for loopholes.
U.S. defense planners immediately noticed that sea-based nuclear-capable aircraft and cruise missiles were not counted or monitored under the INF accord-which meant that the existing fleet of A-6's and F/A-18's could immediately provide an interim replacement for the lost nuclear missile fleet. As good as that was, it wasn't good enough. What the nuclear planners really wanted was a carrier aircraft that would hold even the "hardest" targets in the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries "at risk," and that would do it with impunity.
43
While Naval aviators did have some precision weapons such as Paveway II LGBs and the new AGM- 84E Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM), their stockpiles were small, and lacked the capabilities of the newest systems like the Paveway III LGB and GBU-15 electro-optical guided bombs. So rapidly were these stocks used up that the Navy had to borrow a supply of Paveway II LGB kits from the USAF so that they could continue to strike precision targets.
44
The "Virtual Presence" campaign was designed to support additional procurement of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, hopefully with the funds that could be diverted by canceling production of additional aircraft carriers and their aircraft. Saner views took hold, and the production of the B-2 was capped at twenty-one.
45
"Black" procurement programs are designed to be so secret that they are not officially acknowledged in the federal budget. Only a select group of legislators and administrators are allowed to know of these projects, and the clearances required to work on them are above Top Secret.