US Navy: Naval Aviation Doctrine: Introduction to Naval Aviation, 1946 - The Task Force

INTRODUCTION TO NAVAL AVIATION  - RESTRICTED - ISSUED BY AVIATION TRAINING DIVISION OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS U. S. NAVY. * JANUARY 1946 * OPNAV 33-NY-85; Chapter IX. Tactics and Flight Operations.

2. THE TASK FORCE

The coordination of tactical procedures on an over-all scale as it governs Fleet carrier air forces is perhaps best exemplified by the carrier task force.

First used in Fleet maneuvers by the United States Navy many years before World War II, this fast, heavy-hitting tactical unit reached its optimum development in the Pacific, where it gave tactical mobility and fire power a new meaning in sea-air warfare. Through its use the aircraft carrier became a capital ship. The carrier task force itself, in terms of Fleet power, became a major naval force.

Task Force Organization

The task force is temporary, or at most semi-permanent. It is a combination of surface units organized for a specific battle task and is separate and distinct from the permanent command organization of the Fleet.

The United States Fleet is divided into numbered fleets; these fleets, for tactical organization and command, are divided into task forces and the forces in turn into task groups. The various ship units of an entire fleet might be resolved into a task force for a particular action. When the action is completed, however, the task force is dissolved and the component units revert to their permanent fleet assignment. Thus, for example, the Fifth Fleet might be resolved upon command into a task force or task forces to conduct a planned operation. Upon conclusion of the operation, the task force would be dissolved and its ships revert to Fifth Fleet command.

A large task force is divided into groups, each group under separate tactical command and organized to operate alone, if required, with its own carriers, heavy ships, and screen. Each group may then be assigned a specific mission, with the task group commander responsible to the task force commander for the performance of his assignment. The group commander in turn may designate various units of his group for specific tasks necessary to the group mission.

Task forces, groups, and units are designated by numerals. For example, Task Unit One of Task Group Two of Task Force Fifty-eight would be designated 58.2.1; comparable designations would apply to all other groups and units in the task force.

Carrier task group

The tactical organization of a normal carrier task force consists of carriers, battleships, cruisers, and destroyers. The normal cruising disposition of such a force is by task groups. Carriers and capital ships of the line are assigned the center of the group disposition for protection, with light and heavy cruisers flanking them and destroyers deployed as a screen on the perimeter of the formation. A train normally would be expected to rendezvous for fueling and supply at predetermined positions. Submarines may operate in conjunction with a carrier force mainly for scouting and air-sea rescue.

Taking on supplies at sea

Carrier task groups ordinarily remain tactically concentrated for mutual support and rapid communications, yet with sufficient searoom to maneuver so as to permit carrier flight operations. A certain amount of independent maneuvering within the screen may be necessary by carriers for turning into the wind to launch and recover aircraft; however, task force tactics provide adequate screening protection for carrier units at all times.

Combat Flight Operations

Routine flight operations are carried on by carriers under most conditions at sea. These consist of regular patrols and searches. When in combat zones, the most important flight routines are the combat air patrols (C AP) and search patrols; the CAP is particularly important at dawn and twilight when conditions for attack are most favorable.

Offensive air action is undertaken according to the operations plan prepared for the projected action, with each carrier air group assigned specific missions at the target.

To implement the over-all operations plan, an operations schedule is prepared by each group and in turn by each carrier. The carrier schedule takes the form of an Air Department "plan of the day," which schedules all flights and stipulates their specific duties and formations.

"Stand by to launch planes"

Coordination and planning are essential to a proper division of the work and orderly functioning of the entire force. The degree of timing necessary to a combat strike is demonstrated by a typical plan of the day for one carrier, which may be designated as  - Carrier "W" in a four-carrier group. Such a plan might read:

0100 Reveille for Air Department. 0130 Catapult night fighters. 3VF (N). 0500 Flight quarters for pilots and aircrewmen.

0600 Launch Flight One, fighter strike of 12 VF. Launch Flight Two, mining group No. 1 of 3 VT and 1 VF escort. Launch Flight Three. bombing strike No. 1 of 12 VB, 9 VT and 8 VF. (Carriers X, Y. and Z also launching mining and bombing flights. while Carrier Z also launches CAP for entire group.)

0800 Launch Flight Four, target air observer (Air Group Commander) and 3 VF. Launch Flight Five, bombing strike No. 2. (Carriers X. Y. Z also launch various flights.)

0900 Recover Flights One. Two and Three.

1100 Launch Flight Six, bombing strike No. 3.

1130 Recover Flight Five.

1200 Recover Flight Four. (Carrier X relieves Carrier Y on CAP and ASP.) (Carrier Z launches target observer.)

1300 Launch Flight Seven, photographic mission No. 1. Launch Flight Eight, bombing strike No. 4. Fighters scrambled under attack (Carriers X, Y, and Z launch photo and bombing missions.)

1330 Recover Flight Six. (Carrier Y launches target air observer.)

1500 Launch Flight Nine, mining group No. 2. Launch Flight Ten, bombing strike No. 5. Launch Flight Eleven, photo-graphic mission No. 2. (Carriers X, Y. Z similarly launch and recover.)

1530 Recover Flight Seven and Eight.

1700 Launch Flight Twelve, bombing strike No. 6.

1800 Recover Flights Nine and Ten. 1900 Recover Flights Eleven and Twelve. (Carriers X and Y recover CAP and ASP.)

2000 Night catapult watch set; flight quarters for night fighters.

Such a day's operation in all probability represents some 230 individual sorties during the dozen launchings and recoveries. As one carrier operation, it also is duplicated by all carriers of the group, and the group operation in turn is typical of all the various groups of the force.

The various tactical missions performed in such an operation might be expected to include:

1. Fighter sweeps against aerial defense

2. Strafing of AA ground installations

3. Torpedo attacks on shipping

4. Bombing attacks on shipping and ground installations

3. Rocket attacks

6. Mine-laying in harbors and channels

7. Photographic reconnaissance

8. CAP over the fleet and search of sur-rounding waters

9. Night fighter patrol

Fighters Scrambled under attack

In the case of an operation of this type, air-sea rescue plans would also be put into effect, utilizing VO/VS aircraft from cruisers and battleships and "lifeguard" submarines and destroyers. Destroyers assigned to lifeguard duty customarily would operate in the immediate vicinity of the fleet, with air and subsurface units assigned according to prearranged plans for expeditious rescue of pilots and aircrews.

Furthermore, if the operation was part of an amphibious landing plan, to the previously listed missions would also be added the complicated tactical mission of support aircraft for invading ground forces.

The task force operation demonstrates the high degree of coordination necessary among the many tactical components of a carrier task force action. It also serves to demonstrate the requirements for uniform tactical practices, and to illustrate how naval air operations depend upon a wide range of basic procedures which must be presumed whenever aircraft are disposed in action.