Carrier battle group at the Battle of Midway. In contrast, the United States Navy deployed its large carriers in separate formations, with each carrier assigned its own cruiser and destroyer escorts. These single-carrier formations would often be paired or grouped together for certain assignments, most notably the Battle of the Coral Sea and Midway. By 1943, however, large numbers of fleet and light carriers became available, which required larger formations of three or four carriers. These groups eventually formed the Fast Carrier Task Force, which became the primary battle unit of the U.S. Fifth and Third Fleets. With the construction of the large
Task Force 77 (United States Navy) depended on the size and class of the carriers, which varied from the large-deck 65,000-ton and 70,000 and "Enterprise"-class ships, to the modified 27,000-ton, World War II vintage ships. In the post-Vietnam era, Carrier Division Five became Carrier Group Five (CARGRU FIVE) on 30 June 1973 and CTF 77 returned to its Cold War deterrence functions as Commander, Carrier Strike Force 7th Fleet in the Western Pacific, multi-hatted as Commander, Carrier Group FIVE (COMCARGRU FIVE) and Commander, Task Force 70 (CTF 70), the latter task force also being known as Battle Force 7th Fleet. COMCARGRU FIVE was homeported at Cubi