The 1000- 979-ship Navy
That whole “Rule the waves Britannia” thing?
An awful lot of stuff and bother, apparently:
The government is planning further big cuts to the Royal Navy after deciding that terrorism is the only serious threat to Britain. Annual accounts from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) show that it is to cut funding for new ships and equipment by more than 20%, from about £1.8 billion a year to a maximum of £1.4 billion…
The Royal Navy has not sent any ships to join a Nato force in the Black Sea since the Georgia crisis began, in contrast to poorer countries such as Poland and Spain.
It’s a good thing NATO came along when it did, or else that whole Spanish Armada thing might have gone very differently.
Update: But hey, Brazil? Great libs!
The Royal Navy has 39 Admirals currently on the active list.
It has 43 warships, including submarines, frigate sized and larger.
Hmmm…
Well, where the RN went, the USN usually followed….That’s a scary thought we should keep firmly in mind this November, where the choices could be a strong Navy or national health care (hack, spit).
Sounds like a great time for Argentina to rethink their Malvinas policy.
Whoa Lex, when you said, ‘But hey, Brazil?’ I thought you were gonna mention Brazil’s plans for their very own nuke sub (http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Aug29/0,4670,BrazilNuclearSub,00.html).
I think it was the author of the “Peter Principle” that over a quarter century ago predicted that at the rate the British Navy was going, sometime in the mid-21st Century the Navy would have over 200 Admirals and no ships at all…..
The USN isn’t too far behind it seems, as the official SECNAV plan is to to simply quit making naval ships “Naval”…
Although plans call for the Navy to buy another ship similar to the America — which will form the “America class,” a spokeswoman with Naval Sea Systems Command confirmed — the second ship could nonetheless be radically different. It could have a similar design, but not be a warship. Instead, the second America could be built to civilian standards, not military; have a civilian crew and master; and operate under Military Sealift Command.
She said July 9 that Winter continues to support the existing plan for a follow-on LHA(R) to be an MSC ship.
I have some ideas for names of this Faux Warship class:
Liscome Bay, Princeton, St Lo, Gambier Bay, Avenger, Charger…
Bet these follow on Americas will have really spiffy exercise rooms with big flat screen tvs at least…
Let me ask a dumb question.
Have not capital ships become, relatively speaking, much less important to warfare now than ever before?
Which is not to say they are not important in many contexts, but really, isn’t the long trend, in the age of airpower and spacepower, to diminish the importance of seapower?
Just look at the carrier. It has its role. But who would argue that it hasn’t diminished in relative importance every decade since WWII?
There seems to be a great deal of confusion about what sort of seapower we want, or need.
Which is not to say they are not important in many contexts, but really, isn’t the long trend, in the age of airpower and spacepower, to diminish the importance of seapower?
People smater than me have pondered your question…
The book’s discussion of space warfare begins with the premise that the migration of warfare into the realm of space has a historical precedent in the migration of warfare into the realm of air, and later continues into an analysis concluding that the actual conduct of space warfare shares the most commonality with the conduct of naval warfare. The control of the seas is then revisited when the book concludes that controlling space will be a necessary step to maintain control of the seas, which is cited as the most fundamental mission for any hegemonic power to be able to complete in order to protect its interests and ensure its national security. As summarized on page 411 of The Future of War:
Whoever controls space, therefore, will control the world’s oceans. Whoever controls the oceans will control the patterns of global commerce. Whoever controls the patterns of global commerce will be the wealthiest power in the world. Whoever is the wealthiest power in the world will be able to control space.
Sure does look like some folks in China read this book…
Flatlander, you do have point. There is a great deal of confusion about Seapower in this post-Mahanian world.
But I would opine that what is increasing in importance are Expeditionary assets.
Given that such assets are certain to venture into the most dangerous place a ship can find herself -the Littorals- it seems mighty shortsighted and foolish to travel down some commercially driven “affordable” path.
This ain’t 1945; we simply can no longer afford to…
I’m going to repeat, at the risk of nausea, a previous comment about procurement of expensive systems: “There is a cost to doing something, and a cost to doing nothing; and the cost of doing nothing is often far greater than the cost of doing something.” Unfortunately the costs of doing something are heavily concen-trated and occur upfront, while the costs of doing nothing are visited much later when most of the original decision-makers have long since retired or are dead.
[...] Lex has budget cuts for the Royal Navy in “The 1000- 979-ship Navy“. One commenter points out that the Royal Navy has almost as many active Admirals as they [...]
Flatlander, when you can find me a plane that can stay on station for 45 days and send a boarding party to every vessel that passes by, then we can discuss the irrelevancy of ships.
Xbrad, if boarding parties are all we need, then the Brits have the right approach.
Sid, I am still struggling to break the “littoral warfare” code. Expeditionary assets sounds a lot like the Marine Corps to me. Is it just a fancy way of saying “safe delivery of the Marines ashore?”.
Flatland, here is a more erudite discussion than I can provide.
Expeditionary ships are this century’s dreadnoughts.
Thanks for that. Call it what you will, it seems an important but rather narrower role.
Given this vision, maybe the Navy should be part of the Marine Corps.