The End Of America's Blue-Water Navy?

The amphibious assault ships of Commander, Task Force Fifty One (CTF-51) come together in an unprecedented formation during operations in the North Arabian Gulf. This marked the first time that six large deck amphibious ships from the East and West coasts have deployed together in one area of operation. Led by the flag ship USS Tarawa (LHA 1), the ships are (from left to right): USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), USS Kearsarge (LHD 3), USS Bataan (LHD 5), USS Saipan (LHA 2), and USS Boxer (LHD 4). CTF-51 led Navy amphibious forces in the Arabian Gulf region during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The 32 ships of CTF-51 composed the largest amphibious force assembled since the Inchon landing, during the Korean War. Wikipedia

Peter Dombrowski, National Interest: Is America's Blue-Water Navy Doomed?


It has been nearly eight years since the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard announced their first tri-service vision, A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower (CS21) on October 17, 2007. On Friday March 13, the current service chiefs, Admiral Greenert, General Dunford and Admiral Zukunft, revealed an updated version A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower: Forward, Engaged, Ready (CS21-2015) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC. As I write, analysts and maritime enthusiasts are already slinging arrows and darts at the document. The criticisms are predictable: CS21-2015 does not conform to one of the classic war college definitions of strategy; it does not pay sufficient attention to the latest headlines, some region or warfighting specialty is inadequately emphasized by the strategy, and on and on and on.



WNU Editor: The proliferation of A2/AD capabilities coupled with the rise of other navies (notably China's) has changed U.S. naval doctrine significantly .... and will continue to do so as the U.S. Navy decreases in size and the navies of other countries continue to expand and dominate their maritime spheres of influence.