NOT a component of a Carrier Strike Group (CSG)?

• A. Submarine (SSN)
• B. Aircraft carrier (CVN)
• C. Light cruiser (CL)
• D. Destroyer (DDG)

Answer: (C)

A Carrier Strike Group centers on an aircraft carrier with its air wing, and is defended and supported by surface combatants and submarines to handle air, surface, and undersea threats. The ships you’d expect around that carrier are destroyers and cruisers that can provide air defense and additional warfare capabilities, plus submarines for undersea protection. Light cruisers are not part of modern carrier strike group formations; they are an older class that the Navy no longer uses in this role. The cruisers currently seen in carrier groups are guided-missile cruisers (CG), not light cruisers (CL). So the option describing a light cruiser doesn’t fit with how a carrier strike group is composed.