What is the cycle length of the Fleet Response Plan?

• A. 12 months
• B. 24 months
• C. 27 months
• D. 36 months

Answer: (C)

The Fleet Response Plan uses a rotating, three-group schedule to maintain steady forward presence. Each group typically deploys for about nine months, then spends roughly eighteen months in maintenance, training, and preparation back home before the cycle repeats. Following one group through its deployment plus all the follow-on workups and maintenance to be ready again results in a total cycle of about twenty-seven months. That offset arrangement—three groups staggered by roughly nine months—creates the predictable presence window the plan aims for. The other cycle lengths don’t fit this staggered 9-month deployment with an 18-month follow-on period.