U.S. Navy officials are hoping the aircraft carrier armada assembled within striking distance of Iraq will validate more than a decade of investment following the last major confrontationby demonstrating new warfighting capabilities.

Many features now part of the five carrier battle groups were not even on the drawing board in 1991--a sixth carrier, the USS Nimitz, is on its way to the area with additional enhancements. Some of the new features were created as a result of lessons learned in the conflict 12 years ago, particularly efforts to better integrate the carrier air wings with land-based operations. Another new ingredient, the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, only began to take shape after the 1991 cancellation of the stealthy A-12 carrier-based attack aircraft.

The aircraft carriers are being arrayed for 24-hr.-per-day bombing of Iraq. With at least three carriers operating in the Persian Gulf and two more in the Mediterranean, airspace management rather than sortie generation is seen as one of the biggest hurdles for planners. "We're almost tripping over ourselves," acknowledged Capt. Scott Swift, deputy commander of the Lincoln's air wing (CVW-14). The amassed airpower should be able to generate more sorties than there are targets, he added.

During a recent exercise of high-tempo operations, the Lincoln flew about 200 sorties a day for three days to demonstrate it could, in an emergency. But during a conflict, the operational pace is expected to be lower, with each of the three Persian Gulf-based carriers--the Lincoln, USS Constellation and USS Kitty Hawk--sharing the burden, officers on the Lincoln noted.

The most obvious difference in the current air wing capabilities compared with 12 years ago is the proliferation of laser- and GPS-guided weapons. During Desert Storm, the Navy had neither.