Accession Number:

ADA463218

Title:

Blue Water Navy - Littoral Threat

Descriptive Note:

Final rept.

Corporate Author:

NAVAL WAR COLL NEWPORT RI JOINT MILITARY OPERATIONS DEPT

Personal Author(s):

• Beauchamp, Robert E.

Report Date:

2006-02-13

Pagination or Media Count:

24.0

Abstract:

The United States spent the latter half of the twentieth century designing and building a Navy to operate in Blue Water, prepared for eventual conflict with the Soviet Union fleet. With the end of the Cold War, the Soviet fleet is gone and there exists no other Blue Water threat other nations have focused their resources towards areas which had previously been avoided by the US Navy, the littorals. Inside these waters, the capabilities which ensured the supremacy of the US Navy in Blue Water are ill-matched to locate and operate against the threats in these littoral regions. The existing gap between the Blue Water and the Littoral Navy is substantial however, recent strategic decisions will ensure the conversion of the US fleet over the next twenty years. Should conflict rise before the building process is complete, a Blue Water navy will be employed in the littoral, against forces specifically designed for operations in those waters. During the next two decades the Navy requires changes in operational planning and tactical doctrine to even the bar with the littoral threat in order to ensure local sea control at any desired time for national tasking.

Descriptors:

• *NAVAL WARFARE
• *LITTORAL ZONES
• THREATS
• NAVAL PLANNING
• MINE WARFARE
• SONAR
• MILITARY TACTICS
• NAVY

Subject Categories:

• Military Forces and Organizations
• Undersea and Antisubmarine Warfare
• Naval Surface Warfare

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE