![]() Though the air wing of the early ‘80s lacked the more sophisticated precision-strike capabilities of today, they did not lack in range or bomb-toting capability. Armed with one of the most powerful radars of its time and the long-range AIM-54 Phoenix missile, alongside shorter-range missiles and a gun, the Tomcat would prove time and again in the Middle East it was one of the region’s “top guns.” Just a year prior, two F-14s had downed two Libyan fighters over the Gulf of Sidra, an area not too far from the shores of Lebanon. Apart from Forrestal, which still carried the McDonnell Douglas F-4S Phantom II, all three carriers were equipped with the Grumman F-14A Tomcat as its primary fleet-defense fighter.īy then in its second decade of service, the Tomcat had already proven to be one of the world’s deadliest dogfighters. By comparison, two carrier battle groups were deployed to the Mediterranean for the Iraq invasion in 2003.īy 1982, the carrier and its embarked air wing had improved by leaps and bounds from just a decade earlier. It was certainly the most powerful concentration of carrier-based air power ever in the Mediterranean. This “dream team” lasted for only days, but it represented one of the greatest assemblies of air and naval power in the post-Vietnam War era. Exercise Daily Double concluded, and Forrestal and Independence relieved Kennedyand Eisenhower of duty, sending the latter two home. Though the siege of Beirut would last until August, the situation had stabilized to Washington’s satisfaction within several days. This powerful juggernaut was to conduct a NATO exercise codenamed “Daily Double,” but were also ordered to prepare for additional evacuations and, possibly, rescue attempts of other Americans still in Lebanon. The result was a 50-ship task force, with four carriers and their air wings at the core, along with a plethora of other surface combatants. The next day, two more carrier battle groups, centered on USS Forrestaland USS Independence joined Kennedy and Eisenhower from the United States. On June 24, Eisenhower assisted in the evacuation of American citizens in Lebanon caught up in the conflict. Kennedy, which had entered the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal from the Indian Ocean. Eisenhower and her battle group, which was on-station in the Mediterranean when the war began, in early June had been joined by USS John F. ![]() The nuclear-powered Nimitz-class supercarrier USS Dwight D.
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