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Expeditionary Strike Force

Concepts under development such as the Expeditionary Strike Force facilitate the broad application of Sea Strike capabilities by reallocating a portion of the rapidly growing Navy strike capability to complement and support the strike capability of Marines embarked on amphibious ships. These new packages of surface combatants, submarines and Marine forces, called Expeditionary Strike Groups, will complement Carrier Strike Groups and double the number of places where naval forces can deliver and sustain effective striking power.

The Marine Corps is cooperating with the Navy in a series of experiments that are exploring the Expeditionary Strike Group and Expeditionary Strike Force concepts. The ESG concept will combine the capabilities of surface action groups, submarines, and maritime patrol aircraft with those of Amphibious Ready Groups and Marine Expeditionary Units (Special Operations Capable) [MEU (SOC)s] to provide greater combat capabilities to theater combatant commanders.

Expanding on the ESG, the Expeditionary Strike Force integrates the Carrier Strike Group, the Expeditionary Strike Group, and the sea-basing functions provided by the Maritime Prepositioning Force (Future) to provide an even more potent capability.

In 2003, the Navy-Marine Corps team conducted a pilot deployment on the West Coast to test the ESG concept. Navy combatants had already been incorporated within the existing training and deployment cycles of an Amphibious Ready Group. In addition, this experiment allowed the testing of different command-and-control arrangements for the ESG. This experiment allowed the Naval Services to analyze the impact of the ESG model during the work up, deployment, and employment phases. It provided critical information to support the future implementation of the concept and highlight changes that were required in service doctrine, organization, training, material, leadership and education, personnel, and facilities.

SEA STRIKE focuses on the offensive. It uses both lethal and non-lethal effects to attack key enemy targets. It involves not only strike aircraft and cruise missiles, but also Marines, information operations, Special Operations Forces, and the joint strike capabilities of the Army and Air Force - as well as the offensive punch of American allies, coalition partners, and friends.

SEA STRIKE is a vision of what the Navy will become as well as the focus of its capability today. It is about far more than putting bombs on target, although the delivery of ordnance remains a critical function. At its heart, SEA STRIKE is a broad concept for naval power projection that leverages C5ISR (command, control, communications, computers, combat systems, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance), precision, stealth, information, and joint strike together. It amplifies effects-based striking power through enhanced operational tempo and distant reach. It takes U.S. power to the enemy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, creating shock and awe both immediately and persistently. SEA STRIKE is what it takes to win in the 21st century.

This will be done by implementing the Expeditionary Strike Force concept. Made up of carrier strike groups (CSG) and expeditionary strike groups (ESG) - augmented by strike surface action groups and SSGNs - these forces will be crucial to striking from the sea. SEA STRIKE forces will enable naval assets, working with the other U.S. armed services, allies, and coalition partners, to meet the challenge of distributed strike efficiently, effectively, and decisively. By taking a modular approach to combatant force composition and employment, these flexible and scaleable force combinations will capitalize on the synergies generated by their complementary capabilities. Lethality will be increased and greater efficiencies achieved. In addition, these combinations of submarines, ships, aircraft, and ground forces with embedded information operations capabilities, specifically tailored to various threats and missions, give the combatant commanders greater on-station options across the theater.

The CVN 21 program is designing the aircraft carrier for the 21st Century, as the replacement for the NIMITZ Class nuclear aircraft carriers. CVN 21 will be the centerpiece of tomorrow's Carrier Strike Groups and a contributor to the future Expeditionary Strike Force, as envisioned in Sea Power 21.

The Expeditionary Strike Group [ESG] and Expeditionary Strike Force are the primary responses to the international terrorism threat. In response to the Global War on Terrorism, the Navy came up with a 4-2-1-1 plan: four areas of the world constantly covered by a disbursed strike capability; two areas of the world, the Navy could react quickly to swiftly defeat the effort; one area of the world, the Navy could defeat easily, and the final one is homeland defense. This could not be reasonably asked of the existing Carrier Strike Groups. The Chief of Naval Operations and the Commandant of the Marine Corps devised the ESG concept.

The Expeditionary Strike Group Forward Deployed Naval Force (ESG-FDNF), who in 2003 marked the first ESG deployment in the Navy, continued their work to "smooth out the edges" of the Navy and Marine Corps' transformation into the ESG concept during an Expeditionary Strike Group Exercise March 12 to 17, 2004. One of the steps the ESG-FDNF took to strengthen the ESG concept was join the Kitty Hawk Carrier Strike Group during the exercise to form the Expeditionary Strike Force-FDNF. Though this concept of total sea dominance was tested in the Gulf during Operation Iraqi Freedom, this was the first time it was tested in the Pacific Fleet.

The first time three carrier strike groups operated together under one umbrella was during Joint Task Force Exercise (JTFEX) 06-2 "Operation Bold Step." With more than 16,000 service members and 13 ships, the exercise, conducted July 21-31, 2006, closely replicated operations that military forces routinely perform around the world. JTFEX 06-2 served as the forward-certifying event for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group (IKE CSG) and sustainment training for units from the Theodore Roosevelt CSG (TR CSG) and Bataan Expeditionary Strike Group (BAT ESG). U.S. and coalition naval assets underway for the exercise included the Second Fleet flagship, USS Wasp (LHD-1), with embarked Second Fleet distributed staff, the aircraft carriers, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) and USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), with associated units, and units from the USS Bataan Expeditionary Strike Group. The exercise was challenging for the the command, control, communications, computers, combat systems and information (C5I) organization because this was the first time that the expeditionary strike force had come together in an environment like this. C5I had never operated with three strike groups under one umbrella.