HST Strike Group Conducts Group Sail

UNITED STATES

10.23.2017

Story by Petty Officer 1st Class Travis Kuykendall 

USS Harry S Truman

“The group sail is indispensable to building teamwork,” said Commander, Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 8, Rear Adm. Gene Black. “It’s a bunch of teams that have to come together, work together and be synchronized to get fully combat capable.”
Along with USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), CSG-8 consists of seven ships from Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 28, USS Normandy (CG 60) and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 1.
“When you put all those pieces together, you have a formidable weapon system that can go anywhere in international waters on the face of this Earth, with tremendous combat power and influence events as directed by the President and Secretary of Defense,” said Black.
While Truman was being evaluated for Tailored Shipboard Test Availability and Final Evaluation Problem (TSTA/FEP), other ships in the strike group were operating in close proximity, using the time to act out real-world situations that they encounter during future operations.
DESRON 28 Commodore, Capt. Kevin Kennedy, described the evolutions as air defense exercises, submarine warfare exercises, as well as practiced movements through choke points—like the Strait of Gibraltar or the Strait of Hormuz—which may be required while on deployment.
“We’ve really just practiced the full range of operating capabilities of a naval force while we’ve been out here the last two weeks,” said Kennedy.
A destroyer squadron is a group of small surface combatants that screen, and escort, an aircraft carrier. Their mission is to ultimately protect the carrier by organizing the smaller ships, referred to as “small boys”, to form a screen around the aircraft carrier to keep it safe from surface and sub-surface threats they could encounter.
“We’ve been organizing a lot of water space in order for our ships to be able to conduct exercises,” explained Sonar Technician (Surface) 1st Class Michael Ross, a DESRON 28 Sailor. “We’ve been [simulating the] tracking [of] exercise threat contacts…getting used to going after sub-surface contacts and working in a strike group environment vice just a single unit environment.”
“It’s a good experience for them to work together and get used to having DESRON help direct the ships to fight the big-picture problem,” added Ross.
The group sail is the first time since July 2016 that the ships under DESRON 28 have operated in an integrated environment, said Kennedy. Referring to the beginning of the underway period as “being a little bit like kids playing soccer,” Kennedy added. “It [now] seems we’re really coming around to a well-oiled warfighting machine for going into [composite training unit exercise].”
Kennedy pointed to a highlight moment when the group had an effective, skill-building exercise where the surface combatants were combined with the air wing to find, fix, track, target and engage an opposing force—acted by another U.S. ship, the USS Gravely (DDG 107).
“The purpose is to train and identify the seams between different units to make a strike group,” added Kennedy. “We’ve been very successful identifying those seams and reduce the seams between units so that we are a fighting force.”
Truman has successfully completed Tailored Shipboard Training Availability and Final Evaluation Problem (TSTA/FEP) and is preparing for future operations. For more news from USS Harry S. Truman, visit http://www.facebook.com/usstruman.

• Date Taken: 10.23.2017
• Date Posted: 01.29.2018 17:34
• Story ID: 263757
• Location: US