Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: What are the fleets of the US Navy?
The United States Navy has seven active numbered fleets – Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh Fleet and Tenth Fleets are each led by a vice admiral, and the Fourth Fleet is led by a rear admiral. These seven fleets are further grouped under Fleet Forces Command (the former Atlantic Fleet), Pacific Fleet, Naval Forces Europe-Africa, and Naval Forces Central Command, whose commander also doubles as Commander Fifth Fleet; the first three commands being led by four-star admirals. The United States First Fleet existed after the Second World War from 1947, but it was redesignated the Third Fleet in early 1973. The United States Second Fleet was deactivated in September 2011, but reestablished in August 2018 amid heightened tensions with Russia. It is headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, with responsibility over the East Coast and North Atlantic. In early 2008, the navy reactivated the United States Fourth Fleet to control operations in the area controlled by Southern Command, which consists of US assets in and around Central and South America.
There are currently three shipyards on San Diego Bay, National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO), Continental Maritime of San Diego (Huntington Ingalls), and Southwest Marine (BAE Systems). NASSCO is the largest new-construction shipyard on the west coast of the United States; "specializing in auxiliary and support ships for the U.S. Navy and oil tankers and dry cargo carriers for commercial markets."
In his planning for how the war in the Pacific would be fought and won, Admiral Chester Nimitz knew the manufacturing might of the United States would eventually supply him with a force large enough to overcome the forces of the Empire of Japan. He referred to this future force as the 'Big Blue Fleet'. To make it effective at projecting its power, he would need to devise a way to keep it supplied and in fighting condition. The ongoing resupply of a large naval force across the vast expanse of the Pacific would require the US Navy to perform something no navy had ever accomplished before.
The United States Naval Academy was founded in 1845 on the site of Fort Severn, and now occupies an area of land reclaimed from the Severn River next to the Chesapeake Bay. The Annapolis area was the home of a VLF-transmitter called NSS Annapolis, which was used by the United States Navy to communicate with its Atlantic submarine fleet. Students that attend the Naval Academy are enrolled in school for four years with a following five year commitment to serving in the Marine Corps or Navy. There is a typical average of around 4,500 students enrolled.
The , JMSDF, also referred to as the Japanese Navy, is the maritime warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. It is the "de facto" navy of Japan and was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) after World War II. The JMSDF has a fleet of 154 ships and 346 aircraft and consists of approximately 45,800 personnel. Its main tasks are to maintain control of the nation's sea lanes and to patrol territorial waters. It also participates in UN-led peacekeeping operations (PKOs) and Maritime Interdiction Operations (MIOs).
Naval Station Norfolk, is a United States Navy base in Norfolk, Virginia. It supports naval forces in the United States Fleet Forces Command, those operating in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and the Indian Ocean. The installation occupies about of waterfront space and of pier and wharf space of the Hampton Roads peninsula known as Sewell's Point. It is the world's largest naval station, with the largest concentration of U.S. Navy forces through 75 ships alongside 14 piers and with 134 aircraft and 11 aircraft hangars at the adjacently operated Chambers Field and Port Services controls more than 3,100 ships' movements annually as they arrive and depart their berths.
The United States Navy currently operates boot camp at Recruit Training Command Great Lakes, located at Naval Station Great Lakes, near North Chicago, Illinois. Instead of having Drill Sergeants or Drill Instructors like other branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, the U.S. Navy has RDCs (Recruit Division Commanders) that are assigned to each division. Training lasts approximately eight weeks (although some recruits will spend as many as nine weeks in training due to the somewhat complicated processing cycle). Days are counted by a system that lists the week and day that they are on, for example, 7-3 for week 7 day 3. The first approximate week is counted P-1, P-2, etc. which denotes that it is a processing day and does not count as part of their 8-week training period. Recruits are instructed on military drill, basic seamanship, basic shipboard damage control, firefighting, familiarization with the M9 pistol and Mossberg 500 shotgun (the Navy no longer gives instruction on the M16 in boot camp), pass the confidence chamber (tear-gas-filled chamber), PT, and the basic essentials on Navy life. Recruits also attend many classes throughout boot camp on subjects such as Equal Opportunity, Sexual Assault Victim Intervention, Uniform Code of Military Justice, recognition of naval aircraft and vessels, and more. In order for recruits to pass boot camp, they are physically and mentally tested on a 12-hour exercise called Battle Stations which consists of 12 different scenarios involving firefighting, first-aid knowledge, survival at sea, mass casualties, shipboard flood control, bomb detection, and many other skills that they have been learning in the previous 7 weeks. After completion of boot camp, freshly minted Sailors are sent either to various "A" Schools located across the United States—where they begin training to receive their ratings (jobs)—or to apprenticeship training, where they then enter the fleet without a designation.
After the war, the Japanese Empire immediately turned its focus to the two remaining rivals for imperial dominance in the Pacific Ocean: Britain and the United States. Satō Tetsutarō, an IJN admiral and military theorist, speculated that conflict would inevitably arise between Japan and at least one of its two main rivals. To that end, he called for the IJN to maintain a fleet with at least 70% as many capital ships as the US Navy. This ratio, Satō theorized, would enable the Imperial Japanese Navy to defeat the US Navy in one major battle in Japanese waters in any eventual conflict. Accordingly, the 1907 Imperial Defense Policy called for the construction of a battle fleet of eight modern battleships, each, and eight modern armored cruisers, each. This was the genesis of the Eight-Eight Fleet Program, the development of a cohesive battle line of sixteen capital ships.
Naval Support Activity Naples (NSA Naples) is a United States Navy military complex, located at Naples Airport in Capodichino, Naples, Italy. It is under Italian military control and can be managed anytime by Italian authorities. It is home to U.S. Naval Forces Europe and the U.S. Sixth Fleet.
In 1940, Admiral William Halsey recommended construction of naval auxiliaries for pilot training. In early 1941 the British asked the US to build on their behalf six carriers of an improved "Audacity" design but the US had already begun their own escort carrier. On 1 February 1941, the United States Chief of Naval Operations gave priority to construction of naval auxiliaries for aircraft transport. U.S. ships built to meet these needs were initially referred to as auxiliary aircraft escort vessels (AVG) in February 1942 and then auxiliary aircraft carrier (ACV) on 5 August 1942. The first U.S. example of the type was . Operation Torch and North Atlantic anti-submarine warfare proved these ships capable aircraft carriers for ship formations moving at the speed of trade or amphibious invasion convoys. U.S. classification revision to escort aircraft carrier (CVE) on 15 July 1943 reflected upgraded status from auxiliary to combatant. They were informally known as "Jeep carriers" or "baby flattops". It was quickly found that the escort carriers had better performance than light carriers, which tended to pitch badly in moderate to high seas. The "Commencement Bay" class was designed to incorporate the best features of American CVLs on a more stable hull with a less expensive propulsion system.
The Imperial Japanese Navy's doctrine of fleet warfare ("guerre d'escadre") resulted in its submarines seldom posing a threat to allied merchant convoys and shipping lanes to the degree that the Kriegsmarine's U-boats did as they pursued commerce raiding against Allied and neutral merchant ships. During the war, IJN submarines did sink about 1 million tons (GRT) of merchant shipping (184 ships) in the Pacific; by contrast U.S. Navy submarines sank 5.2 million tons (1,314 ships) in the same period, while U-boats of Nazi Germany's "Kriegsmarine", the IJN's Axis partner, sank 14.3 million tons (2,840 ships) in the Atlantic and other oceans. During the last two years of the War in the Pacific, many IJN submarines were also occupied serving to transport supplies to isolated island garrisons, ones that had been deliberately bypassed by the Americans and the Australians and which could not be reached by surface transports because of blockade by Allied warplanes and naval vessels.
With the conclusion of World War I and the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty, the size of the Imperial Japanese Navy was significantly lessened, with a ratio of 5:5:3 required between the capital ships of the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan. The treaty also banned Japan from building any new capital ships until 1931, with no capital ship permitted to exceed 35,000 tons. Provided that new additions did not exceed 3,000 tons, existing capital ships were allowed to be upgraded with improved torpedo bulges and deck armor. By the time the Washington Treaty had been fully implemented in Japan, only three classes of World War I-era capital ships—the and battleships, and the "Kongō"-class battlecruisers—remained active.
On October 3, 1951, the naval ashore unit Headquarters, Support Activities was created to support Allied Forces Southern Europe, and later the Sixth Fleet. In August, 1953, the support unit became Commander, Subordinate command, U.S. Naval Forces Eastern Atlantic / Commander, Headquarters Support Activities, and re-designated U.S. Naval Activities, Italy / U.S. Naval Support Activity, Naples in November 1957. U.S. Naval Activities, Italy was consolidated with U.S. Naval Support Activity, Naples on August 8, 1966.
Two submarines of the United States Navy have been named Cuttlefish for the cuttlefish, a ten-armed marine mollusk similar to the squid.
It is charged with the responsibility of forming Iran's first line of defense in the Gulf of Oman and beyond with the mission of acting as an effective blue-water navy. However, it is generally considered as a conventional green-water navy as it mostly operates at a regional level, in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman but also as far afield as the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and northwest quarter of the Indian Ocean. In July 2016, the Navy said that it would establish a presence in the Atlantic Ocean, of unspecified duration.
In rare cases, the general public may intercede for ships from the reserve fleet that are about to be scrapped – usually asking for the Navy to donate them for use as museums, memorials, or artificial reefs.
The United States Naval Academy (also known as USNA, Annapolis, or simply Navy) is a four-year coeducational federal service academy adjacent to Annapolis, Maryland. Established on 10 October 1845, under Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, it is the second oldest of the United States' five service academies, and educates officers for commissioning primarily into the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. The campus is located on the former grounds of Fort Severn at the confluence of the Severn River and Chesapeake Bay in Anne Arundel County, east of Washington, D.C. and southeast of Baltimore. The entire campus (known to insiders as "the Yard") is a National Historic Landmark and home to many historic sites, buildings, and monuments. It replaced Philadelphia Naval Asylum, in Philadelphia, that served as the first United States Naval Academy from 1838 to 1845 when the Naval Academy formed in Annapolis.
Whiting sometimes is referred to as the U.S. Navys "father of the aircraft carrier." He had begun agitating for U.S. Navy development of what were then called "plane carriers" in the spring of 1916, and as early as March 1917 he had proposed to United States Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels that the Navy acquire a ship with an aircraft catapult and a flight deck, prompting the first serious U.S. Navy consideration of the acquisition of any kind of aviation ship since the American Civil War of 1861–1865. The United States Department of the Navy rejected his proposal on 20 June 1917. In the years between World War I and World War II, however, Whiting would be instrumental in the construction of five of the U.S. Navys first six aircraft carriers and serve as executive officer of its first two. He also served as acting commanding officer of its first carrier at a time when the United States was experimenting with many aspects of the operation of aircraft carriers and their aircraft.
The United States developed the first aircraft carrier, the USS "Remembrance". This ship first sailed in 1920 and assisted the Irish government in suppressing a pro-British rebellion in Ulster. The "Remembrance", for many years, was the only U.S. aircraft carrier. The Pacific War saw the first naval battles where the combatants engaged one another with planes instead of ships. During the Second Great War, several escort carriers were built from converted merchant ship hulls.
Naval Base Kitsap is the third-largest Navy base in the U.S. It features one of the U.S. Navy's four nuclear shipyards, one of two strategic nuclear weapons facilities, the only West Coast dry dock capable of handling a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier and the Navy's largest fuel depot.
Japan put particular emphasis on aircraft carriers. The Imperial Japanese Navy started the Pacific War with 10 aircraft carriers, the largest and most modern carrier fleet in the world at that time. There were seven American aircraft carriers at the beginning of hostilities, only three operating in the Pacific; and eight British aircraft carriers, of which a single one operated in the Indian Ocean. A large number of these Japanese carriers were of small size, however, in accordance with the limitations placed upon the Navy by the London and Washington Naval Conferences. Nonetheless the Japanese initially had the upper hand over the American and British, by grouping all of their fleet carriers into a single unit known as the 1st Air Fleet or Kidō Butai ("Mobile Force"). In the Kidō Butai, the two -class carriers were superior to any carrier in the world, until the wartime appearance of the American "Essex" class.
The United States Navy had a sizable fleet of escort aircraft carriers during World War II and the era that followed. These ships were both quicker and cheaper to build than larger fleet carriers and were built in great numbers to serve as a stop-gap measure when fleet carriers were too few. However, they were usually too slow to keep up with naval task forces and would typically be assigned to amphibious operations, often seen in the Pacific war's island hopping campaign, or to convoy protection in the war in the Atlantic. To that end, many of these ships were transferred to the Royal Navy as part of the US-UK lend-lease program. (Note that many of the lower-numbered carriers were transferred to the Royal Navy, where they received new names. The new names are mentioned in each article individually.) While some of these ships were kept for a time in reserve after the war, none survive today, as they have all since been sunk or retired and scrapped. The following are the classes and stand-alone ships of the US Navy's escort carriers;
Fleets are usually, but not necessarily, permanent formations and are generally assigned to a particular ocean or sea. Most fleets are named after that ocean or sea, but the convention in the United States Navy is to use numbers.
The Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force is a division of the US Navy. The 42 ships of the Military Sealift Command's Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force are the supply lines to U.S. Navy ships at sea. These ships provide virtually everything that Navy ships need, including fuel, food, ordnance, spare parts, mail and other supplies. NFAF ships enable the Navy fleet to remain at sea, on station and combat ready for extended periods of time. NFAF ships also conduct towing, rescue and salvage operations or serve as floating medical facilities. All NFAF ships are government owned and crewed by civil service mariners. Some of the ships also have a small contingent of Navy personnel aboard for operations support, supply coordination and helicopter operations.
The following is the list of fleets of the navies from around the world.
US Navy fleets are numbered "odd" in the Pacific or West, and "even" in the Atlantic or East: