Expeditionary strike group
The expeditionary strike group (ESG) is a United States Navy concept introduced in the early 1990s, based on the Naval Expeditionary Task Force. The U.S. Navy fields nine expeditionary strike groups and ten carrier strike groups (CSGs), in addition to surface action groups. ESGs allow the U.S. to provide highly movable and self-sustaining naval forces for missions in various parts of the world. The ESG concept combines the capabilities of surface action groups, submarines, and maritime patrol aircraft with those of amphibious ready groups (ARGs) and Marine expeditionary units (MEUs) (special operations capable) to provide greater  combat capabilities to theater combatant commanders. An expeditionary strike force (ESF) integrates the CSG and ESG with the sea-basing functions provided by the maritime prepositioning force (future) to provide an even more potent capability. History. The United States Navy has always been involved in developing different military concepts to improve the rapid deployment of naval power and troops from one point to another. One of these concepts was the amphibious ready group (ARG). The ARG consisted of a group of various ships known as an Amphibious Task Force (ATF) and a Landing Force (LF), which normally consisted of United  States Marines and, on occasion, could consist of United States Army troops. An ARG is composed of an amphibious assault ship (LHA/LHD), an landing platform/dock (LPD), a Landing Ship, Dock (LSD) , and a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), which includes a Marine Infantry battalion landing team, AV-8B Harrier II aircraft, CH-53 Sea Stallion, CH-46 Sea Knight, AH-1 Sea Cobra, and UH-1 Huey helicopters. The Navy had two to three ARGs deployed at a given time. Normally one of the ARGs was in the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean area, and the other two were in the  western Pacific Ocean. Early 1990s – present. In the early 1990s, the U.S. Navy introduced a new concept based on the ARG, the "naval expeditionary task force" or, as it is also known, the "expeditionary strike group" (ESG). The ESG is similar to the ARG except that with the ESG concept, the U.S. Navy would be able to deploy almost double the number of independent operational groups, from 19 to 38. In addition, the ESG included surface warships and submarine escorts, similar to a carrier strike group (previously a carrier battle group). An ESG is composed of an amphibious assault ship  (Landing helicopter assault (LHA)/Landing helicopter dock (LHD)), a dock landing ship (LSD), an Landing Platform/Dock (LPD) , a Marine expeditionary unit, AV-8B Harrier II aircraft, CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters, CH-46E Sea Knight helicopters or more recently, MV-22B tiltrotors, and other aircraft that comprise a USMC composite squadron. Cruisers, destroyers, and attack submarines may deploy with either an expeditionary strike group or a carrier strike group. As originally envisioned in the 1990s, the ESG concept allowed the Navy to field 12 expeditionary strike groups and 12 carrier strike groups, in addition to surface action groups centered on "Iowa" class battleships. Thus , the Navy and Marine Corps forces could launch Marines via landing craft and helicopters as warships and submarines struck inland targets with aircraft, missiles and shells. However, defense budget reductions in the mid-1990s, coupled with retirements of older aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships without one-for-one replacements, has reduced the original 12 x 12 ESG/CSG construct to fewer groups due to fewer ship hulls to support those said groups. Expeditionary Strike Groups. Current ESGs. The following is a list of U.S. military ESGs: Former ESG units. This is a list of former ESGs and similarly themed predecessor  organizations: Marine Air-Ground Task Forces. The Marine-Air-Ground Task Forces, or MAGTF, are a combined component of air and amphibious ground forces of the United States Marine Corps. They consist of either the Marine Expeditionary Force(MEF), Marine Expeditionary Brigade(MEB), or the smaller Marine Expeditionary Unit(MEU) that deploys either from the United States Navy's Expeditionary Strike Groups or Amphibious ready groups. The MAGTF are composed of four basic elements: The Aviation Command Element now consists of VMM composite squadron. The CH-46 was retired from active service and replaced with the MV-22B aircraft.