page_title: Carrier air wing
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Carrier air wing / Carrier Air Group/Wing composition / World War II
caption_attribution_description: A U.S. Navy New Mexico-class battleship leading other battleships (a Colorado-class ship followed by a Tennessee-class ship) of the Pacific Fleet between 9 and 13 September 1940 during a simulated fleet engagement. Above flies a carrier air group, led by the Air Group Commander in a Curtiss SBC Helldiver. The aircraft are: A torpedo squadron of eighteen Douglas TBD-1 Devastators; A bombing squadron of eighteen Northrop BT-1s; A scouting squadron eighteen Curtiss SBCs; A fighting squadron of eighteen Grumman F2F-1s or F3F-3s from either the USS Yorktown (CV-5) or F3F-2s from the USS Enterprise (CV-6), plus possibly nine additional aircraft.
context_page_description: A carrier air wing is an operational naval aviation organization composed of several aircraft squadrons and detachments of various types of fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. Organized, equipped and trained to conduct modern US Navy carrier air operations while embarked aboard aircraft carriers, the various squadrons in an air wing have different but complementary missions, and provide most of the striking power and electronic warfare capabilities of a carrier battle group. While the CVBG term is still used by other nations, the CVBG in US parlance is now known as a carrier strike group.
  Until 1963, Carrier Air Wings were known as Carrier Air Groups. Carrier Air Wings are what the United States Air Force would call "composite" wings, and should not be confused with U.S. Navy Type Wings, which are primarily administrative and training commands composed of squadrons of the same type of carrier-based aircraft when not deployed. The United States Marine Corps equivalent command-level organization to a CVW is the Marine Aircraft Group. However, MAGs are shore-based and may contain any combination of aircraft squadrons and aviation support units.
context_section_description: Typical air group composition aboard the Yorktown Class carriers, at the beginning of World War II, consisted of approximately 72 aircraft:
  1 fighter squadron (VF) composed of 18 Grumman F4F Wildcats
  1 bombing squadron (VB) composed of 18 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers
  1 scouting squadron (VS) composed of 18 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers
  1 torpedo squadron (VT) composed of 18 Douglas TBD Devastator or Grumman TBF/TBM Avenger torpedo bombers
  During the course of the war in the Pacific, the compositions of the air groups changed drastically.  The scouting squadrons were disestablished by early 1943 and the number of fighter planes was increased continuously. Typically in 1943 an Essex class carrier carried 36 fighters, 36 bombers and 18 torpedo planes.
  By the end of WWII, a typical Essex air group was over 100 aircraft, consisting of :
  1 squadron of 18 Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters
  4 squadrons of 72 Vought F4U Corsair fighter/bombers
  1 squadron of 12 Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bombers
caption: A Carrier Air Group over battleships in 1940.
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