Battle-Tested: Carrier Aviation in Afghanistan and Iraq

So said eminent naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison in 1963. On September 11, 2001 America’s liberty was under threat once more…and the carriers deploying to the North Arabian Gulf were about to face a whole new test of battle in the global war on terror.

Afghanistan’s air war demanded that the carriers excel at new criteria: persistence, precise strike coordination with ground controllers, complex retargeting, and day and night coverage of a wide open country, with divert bases hundreds of miles away and rescue and repatriation far from certain. Not for decades had the carrier force been so central to the joint campaign…

Here is the lively story of how carrier aviation forged new operational standards in Afghanistan and massed again to deliver sophisticated striking power for the war with Iraq. Told from the perspectives of aviators and admirals alike, Battle-Tested: Carrier Aviation in Afghanistan and Iraq adds a fresh chapter to the illustrious history of the world’s most powerful warships – and stakes out their operational relevance to the ongoing challenges of the 21st Century.