Encyclopedia
The
United States Navy is the branch of the
United States armed forces responsible for conducting
naval operations. Its stated mission is "to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression and maintaining freedom of the seas." The U.S. Navy currently operates the largest naval fleet in the world with nearly 500,000 men and women on active duty or in the
Navy Reserve, 282
ships in active service, and more than 4,000
aircraft.
The United States Navy traces its origins to the
Continental Navy, which was established during the
American Revolutionary War and was disbanded in 1790. The
United States Constitution, though, formed the basis for a seaborne military force by giving
Congress the power "to provide and maintain a navy." Depredations against American shipping by Barbary Coast corsairs spurred Congress to enact this power in 1794 by passing a naval act ordering the construction and manning of
six frigates. The U.S. Navy came into international prominence in the 20th century, especially during
World War II. Operating in both the European and
Pacific theatres, it was a part of the conflict from the onset of American military involvement — the
Attack on Pearl Harbor — to Japan's official surrender on the deck of the USS
Missouri. The U.S. Navy had a role in the subsequent
Cold War, in which it evolved into a nuclear deterrent and crisis response force while preparing for a possible global war with the
Soviet Union.
The 21st century United States Navy maintains a sizeable presence in the world, deploying in such areas as East Asia, Southern Europe, and the Middle East. Its ability to
project force onto the littoral regions of the world, engage in forward areas during peacetime, and rapidly respond to regional crises makes it an active player in American foreign and defence policy. Despite decreases in ships and personnel following the Cold War, the U.S. Navy has continued to spend more on technology development than any other and is the world’s largest navy with a tonnage greater than that of the next 17 largest combined.
History
In the early stages of the
American Revolutionary War, the establishment of an official navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, and make it easier to seek out support from foreign countries. Detractors countered that challenging the
British Royal Navy, then the world's preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. The resolution was adopted and October 13 would later become known as the United States Navy's official birthday.
The Continental Navy achieved mixed results; it was successful in a few individual engagements and raided many British merchant ships, but it lost 24 ships in the warand at one point was reduced to two active vessels. After the conflict, Congress turned its attention towards securing the western border of the new United States; a standing navy was considered to be a dispensable because of its high operating costs and its limited number of national roles. The power and operational flexibility of a carrier naturally lie in the aircraft of its
carrier air wing. Made up of both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft, a carrier air wing is able to perform over 150 strike missions, hitting over 700 targets a day, protect friendly forces, conduct electronic warfare, assist in special operations, and carry out
search and rescue missions. In addition to their airborne capabilities, carriers are also important as command platforms for large battle groups or multinational task forces.
A carrier is typically deployed along with a host of additional vessels, forming a
carrier strike group. The supporting ships, which usually include three or four
Aegis-equipped cruisers and destroyers, a frigate, and two attack submarines, are tasked with protecting the carrier from air, missile, sea, and undersea threats as well as providing additional strike capabilities themselves. Ready logistics support for the group is provided by a combined ammunition, oiler, and supply ship. Aircraft carriers beginning with USS
John F. Kennedy , but with the exception of USS
Nimitz , are named for living or deceased politicians important to the Navy or United States history. Previous aircraft carriers were generally named for battles and past famous fighting ships of the Navy.
Amphibious warfare vessels
Amphibious assault ships are the centerpieces of U.S. amphibious warfare and fulfill the same power projection role as aircraft carriers except that their striking force is comprised of land forces instead of aircraft. They deliver, command, coordinate, and fully support all elements of a 2000-strong Marine Expeditionary Unit in an amphibious assault using air and amphibious vehicles. Resembling small aircraft carriers, amphibious assault ships are capable of V/STOL, STOVL,
VTOL, tiltrotor, and rotary wing aircraft operations. They also contain a welldeck to support the use of
Landing Craft Air Cushion and other amphibious assault watercraft. Recently, amphibious assault ships have begun to be deployed as the core of an
expeditionary strike group, which usually consists of an additional amphibious transport dock and dock landing ship for amphibious warfare and an Aegis-equipped cruiser and destroyer, frigate, and attack submarine for group defense. Amphibious assault ships are typically named after World War II aircraft carriers, a name source carried over from the earliest assault ships which actually
were converted WWII carriers.
Amphibious transport docks are warships that embark, transport, and land Marines, supplies, and equipment in a supporting role during amphibious warfare missions. With a landing platform, amphibious transport docks also have the capability to serve as secondary aviation support for an expeditionary group. All amphibious transport docks can operate helicopters, LCACs, and other conventional amphibious vehicles while the newer
San Antonio class of ships has been explicitly designed to operate all three elements of the Marines' "mobility triad":
Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles , the
V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, and the previously mentioned LCACs. Amphibious transport docks are named for cities, except for USS
Mesa Verde , named for
Mesa Verde National Park in
Colorado, and two of the three ships named in memory of the September 11, 2001 attacks: USS
New York , for the state of
New York, and USS
Somerset for
Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
...
The dock landing ship is a medium amphibious transport that is designed specifically to support and operate
Landing Craft Air Cushions, though it is able to operate other amphibious assault vehicles in the United States inventory as well. Dock landing ships are normally deployed as a component of an expeditionary strike group's amphibious assault contingent, operating as a secondary launch platform for LCACs. All dock landing ships are named after locations in the United States.
- Whidbey Island class
- Harpers Ferry class
Surface vessels
Cruisers are large surface combat vessels that conduct anti-air/anti-missile warfare, surface warfare, undersea warfare, and strike operations independently or as members of a larger task force. Modern guided missile cruisers were developed out of a need to counter the anti-ship missile threat facing the United States Navy. This led to the development of the
AN/SPY-1 phased array radar and the
Standard Missile 2 with the
Aegis combat system coordinating the two.
Ticonderoga-class cruisers became the first to equip Aegis and were put to use primarily as anti-air and anti-missile defense in a battle force protection role. Later developments of
vertical launch systems and the
Tomahawk missile gave cruisers additional long-range land and sea strike capability, making them capable of both offensive and defensive battle operations. All cruisers since CG-47 have been named for famous battles with USS
Thomas S. Gates as the only exception. Previously, cruisers were either named for cities , former important navy figures , or states .
Destroyers are multi-mission medium surface ships capable of sustained performance in anti-air, anti-submarine, anti-ship, and offensive strike operations. Like cruisers, the guided missile destroyers of the Navy are primarily focused on surface strikes using
Tomahawk missiles and fleet defense through
Aegis and the
Standard missile. Destroyers additionally specialize in anti-submarine warfare and are equipped with
VLA rockets and
LAMPS Mk III Sea Hawk helicopters to deal with underwater threats. When deployed with a carrier strike group or expeditionary strike group, destroyers and their fellow Aegis-equipped cruisers are primarily tasked with defending the fleet while providing secondary strike capabilities. Destroyers have been named for important navy personnel and heroes since the USS
Bainbridge .
Modern U.S.
frigates mainly perform undersea warfare for carrier strike groups and amphibious expeditionary groups and provide armed escort for supply convoys and merchant shipping. They are designed to protect friendly ships against hostile submarines in low to medium threat environments using torpedoes and LAMPS helicopters. Frigates are also able to launch Standard missiles to supply limited protection against anti-ship missiles. Independently, frigates are able to conduct counterdrug missions and other maritime interception operations. The U.S. Navy expects to retire its current class of frigates by 2020. As in the case of destroyers, frigates are named after naval heroes.
All U.S.
battleships have been decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register. Designed to engage other capital ships in open sea warfare, battleships were the Navy's largest and most important vessels until the mid-20th century. The rise of aircraft carriers in World War II led to the declining importance of battleships and the Navy relegated them to the roles of fire support and escort. Following a long period of inactivity, the
Iowa class battleships were recommissioned in the 1980s to augment the Navy's size and were upgraded with Tomahawk cruise missile capability. They were decommissioned for the final time in the early 1990s due in part to their high maintenance costs and the Cold War's end. All battleships except USS
Kearsarge were named for states.
Submarines
The primary missions of submarines in the U.S. Navy are peacetime engagement, surveillance and intelligence, special operations, precision strikes, battlegroup operations, and denial of the seas. The U.S. Navy operates two types: ballistic submarines and attack submarines. Ballistic submarines have only one mission: to carry and launch the nuclear
Trident missile. Attack submarines have several tactical missions, including sinking ships and subs, launching
cruise missiles, gathering intelligence, and assisting in special operations. Sea attack submarines are typically named for cities while land attack submarines are typically named for states. Earlier attack submarines were named for "denizens of the deep", while earlier ballistic missile submarines were named for "famous Americans" .
Ohio class ballistic missile submarine
...
— ballistic missile submarines with four to be converted into guided missile submarines
Historically significant vessels
The U.S. Navy has operated a number of vessels important to both United States and world naval history.
USS Constitution, nicknamed "Old Ironsides", is the only surviving vessel of the original six frigates authorized by Congress when they re-established the United States Navy in 1794. It served with distinction in the War of 1812 and is currently docked in
Charlestown, Massachusetts, as the oldest commissioned warship afloat.
USS Monitor and
CSS Virginia are together known for participating in the first engagement between two steam-powered
ironclads, known as the
Battle of Hampton Roads. USS
Monitor was the first ironclad built by the U.S. Navy and its design introduced the rotating gun turret to naval warfare. The first submarine built by the U.S. Navy was USS
Alligator, which sank in 1863 while being towed during a storm and never saw combat. The
H.L. Hunley, although technically never a part of the U.S. Navy, was the first submarine to sink a ship in a combat engagement by hitting the
USS Housatonic with a spar-mounted
torpedo in 1864; however, the
H.L. Hunley itself was lost during the operation. It was built by
Confederate inventor Horace L. Hunley, who lost his life while operating the ship during a trial run. USS
Nautilus , commissioned in 1954, was the first nuclear-powered warship in the world. It demonstrated its capabilities by traveling 62,562 miles, more than half of which was submerged, in two years before having to refuel while breaking the record for longest submerged voyage. USS
Long Beach was the first nuclear-powered
surface warship in the world and signaled a new era of United States naval weaponry by being the first large ship in the Navy to have guided missiles as its main weapon.
Aircraft
Aircraft are an essential component of the U.S. Navy's fighting capacity. Carrier-based aircraft are able to strike air, sea, and land targets far from a carrier strike group while protecting friendly forces from enemy aircraft, ships, and submarines. In peacetime, aircraft's ability to project the threat of sustained attack from a mobile platform on the seas gives United States leaders significant diplomatic and crisis-management options. Aircraft additionally provide
logistics support to maintain the Navy’s readiness and, through helicopters, supply platforms with which to conduct
search and rescue,
special operations,
anti-submarine warfare , and anti-surface warfare . The US Navy has global superiority in aircraft carriers: not only does the USN have as many aircraft carriers as the rest of the world put together, but its aircraft carriers individually are much larger than those of the rest of the world , with commeasurately larger and more capable aircraft. Most foreign carriers except for these two vessels are smaller ships carrying only
helicopters and a small contingent of
AV-8B Harrier II derivatives. Because of the powerful steam catapults used on USN carriers, the US can operate large carrier planes like the
E-2 Hawkeye and S-3 Viking which in most other navies would be strictly land-deployed aircraft . The
Wasp-class Amphibious assault ships of the US Navy, which have a secondary function as a light carrier or "Sea Control Ship," in which configuration they can carry up to 20 Harriers or
F-35B Lightning IIs, are roughly equivalent in striking power to most foreign aircraft carriers.
The U.S. Navy began to research the use of aircraft at sea in the 1910s and commissioned its first aircraft carrier, USS
Langley, in 1922. United States naval aviation fully came of age in World War II, when it became clear following the
Attack on Pearl Harbor, the
Battle of the Coral Sea, and the
Battle of Midway that aircraft carriers and the planes that they carried had replaced the battleship as the greatest weapon on the seas. Navy aircraft also played a significant role in conflicts during the following Cold War years, with the
F-4 Phantom II and the
F-14 Tomcat becoming military icons of the era. The Navy's current primary fighter and attack airplanes are the multi-mission
F/A-18C/D Hornet and its newer cousin, the
F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The
F-35 Lightning II is presently under development and is scheduled to replace the C and D versions of the Hornet in 2012.
Weapons systems
Current U.S. Navy shipboard weapons systems are almost entirely focused on missiles, both as a weapon and as a threat. In an offensive role, missiles are intended to strike targets at long distances with accuracy and precision. Because they are unmanned weapons, missiles allow for attacks on heavily defended targets without risk to human pilots. Land and sea strikes are the domain of the
BGM-109 Tomahawk, which was first deployed in the 1980s and is continually being updated to increase its capabilities. While the Tomahawk can be used in an anti-ship capacity, the Navy's dedicated missile for this role is the
Harpoon missile. To defend against enemy missile attack, the Navy operates a number of systems that are all coordinated by the
Aegis combat system. Medium-long range defense is provided by the
Standard Missile 2, which has been deployed since the 1980s. The Standard missile doubles as the primary shipboard anti-aircraft weapon and is undergoing development for use in theater ballistic missile defense. Short range defense against missiles is provided by the
Phalanx CIWS and the more recently developed
RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile. In addition to missiles, the Navy also employs
Mark 46 and
Mark 50 torpedoes and various types of mines. The ships defense also relies upon the use of advanced detection systems including Antennas and Systems
Naval fixed-wing aircraft employ much of the same weapons as the
United States Air Force for both air-to-air and air-to-surface combat. Air engagements are handled by the heat-seeking
Sidewinder and the radar guided AMRAAM missiles along with the
M61 Vulcan for close range dogfighting. For surface strikes, Navy aircraft utilize a combination of missiles, smart bombs, and dumb bombs. On the list of available missiles are the
Maverick,
SLAM-ER, and
JSOW. Smart bombs include the GPS-guided
JDAM and the laser-guided
Paveway series. Unguided munitions such as dumb bombs and
cluster bombs round out the rest of the weapons deployed by fixed-wing aircraft.
Rotary aircraft weapons revolve around anti-submarine warfare and light to medium surface engagements. To combat submarines, helicopters use Mark 46 and Mark 50 torpedoes. Against small watercraft, they utilize
Hellfire and Penguin air to surface missiles. Helicopters also employ various types of mounted anti-personnel machine guns, including the
M60D,
M240,
GAU-16, and
GAU-17.
Nuclear weapons in the U.S. Navy arsenal are deployed through ballistic missile submarines and aircraft. The
Ohio-class submarine carries the latest iteration of the
Trident missile, a three stage, underwater launched, nuclear
ICBM with
MIRV capability; the current Trident II version is expected to be in service past 2020. The Navy’s other nuclear weapon is the aircraft-deployed
B61 nuclear bomb. The B61 is a thermonuclear device that can be dropped by strike aircraft such as the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet at high speed from a large range of altitudes. They can be released through free-fall or parachute and can be set to detonate in the air or on the ground.
Special warfare
The major players in U.S. Navy special operations are
Navy SEALs and
Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen . The SEALs derive their name from the environments in and from which they can operate:
SEa,
Air, and
Land. As befitting their title, the SEALs are a flexible group of naval
Special Forces trained to conduct clandestine warfare in any setting, most often in small-unit actions. They specialize in maritime operations; striking from and returning to the sea. Working in conjunction with the SEALs are the SWCCs, who are trained in small ship and watercraft operations in the Navy. Organized into Special Boat Teams, SWCCs specialize in the insertion and extraction of SEALs in hostile territory, coastal patrol and surveillance, and the boarding and searching of vessels.
Navy special operations fall under the jurisdiction of
Naval Special Warfare Command, the Navy branch of
United States Special Operations Command. Within Naval Special Warfare Command are six operational entities: four
Special Warfare Groups, the
Special Warfare Development Group, and the
Special Warfare Center.
- Naval Special Warfare Group ONE and Group TWO each consist of four teams of Navy SEALs and a few Naval Special Warfare Units. NSW units are charged with overall command and control and planning of special operations within their geographic jurisdiction.
- Group THREE is made up of SEAL Delivery Vehicle Teams and one Special Boat Team that is shared with Group FOUR. SEALs who are assigned to SDV teams specialize in the use of Swimmer Delivery Vehicles and Advanced SEAL Delivery Systems . These watercraft are submersibles that are designed to insert SEAL operators underwater, from long distances offshore.
- Group FOUR is comprised of all of the Navy's Special Boat Teams.
- The Navy Special Warfare Development Group, also known as Dev Group or DEVGRU, is the United States military's premier Maritime Counter-Terrorism unit. While the Navy confirms the existence of the unit, it merely states that the role of Dev Group is to test, evaluate, and develop technology and maritime, ground and airborne tactics for Navy Special Warfare. No official mention of Counter-Terrorism concerning DEVGRU is made. Though much of the information regarding this unit is classified, it is estimated that the group consists of approximately 200 active operators.
- The Naval Special Warfare Center, located in Coronado, California, is the main training center for Navy special operations personnel. It is here that SEAL recruits undergo the initial six-month-long Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL course. Following three weeks of additional parachute training with the Army, recruits return to Coronado for the 19-week SEAL Qualification Training , after which they are officially named a SEAL.
Although not under the jurisdiction of NSW Command, Navy
Explosive Ordnance Disposal Units often work closely with special operations teams. Trained to be combat-ready and highly mobile, EOD units are entrusted with nullifying hazardous ordnance in a number of different maritime environments. They are also able to conduct underwater anti-mine operations using marine mammals.
Coastal warfare
Coastal and harbor defense and protection of naval assets are placed under the jurisdiction of two Naval Coastal Warfare Groups: one for the Pacific Fleet and one for the Atlantic Fleet. Within these groups are
Mobile Security Squadrons and
Naval Coastal Warfare Squadrons. MSSs deploy Mobile Security Detachments that protect high value naval targets from terrorist attacks in ports and harbors where U.S. shore infrastructure is limited or does not exist. Naval Coastal Warfare Squadrons provide surveillance and security in harbors, coasts, and inshore areas. They are comprised of
Mobile Inshore Undersea Warfare Units and
Inshore Boat Units . MIUWUs are charged with security, observation, and communications support for commanders operating in an inshore/coast environment, including anchorages and harbors. In the same operating environment, IBUs manage water craft for security, interdiction and surveillance.
Military Sealift Command
Military Sealift Command serves not only the United States Navy, but the entire Department of Defense as the ocean carrier of materiel during peacetime and war. It transports equipment, fuel, ammunition, and other goods essential to the smooth function of United States armed forces worldwide. Up to 95% of all supplies needed to sustain the U.S. military can be moved by Military Sealift Command. MSC operates approximately 120 ships with 100 more in reserve and is unique in that its ships are manned not by active duty Navy personnel, but by civil service or contract merchant mariners.
Four programs comprise Military Sealift Command: Sealift, Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force , Special Mission, and Prepositioning. The Sealift program provides the bulk of the MSC’s supply-carrying operation and operates tankers for fuel transport and dry-cargo ships that transport equipment, vehicles, helicopters, ammunition, and supp
