The modem U.S. Navy has been built around the aircraft carrier. That ship, with its battle group of surface ships and submarines and its resupply vessels, has been the major tool for projecting power ashore and controlling the seas during wartime. In peacetime, the carrier battle group has been used to remind national leaders of U.S. power through its presence in areas of tension. Such presence, according to its proponents, has deterred aggression, reassured allies, and allowed a more rapid response to regional crises than if carriers had sailed from the United States. The average aircraft carrier, however, spends less than a quarter of its life providing presence--that is, being 'on-station'--in overseas theaters. The main constraint on getting more presence out of each carrier is that the Navy limits the amount of time sailors spend at sea. In an environment in which demands for overseas presence are high and financial constraints are great, the Navy may want to get more out of the forces it is paying for. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) examined several alternatives to improve the efficiency of carrier operations. They range from altering carrier deployment cycles to establishing an overseas home port for a carrier on the Mediterranean Sea.

The authors assess several one- and two-deployment cycles, assuming a deployment length of six months and a time-between-deployments length equal to twice the duration of the previous deployment. Among many findings, RAND concludes that shorter cycles can increase the forward presence of the carrier fleet and help level shipyard workloads. Longer, two-deployment cycles can increase forward presence, but may result in shipyard workload complications and deferred-work backlogs."--BOOK JACKET.

The U.S. Navy currently maintains a fleet of 11 aircraft carriers. These ships, which are among the most powerful and versatile elements of U.S. naval forces, allow the Navy to undertake a wide range of tasks. They are also among the most complex weapon systems operated by the Navy. The carriers themselves need continuous and regularly scheduled maintenance. Their crews require a great deal of training to attain and sustain readiness levels. The length of the training, readiness, deployment, and maintenance cycle (defined as the period from the end of one depot maintenance period to the end of the next), the type of maintenance needed (i.e., docking or non-docking), and the timing of events within the cycle affect the carrier's availability to meet operational needs.

Prepared for the Subcommittee on Sea Power of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services. Addresses the question of how much money the U.S. Department of the Navy needs to sustain its current force of about 300 ships and 3,500 aircraft. Examines the Navy's missions, its modernization plans, and the budgetary implications of supporting the service's current and planned fleets through 2020. It also looks at four alternative force structures that the Navy might be able to sustain at roughly its current funding level of $90 billion (adjusted for inflation). Charts and tables.