From the time of the Spanish Armada until today, naval warfare has been about firepower and mobility: Put the most firepower you can on the largest ships that will hold them and row, sail or steam them as fast as you can into harm’s way.
Where weight and accuracy were matched, tactics held sway – Drake used fireships and the weather gage to sink what Spanish ships he could before their survivors dashed themselves to bits against the rocks of Ireland. Hundreds of years later battleship sailors conjured the ghosts of Jutland and Tsushima by maneuvering to “cross the T” at Cape Esperance and the Surigao Straight.
Smashing victories were won, but even by then the hour of the great gun had come and gone. Carrier air power was decisive to the Allied victory in the Philippine Sea, and at Midway, great fleets were sent to the bottom never having seen the ships of their enemy. Soon massive aircraft carriers swam the sea, dwarfing the dreadnoughts of the past and carrying ever greater numbers of airplanes with ever more powerful weapons – first unguided bombs, and then at last precision bombs and guided missiles. As aircraft took to the skies, shipboard maneuvers were defensive rather than offensive in nature.
The flattops were seen as a troubling innovation to the battleship captains. Air power was seen as a kind of paradigm shift, a threat to the established way of things. But senior naval officers realized carrier air power was truly more evolutionary than revolutionary: We had simply found a new way to put more firepower on larger ships, deploying it at ever greater distances and more quickly.
Which is why this picture struck a strange chord in me today. It seemed almost like a premonition:
The crew of a naval special warfare boat are seen here launching a Scan Eagle unmanned aerial vehicle.
Here is still mobility, to be certain – but not ocean going reach. And there is firepower to be sure but in this there is nothing of the clashing test of great weights of fire and armor, but rather an application of force that is stealthy, surreiptitious, almost guileful.
I read too much in perhaps, but somehow this seems a fitting metaphor for our age in this wee little boat, with its wee, small drone.
Novo Ordo Seclorum
Agreed, it is a Long War metaphor, but if we are borrowing historical reference, this isn’t the evolution of the battle line.
The analogy still applies though.
Until WWII, cruisers were used for scouting and naval communications, what we see here is the latest evolution of both.
Of course, with the 32/64MW railgun, the age of the big gun battleship might come into its own again, with strike aircraft being picked off at 100 nm by the equivalent of bird shot.
But yes, a new world it is.
Sweet Jesus… if I was forty years younger I’d do whatever it took to operate off that ” wee little boat” … arguably the naval equilivent of that old special ops saw…If you can’t carry it on your back …you don’t need it … it seems to have it all… stealth, speed, deception and precision guidance … Novo Ordo Seclorum…et mirabile visu… Best
Captain,
Thanks for the great post. For those of us that enjoy naval history, your words almost conjure up visions of those great naval battles around Guadalcanal Leyte Gulf. In light of today’s naval engagements (Have there actually been any?), those great battles of the past seem almost mystical in nature.
All this Latin is getting to be a bit too much for me, but I know a LITTLE bit from singing masses. So, let’s see…
Lex: “New [secular?] order/era”
SE: “and wondrous to see”
How’d I do?
I don’t know any Latin but I know what I see.
Small boat/small OTH tactic. Good for SOF. Tactical enabler, might even make a good movie….Key word tactical.
Does not equate for Big blue/green Navy, but the way things are going in the front office of the “Enterprise” this might be what we have to settle for…like “The Sand Pebbles” of the 1920′s.
b2
James Stokesbury wrote this in describing the Royal Navy’s efforts against the slave trade:
“Local chiefs were not disposed to give up a lucrative business at the behest of some distant power they had, initially, no reason to fear or respect. This aspect of naval activity came to consist of endless tedious negotiations, punctuated every so often by a boat raid in the dark of the night, sudden attacks on slave markets, and little fights in the mouths of sluggish creeks or among the mangrove swamps, where a man could be just as dead from a rusty musket shot, or an infected wound, as if he had died gloriously at Trafalgar.”
But all the time the sailors who manned the sloops and small boats in distant waters were doing their work, the sailors of the battle line were doing theirs by guaranteeing through their strength that no one would challenge the Pax Britannica and so disturb the men who were fighting the slavers, the common enemy of all mankind.
So great was its strength that the Royal Navy fought no great battles for a hundred years. No one dared challenge it.
In the same way, our Navy has not fought a great battle for more than sixty years. So great is its strength that no one dares challenge it. That is not to say there has been no fighting for our Navy to do – there certainly has been, and there will continue to be. Nor is it to say that there is no role for the big ships of today. The ability of the small boat sailors to do their work in distant places is guaranteed by the existence of today’s battle line.
By gaining command of the sea, we gain the ability to exploit it. That was what the Royal Navy did in the Napoleonic Wars; that was what the US Navy did in World War II. If the big ships never fight another battle, they will have swept the seas as clean of the enemy as if they had sunk an enemy fleet. That the small boats may do most of the actual fighting for a long time to come should not detract in the slightest from the fleet that makes it possible.
Another evolution in maritime force. An asymmetric response to an asymmetric threat.
Novis Ordo Seclorum
Networked
Omniscient
Sensors
How soon will we see drone sensors fighting other drone sensors?
Theodore – I like your insights.
All I wanna know is where’s the Magnum Marine propane grill on the transom?. For the red meat lover in you.
Cap’n and Shipmates
The Navy is getting slammed over the exorbitant cost of Air Wings, Carriers, Cruisers and even the nowhere to go Littoral Combat Ship. Congresscritters and their supplicant staffs question why we need 12 Carrier Battle Groups when the obvious enemy is al Qaida or some sort of piratical bunch off Africa. No thought is given, except as regards the Law of the Sea Treaty, to the place commerce and trade has on the economy.
Does the Navy need Blue/Green/Brown Water capability? Absolutely. Do we need to spend billions to build a single Carrier or Aegis destroyer/cruiser? Dunno, Do we need a flexible capability to project the sort of targeted force? Yes.
The Navy may not have engaged in large scale battles since WWII, and no other country has the capability to stand up to us at present. However, the USS Cole is clear evidence we may be a paper tiger. Thin skinned ships can’t co-exist in a Line of Battle and Battle Group tactics seem to focus on keeping the Carrier afloat. But isn’t an aircraft carrier operating in the restricted waters of the Persian Gulf a bit much? All Iran needs to do is put some of the old Silkworm batteries back along the Straights of Hormuz to bottle the CBG in the Gulf. Again, thin skinned ships with nuclear reactors make tempting targets.
Where am I going with this? Quite simply, ‘Big gunned ships’ may have swept the seas of the old enemy, but we’re mighty well unprepared for the next war.
FbL, Yes…” a new world order and wonderful to behold” … an ” A ” for you…that said… that ole Phlistine Pecker-Wood… B2′s know- nothingness notwhtstanding, using Latin phrases is fun, educational, helps reduce high blood pressure and I’m told a good way to pick up Chicks/ Babes.
Propino Fibi Salutem
PS, I have no Dog in this Navy fight…just can’t help seeing things through a special ops lens… I suppose it’s a snake eater thing …you wouldn’t understand.
Could be a case of back to the future – or rather just go back. Lex, you mention the big ship big battles like Jutland and Tsushima, but remember we also relied heavily on small boats – brigs, sloops, gunboats, during the Tripolitan War. One of our frigates, Philadelphia, didn’t do so well when she chased the enemy closer to shore. So too six decades later. Look at the Union Navy’s OOB and you’ll find far more smaller monitor-type boats and riverine craft than larger ships like the Hartford.
To me it is an analogy for what is wrong with the Navy today. Namely this perception that it is EITHER brown water or blue water. The correct solution is BOTH.
There is still plenty of work for the traditional ships of the Navy-carriers, cruisers and destroyers. As well as L-Class ships and in a proper world MSC would not own all of the supply ships.
Snake Eater-Any old PBR sailor gets it, we’ve fought a lot more small craft actions than big ship actions in the last 50 years yet by the late 70′s we let most of that experience slip away. Puer puerem est (I think, brother Tony’s class was 40 years ago)
Skippy-san,
My apologies for making it seem “either/or”. The frigates we had for taking on the French and eventually British – heck we even built ships of the line. But we ALSO needs the small boys for other missions. It’s all about balance.
That wee little boat with its wee little drone will be able to lase a target that can then get smited by a big #$%-ing warhead launched from the weps hauler du jour. Suh-weet!
Whatever size we put into the fight, remember it first has to be able to defeat the sea. Remember the typhoon of ’44.
What is so exciting about the photo is knowing how very much more could come next. I’ve got to believe the Navy will invest.
Think about what could be done from a slightly larger platform!
Command of the sea in the grand style, stretching across the world’s oceans is the objective sought by only one remaining country now. The others have reduced their navies to little more than coastguards.
Without opponents – regardless of how small or great our capabilities may be – we own the seas by default.
There has not been a major sea battle for over half a century. Nor are any remotely foreseeable. But the Falklands underscore a surface navy’s vulnerability without air superiority. The USS Stark and Cole incidents and others reveal other vulnerabilities. And although the aircraft carrier maintains its unique and significant utility, we have nevertheless reduced their numbers from a World War peak of slightly fewer than 100, to less than 10. More importantly, their vulnerability is exponentially increased as they transition from blue water toward a hostile shore.
New threats demand new tactics; new circumstances dictate new weapons of war. Given our vast array of current and planned weapon systems, how can we tell which are truly needed, which are superfluous, and which ones we need far more of? Unfortunately, it is only in the crucible of war that evolving tactics and weaponry may be truly evaluated.
Nevertheless, to me it seems we are more than a little confused as to what amount and mix of naval weaponry we truly need, what legitimate threats we have, now and in the future, and what our true goals are. In this fog, we must be very careful of what (factions/companies/industries/politics) drives the weaponry plans/ programs/appropriations process. We must not become our own worst enemy in the process.
If alive today, I wonder what would Corbett or Mahan would say …
I always enjoyed Julian Corbett for he coined a phrase that I used many times. “All facts unite to demonstrate” which would strengthen an argument in most wiles. If only we could get our ship and boat builders to unite as one and present us with a platform that met the characteristics of the olden day sloop of war.
It seems to boggle the builder’s mind that we want a vessel of 90 feet that is capable of inshore warfare and also capable of rendering a severe hurt on a very big ship which is something missiles and explosives are wont to do if combined in a sage and thoughtful way.
Alas, I am paying a million bucks apiece for little 34 foot craft that can do very little and being presented with unsavory and unworthy follow-ons as the modern “torpedo boat destroyer.” I was always fond of the OSA II and even the Taruntul.
My $bill sayeth: NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM but my Latin begin in the 3rd grade and ended there at graduation to the 4th. So just like modern sloop and corvette building escapes the navy so does the meaning of latin tags escape me. On the other hand, I know a zillion wonderful latin tags after reading the works of Frezza. Most of which I unreservedly recommend to all of you.
i think it’s a cute little target…
as for the latin:
Possunt quia posse videntur.
…and Maj Mike blows right past my limited Latin. Fortunately, there’s Google.
We have this new “wee little boat” because we already control the oceans. Our blue water navy has no current challengers(seen any pictures of Al-Qaeda carrier task forces lately?). It is the rivers and coastal areas where we might meet our current foes, if and when we finally decide to really fight.
Hey filterman, There you go… you’ve done it again…many thanks for the excellent tutorial… in my humble opninion…a much needed big picture over-view sorely needed by the narrowly focused parochial Navy types ( you know who you are) who comment here …
and I thought it was just me who stayed up last night thinking about just what Corbett or Mahan might say about this situation. Best
PS, ASM826, I agree compleatly.
Just a question for all you experts … can that “wee little boat,” with its lovely, lethal drone, be carried aboard one of our great big broad-shouldered carriers? To be launched when necessary, anywhere the carriers can go? And can it be used effectively in tight quarters, like the narrows of the Straits of Hormuz, or other, shallower waters?
Just askin’
Marianne
In our rock/paper/scissors world of military technology, “slow, low and stealthy” is the next major development. But we’ll still need “bad, bad and brawny” for decades to come.
Per wikipedia:
Novus Ordo Seclorum: New Order of the Ages
Same as it ever was.
Snake,
You’re stirrin Navy turds agin for recreational purposes methinks, but you know the Army does have many more boats than the US Navy and that your beloved Army SOF owns a good chunk of ‘em. That’s a fact jack.
Conversely, the US Navy is sorta like a big ol moveable fence we can move in/out. John Adams called it Wall o’wood. Lately the fence has been way out thar since WWII and the C-war. In the days of the “Sand Pebbles” not so far. What we’re doing now is pulling the fence in because of what we’re buying into (and out of…) lately and have internally developed schemes to manage risk (nominal amount of national security), like FRP.
“Boats” will always be tactical in that Wall of Wood historical context for the US Navy, OTH capable via UAV, or not. Anyone thinks different ain’t just thinking outta-the-box, rather they’re thinking off-planet, which IMO a whole lotta folks in Naval leadership have been doing fer quite a while.
IMO, Tailhook, the Clinton’s and 9-11 (in that order) have made the Navy sorta neurotic.
b2
Marianne, that is the Mk V Special Operations Craft, one of the larger boats used by SWCCs, specifically in coastal areas. Waterjets and a shallow draft allow for running in narrows.
The range is about 500 nm. Delivery is usually via two USAF C5 planes, or aboard well deck-equipped ships or other ships with the appropriate cranes and space availability.
B2, From your mouth to Gods ear….young Grass-Hopper…
Re the ” Sand Pebbles”… read the book ( a great tale of the inter-war Navy ) and saw the movie many times…Steve McQueen at his best along with the then foxy ice queen… Candice Bergen… of course this was long before ole frosty cheeks Candice morphed into that big haired, overwrought, bra burning harpie…Muprhy Brown. Best
Truly a “novus ordo”? Or a return to the old order? Anglo-American naval dominance has been the defining and enabling factor for the modern world. Whenever a peer-competitor tried to challenge it, that competitor went down to defeat. Bourbon-Revolutionary-Napoleonic France, the Second and Third Reichs, Imperial Japan, Soviet Russia. All tried to challenge the Anglosphere on the seas.
Currently we are in an inter-bellum, with no true peer competitor on the horizon, though China may one day try to be.
So, we are in a kind of era well-known to our British and American Naval ancestors. It is an era of small wars on the periphery, police actions, anti-piracy operations, anti-smuggling operations, anti-slave trade patrols, that sort of thing. There is a book on my shelf listing 180 landings of the US Marines. They were conveyed to their landing sites by the Navy, not involving major combat between ships. There are many books about the “small” wars of the Victorian era. Those troops, British but often also Indian, were conveyed to their zones of operation by the Royal Navy. Same thing.
The pendulum swings. The needs of the day are met by the warriors of the day, and sometimes they are even given (some of) the tools needed to do those missions.
Lex Green,
I ain’t shore what a “nervous order” is..must be Greek..or Latin. Snake could tell me I reckon.
As the “pendulum swings”. That’s it!
All I would add is that it swings faster today than ever, yet acquisition of ships or aircraft require decades of lead time…What we have today are warrior-businessmen (and women o’course).
Hence, my nervous contenance.
b2
Marianne,
re- ” can that “wee little boat,” with its lovely, lethal drone, be carried aboard one of our great big broad-shouldered carriers?”
Sure it can my Lady. Plenty of room in the hangar bays for 3-4 of ‘em. Davit ‘em right off’n the elevators. Lets get some DARPA $$ and give it a try!
Might as well. Maybe that boat can do ASW, too. Seeing how our own “Enterprise” (eyebrows up) got rid of all the Captains Gigs..Shhhhh- don’t tell….we only got 65 aircraft aboard nowadays so there’d be plenty o’room.
I ain’t being cynical about your question at all Marianne, just the whole dam enterprise I’ve been around all my adult life. I ask-would you rather have that boat in the hangar or another 20-30 jets in there?
b2
Badbob: The post above closed with the words “novus ordo seclorum”.
I don’t make this stuff up.
This phrase has been on the money in your wallet all your life, and you never noticed it? (It is on the Great Seal of the USA.) It means a new order for the ages. The founders of the USA claimed to be founding a new order of politics, a new kind of society. They were right.
Neptunus Lex is saying that we are entering a new age of naval power. I agree. I just say, the new age is not an age without a map. We have been here before. The past has lessons.
As to acquistions and lead time, you are right, but that is a condition to be lived with, not a problem with a solution.