I thought it would be interesting on this day of all days, December 7th, to discuss the art of war at sea. In 1941, conventional wisdom linked national power with the battleship. That was how you rattled your saber in those days. After that infamous December day, the battleship yielded to the aircraft carrier. That was the new symbol of military power. But from beneath the surface of the oceans rose a new power, the submarine. Nuclear powered and nuclear armed, the submarine became the symbol of a nation’s military virility. The more nuclear armed subs the better. But a submarine is an underwater boat, not a massive surface ship with acres of supersonic fighters and attack choppers on its deck. So, even today, diplomacy still relies on the aircraft carrier as its “stick” in negotiations with unruly nations. Problems in the Persian Gulf? Just send a carrier fleet.
An aircraft carrier with thousands of sailors on board is a sitting duck for a nuclear-tipped hyper-sonic missile. It would do little better against a stealthy attack submarine with high-speed nuclear-armed torpedoes. And the attack submarine could even be an unmanned drone.
Throughout history, control of the oceans was important for logistical reasons. However, there have always been two important classes of logistics: your necessary survival supply lines and your opponent’s attack and invasion supply lines. Protecting your logistical routes and disrupting the enemy’s in modern warfare requires air superiority over the oceans. It is not clear that a slow moving, massive surface vessel can provide that superiority.
I am sure there are military strategists thinking through all of this. But the recent glimpse of the quality of their civilian and military leadership is worrisome. It should be.
Excellent subject to raise on this day of remembrance (for those of us old enough to know the impact of Pearl Harbor). And your concluding point is extremely worrisome. Here is a headline from last month: China Has World’s Largest Navy With 355 Ships and Counting, Says Pentagon. And now China plans to build a naval base on the Atlantic coast of West Africa. And dare we mention Russia massing nearly 100K military around the Ukraine border. We need the Prince of Peace even more now given global tensions.