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Kearsarge Expeditionary Strike Group Completes Exercise

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS050128-11
Release Date: 1/28/2005 4:17:00 PM
 

By Lt. Bill Urban, USS Kearsarge Strike Group Public Affairs

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- The USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) returned to port in Norfolk, Va., Jan. 28 after successfully completing its Expeditionary Strike Group Exercise (ESGEX) off the eastern coast of the United States.

ESGEX is a strenuous series of complex and coordinated training events that are evaluated to ensure that the Kearsarge Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) is ready to deploy. The goal is to forge the commands of the Kearsarge ESG into a cohesive fighting team while demonstrating their readiness to go to sea in support of the global war on terrorism.

"I am extremely pleased with how well we were able to execute in all warfare areas and to seamlessly integrate the Navy and Marine Corps team," said Capt. Edward Barfield, commander, Kearsarge ESG. "I am confident in our ability to deploy right now if we are called."

Although the Navy and Marine Corps teams cooperated throughout, the exercise was split in two distinct phases. In the beginning of the exercise, the Marine Corps element focused on supporting primarily Navy-centric missions. These missions ranged from strait transits and simulated Tomahawk cruise missile strikes, to defending the force from simulated submarine, air and small boat attacks.

The second phase focused the Navy on supporting the Marine-centric missions while continuing to maintain a strong defensive posture. The Marine missions included simulated humanitarian assistance operations, non-combatant evacuation operations, and air and motorized raids against suspected terrorist operations.

With the ESG concept still relatively new, the exercise depended a great deal on the lessons learned from the previous strike groups that went before it. One of the biggest successes of this ESGEX was the focus on integration between the Navy and Marine Corps teams.

"I was pleased with how well we integrated the Marines into our planning processes for every day of the exercise," said Cmdr. Paul McElroy, Kearsarge ESG operations officer. "According to our evaluators, it was better than they had seen in an ESG to date."

Although the exercise was extremely successful, it was also extremely challenging. "On the Navy side, this is really our most comprehensive and dynamic graduate-level training exercise before we deploy," said Barfield.

Ensuring the right assets were applied to all the priority missions was a major emphasis of the ESGEX.

"I think our greatest challenge was balancing the requirements of the Navy missions with the requirements of the Marine Corps missions, and prioritizing our assets to support those missions," said McElroy.

Commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet, Commander, Amphibious Group 2 and the Marine Corps Special Operations Training Group evaluated the performance and readiness of the Kearsarge Strike Group and the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) staffs during the ESGEX. They were impressed with how effectively commands in the strike group integrated with each other to react to the ever-changing threats.

The ESG concept is centered on the proven flexibility and combat power of a combined amphibious readiness group and MEU. The ESG adds the robust strike, anti-air, anti-surface, and anti-subsurface capabilities of a cruiser, a destroyer, a frigate and an attack submarine. These combined capabilities give the combatant commander a wider variety of options and enables sustained independent operations in more dynamic environments.

The Kearsarge ESG is composed of Kearsarge, the amphibious transport dock USS Ponce (LPD 15), the dock landing ship USS Ashland (LSD 48), the cruiser USS Normandy (CG 60), the guided-missile destroyer USS Gonzalez (DDG 66), the guided-missile frigate USS Kauffman (FFG 59), the fast-attack submarine USS Scranton (SSN 756) and the 26th MEU. The 26th MEU, primarily based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., is composed of Battalion Landing Team, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines; Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 162 (Reinforced) and MEU Service Support Group 26.

The guided-missile frigate USS Hawes (FFG 53) joined the Kearsarge ESG to participate in ESGEX, but is not normally attached to the group.