Major Naval Operations
Abstract
Naval history as generally recounted is a story of battles at sea. However, it has to be admitted that since 1945 neither the United States nor any other contemporary naval power has had much of a naval history in this sense. Domination of the oceans by the United States and its allies, together with the fortunate failure of the Cold War to culminate in a test of strength between the American and Soviet navies, meant that classic naval battle gradually faded from center stage in the education and professional orientation of American naval officers. Beginning in the early years of the Cold War, the Navy became preoccupied largely with technology and the tactical proficiency that rapidly advancing naval and weapons technologies made increasingly necessary. At the extreme, of course, the advent of nuclear weapons seemed to many to leave the Navy little role in a major global conflict other than to provide invulnerable launch platforms for these weapons and thereby a powerful deterrent that would, as it was thought, obviate their actual use. Beyond that, though, the switch to nuclear propulsion for the Navy s capital ships laid heavy technical demands on new generations of naval officers, with concomitant impact on their education and training. The result or so contends Milan Vego in On Major Naval Operations, the thirty-second volume in the Naval War College Press s Newport Papers series has been a long-standing neglect by the U.S. Navy of major naval operations and, more broadly, of the operational level of war or of naval operational art.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA593856
Entities
People
- Milan Vego
Organizations
- Naval War College