Welcome to the CavasShips Podcast with Christopher P. Cavas and Chris Servello…a weekly podcast looking at naval and maritime events and issues of the day – in the US, across the seas and around the world. This week…noted naval historian and author Dr BJ Armstrong joins us to discuss how using the lens of history can better guide what type of Navy we need and what level of national coordination is required.
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This Week’s Naval News:
A second Russian Navy task group is about to visit Havana, Cuba, the Russian media outlet Ria Novosti reported July 25. Frigate NEUSTRASHIMY, training ship SMOLNY and oiler YELNYA, all of the Russian Baltic Fleet, arere to be at Havana from July 27 through the 30th. The visit follows that of another group of four Russian Navy ships, including a nuclear-powered submarine and a frigate, who visited Havana during mid-June.
The aircraft carrier USS RONALD REAGAN arrived at San Diego July 23 to begin a hull swap with the carrier USS GEORGE WASHINGTON, who has been at the California port since July 10. REAGAN returned to the United States after nine years as the US Navy’s forward-deployed aircraft carrier in Japan. The swap is to be completed by August 1, when the GEORGE WASHINGTON will again be the forward-deployed carrier in Japan and deploy with Japan-based Carrier Air Wing Five. After the swap, REAGAN will head for a refit at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington.
The Chinese Type 052D destroyer JIAOZUO arrived at Saint Petersburg, Russia July 22 to take part in Russia’s Navy Day celebrations. The destroyer is part of China’s 46th escort task group which was conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden. The Russian Navy will hold a scaled-down naval parade at Saint Petersburg on Navy Day, July 28. JIAOZUO deployed in February of this year with the 46th escort force.
The Indian frigate BRAHMAPUTRA capsized and sank July 23 while undergoing maintenance at the naval dockyard in Mumbai. The 3,850-ton warship fell over on her port side a day after a fire broke out on board and a large amount of water was used to douse the flames. One sailor was missing after the incident.
In old ship news, the decommissioned assault ship TARAWA (LHA 1) was sunk July 19 during a Sinking Exercise that was part of RIMPAC exercises near Hawaii. The 820-foot-long TARAWA, who was in service from 1976 to 2009, was sent to the bottom of the Pacific by a variety of weapons launched from ships and aircraft; the weapons included a QUICKSINK joint direct attack munition launched from a US Air Force B-52 bomber; LRASM Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles fired from a US Navy F/A-18F strike fighter, and a Naval Strike Missile launched by the Australian destroyer SYDNEY. Earlier, on July 11, the decommissioned landing ship dock DUBUQUE (LPD 8) was also sunk during a RIMPAC SINKEX. DUBUQUE served from 1967 to 2011. Both ships were sunk in waters more than 15,000 feet deep.
And in new ship news, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro announced July 22 that the new expeditionary fast transport T-EPF 16 will be named LANSING, after the capital city of Michigan. And the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer PATRICK GALLAGHER DDG 127 is to be christened July 27 at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. The ship is the last Arleigh Burke Flight IIA variant to be built by Bath as all subsequent destroyers will be of the improved Flight III type.
Cavas Squawk:
That was a great discussion with BJ Armstrong. I really enjoy talking with him – an active-duty naval officer, former helicopter pilot, PhD in history, incredibly grounded in naval history, and one of the preeminent scholars on the writings of Alfred Thayer Mahan. Although it’s been about 140 years since Mahan began writing on the influence of sea power, his basic tenets regarding the role and nature of navies still hold true today. In many ways, the chief naval rival of the United States – the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy – seems to have solidly taken Mahan’s writings to heart.
Navies have been around for many centuries, and there are fundamental reasons why countries have invested so much of their wealth and treasure to create and maintain them. Those reasons, as BJ noted, include wartime and peacetime roles. While warfighting tends to get the most attention, those peacetime responsibilities are just as important – and arguably, far more significant, in that they could prevent the outbreak of immensely destructive wars.
I sometimes bristle, however, at the notion that these tenets are somehow new. In a speech last September, the Secretary of the Navy, Carlos del Toro, called for a, quote, “new maritime statecraft” to guide the US Navy in an era of intense strategic competition. Del Toro said the effort should be a national, whole-of-government effort to build comprehensive US and allied maritime power, both commercial and naval. Other elements, he said, should be strong on economic development and trade.
As my colleague Chris Servello has previously commented, this is very well and good. It is essentially as it should be.
It’s just not new. It’s classic. It’s fundamental to the role of maritime power. The Chinese have been and are doing it. The Soviets tried to do it. The Germans tried to do it prior to World War One, as a way to compete against the United Kingdom, who had at the time had been doing it for two centuries. The U.S. did it throughout the 20th Century, especially after World War Two. There are dozens of examples on smaller scales throughout recorded history.
I worry that many people today simply don’t know their history very well, or relate current issues, developments and events to situations others before them had to deal with. Even when they are aware, they often over-simplify the reasons for failures or successes and are unaware of their complexities. Study of and knowledge of those issues can only strengthen new, contemporary efforts in the same vein.
I’m glad there is broad discussion now on the importance and need for a comprehensive maritime strategy. As BJ has pointed out, it’s a topic that has a deep and rich history. I just don’t want it to become simply another cool buzz word of the moment.
