The Navy's Multimission Carrier Airwing--Can the Mission Be Accomplished with Fewer Resources?

Gao ID: LCD-77-409 September 12, 1977

In response to budget constraints, the Navy reduced the number of aircraft carriers from 24 in the mid-1960's to 13 today. While the carriers today are fewer in number, they have more sophisticated weapon systems and other technological advances which partly offset the numerical difference. This technology upgrading is a continuous process and can be illustrated by the introduction of F-14 aircraft, which replaced the F-4's.

To cope with the reduction in carriers and to satisfy their mission requirements, the Navy combined the formerly separate attack and antisubmarine capabilities onto single carrier decks, thereby making carrier airwings multimission in nature.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: No director on record Team: No team on record Phone: No phone on record


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.