A Carrier Air Wing (abbreviated CVW) is an operational naval aviation organization composed of several aircraft squadrons and detachments of various types of fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft. Organized, equipped and trained to conduct modern US Navy carrier air operations while embarked aboard aircraft carriers, the various squadrons in an air wing have different, complementary (and sometimes overlapping) missions, and provide most of the striking power and electronic warfare capabilities of a carrier battle group (CVBG). While the CVBG term is still used by other nations, the CVBG in US parlance in now known as a carrier strike group (CSG).
Until 1963, Carrier air wings were known as Carrier Air Groups (CAGs). Carrier air wings are what the United States Air Force would call “composite” wings, and should not be confused with Navy Type Wings (such as Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic), which are primarily administrative commands composed of squadrons of the same type of carrier-based aircraft. Carrier air wings integrate closely with their assigned aircraft carriers, forming a "carrier/air wing team" that trains and deploys together. There are currently ten U.S. Navy air wings, five based at NAS Oceana, Virginia, four based at NAS Lemoore, California, and one forward deployed to NAF Atsugi, Japan. These air wings are occasionally reassigned to different aircraft carriers based on carrier maintenance schedules. A modern air wing consists of roughly 2,500 personnel and 60–65 aircraft.
Read more about Carrier Air Wing: Origins, World War II, Korea and Cold War, Vietnam, 1983 Invasion of Grenada, 1991 Gulf War, 2003 Iraq War, Organization, Active Carrier Air Wings / Identification, Anticipated Air Wing in 2020
Famous quotes containing the words carrier, air and/or wing:
“When toddlers are unable to speak about urgent matters, they must resort to crying or screaming. This happens even with adults. The voice is the carrier of emotion, and when speech fails us, we need to cry out in whatever form we can to convey our meaning. Often, what passes for negativism is really the toddler’s desperate effort to make herself understood.”
—Alicia F. Lieberman (20th century)
“subtle birds
Wheel and go,leaving air in shreds
black beaks shine in gray haze.
Brushed by the hawk’s wing
of vision.”
—Gary Snyder (b. 1930)
“I come to one bush of berries so ripe it is a bush of flies,
Hanging their bluegreen bellies and their wing panes in a Chinese
screen.
The honey-feast of the berries has stunned them; they believe in
heaven.”
—Sylvia Plath (1932–1963)