Second, it is interesting that American Amphibious Ready Groups (ARGs) like the one
Duncan is protecting don’t usually have dedicated escort warships of their own. Twenty years ago this would have been unthinkable but there is an increasing trend with US ARGs (and our own LRGs) to operate without accompanying destroyers or frigates. The brochure says this improves “flexibility, rapid response capabilities, and adaptability to evolving maritime threats”. The reality is largely that the US Navy, like ours, doesn’t have enough escort warships to go around. This is unfortunate as the ships of Amphibious Squadron 4 have only close-in, last-ditch air defence weapons. Most of
the 24th MEU also offers no capability for fighting at sea – the main exception to this being the six Marine Harriers aboard the
Wasp, which can act as effective air defence fighters (though without proper radar direction) or mount anti-ship attacks. The presence of
Duncan with her dedicated group air defence Sea Viper missile system makes the ARG enormously safer.
