Expert: Rod Powers - 12/15/2006

Question
I'm writing a book centered around a carrier group (the Theodore Roosevelt, to be specific, which is serving with the Fifth Fleet in the story), and I'm stunned at how hard it's been to find some answers to what I thought were simple questions. If I can pack three questions into one mail, here are some important to the book that I haven't yet been able to dig up:

(1) If there is a declaration of war, who is the TR most likely to hear it from? CINCLANT, NAVCENT, COMFIFTHFLEET...or someone else?

(2) When one carrier group relieves another--that is, in the story the TR is being relieved by the Reagan and the former will steam back to Norfolk--what (if any) procedure would they use for one to officially replace the other?

(3) I know about the Fox One, etc., announcements for air-to-air missile launches from a fighter, but is there a similar announcement made when a jet launches an anti-ship missile like a Harpoon?

Thank you very much!

Answer
Hi Danny,

(1) If there is a declaration of war, who is the TR most likely to hear it from? CINCLANT, NAVCENT, COMFIFTHFLEET...or someone else?

Welcome to the age of modern electronics. If there was a declination of war, the TR would most likely recieve messages from all levels of commands.

However, they would take their orders from their immediate superior command (in this case, COMFIFTHFLEET).

2) When one carrier group relieves another--that is, in the story the TR is being relieved by the Reagan and the former will steam back to Norfolk--what (if any) procedure would they use for one to officially replace the other?

The former would not return until ordered by their superior command. And -- that might not happen, if the command determined that they were still needed (this would be especially true if an actual war was declared -- in such cases, it would be unlikely that they would be ordered to return to their home port.

3) I know about the Fox One, etc., announcements for air-to-air missile launches from a fighter, but is there a similar announcement made when a jet launches an anti-ship missile like a Harpoon?

No. The calls are made to tell allied aircraft that an air-to-air missile has been launched (so they don't get confused and [1] think the missile is launched against them, or [2] launch their own air-to-air missile against the same target.

Fox one signifies the launch of a semi-active RADAR-guided air-to-air missile

Fox two indicates that an IR-guided missile has been launched.

Fox three signifies that an active RADAR-guided missile has been launched.

For ground targets (or ships) there isn't any such need, as (1) the other aircraft won't confuse the launch with threats against their own aircraft, and (2) such launches are generally pre-planned against specific targets. In other words, the aircraft are launching against targets which were pre-briefed.

For more information about the United States Military, feel free to visit my Military information website at: http://usmilitary.about.com

Hope this helps!

Rod Powers
http://usmilitary.about.com