THIS is Why US Navy Went from Sail Boats to Aircraft Carriers
The United States is, and always has been, a maritime nation- this is the story of how the US Navy went from sails to nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. America is one of the largest nations on earth, which leads many to forget just how important the ocean has always been for the US. During the colonial era, the colonies relied heavily on overseas trade, inspiring a rich naval tradition that produced many seafaring captains and expert shipbuilders. The East Coast was a rich source of building materials, especially the oak forests around Massachusetts, and by 1680, the colony had over two dozen sawmills in the Northeast alone. Demand for lumber was so great that it prompted the early Americans to develop many revolutionary technologies, such as the water sawmill. Thick pine forests also provided the pitch and gum that would be used to waterproof ships, making the small colonies a powerhouse of ship construction. Early America's expertise in
shipbuilding and rich resources were so valuable to the British Empire that the colonies were seen as of critical importance to national security and the health of the Royal Navy. The official birth of an independent American navy, however, would come courtesy of the British. When Britain tried to force the Americans to drink tea and wear funny wigs forever, the colonies revolted- and of pressing need was a continental navy to fend off the mighty Royal Navy. At the time, American seamen were prolific smugglers, but royal navy ships frequently intercepted American ships- putting a serious crunch on the economy of the colonies. On August 26th, 1775, Rhode Island
passed a resolution calling for a national navy to be funded by the Continental Congress. However, George Washington was already acquiring ships to form the start of a formal navy, and the poor finances of the colonies necessitated tabling the resolution for the time being. It was clear, though, that without freedom of navigation for its ships, the colonies would not last long under the thumb of the royal navy. Thus, with mounting pressure from the colonies, the
Continental Congress approved the establishment of the Continental Navy on October 13th, 1775- a date that the US Navy counts as its official birthday. The first purchase for the official navy would be two ships to be operated as privateers, targeting British shipping. A common practice by many world powers at the time, privateers were basically naval mercenaries- they carried out attacks on enemy shipping with the blessing of their sponsor and were entitled to seizing and selling cargo, crew, and even the ships themselves, with a portion of their earnings taken by the privateer's sponsor. For the young United States, this
was an excellent way to harass British shipping while earning some badly needed coin in return. In December, the Continental Congress approved the construction of thirteen brand-new frigates to be operated as part of a continental navy. These ships were built hastily and significantly outmatched by their Royal Navy counterparts- but they served the purpose of harassing the Royal Navy and slowing the progress of the British army making landfall on the colonies. Famously, Benedict Arnold successfully delayed British forces entering from Canada with a fleet of 12 hastily built ships, buying time for the continental army to reinforce Fort Ticonderoga. The official continental navy would meet with little success, hopelessly outmatched by the far more powerful royal navy. However, American privateers managed to inflict considerable
damage on British shipping. The colonies sent agents to Europe and the Caribbean, who, along with the colonies, issued an estimated over 2,000 commissions to various privateers. This would result in over 2,200 British merchant ships being captured by American privateers, inflicting a significant financial blow on the trade-dependent British empire. In 1783, Americans won the right to drink high fructose corn syrup, and King George called it quits. The American Revolutionary War was, by all accounts, a minor affair for the globe-spanning British empire- and yet it was a disproportionately costly one. The entry of the French on the American's side further complicated matters, and Britain's globe-spanning commitments prevented it from massing the type of power needed to crush the resistance.
America had thrown off the shackles of the metric system and won its freedom, but the young nation was desperately broke. To make matters worse for the nascent navy, there was a litany of domestic issues that took precedence over any international concerns, prompting Congress to disband the navy and sell off all of the ships currently in service. However, both domestic and international problems would soon arrive. By 1790, the US Navy was nothing more than a wartime memory, and yet the nation was facing a critical economic threat. With little economy to speak of, the government relied on tariffs
placed on imported goods to fund itself, which prompted rampant smuggling. In order to combat the epidemic of smugglers, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton implored Congress to create the Revenue-Marine. This progenitor of the US Coast Guard was less about saving people in distress and more about getting Uncle Sam's money, resulting in ten cutters that would be responsible for cracking down on smuggling and ensuring much-needed tax money flowed. But in 1793, Portugal let the evil genie out of the bottle. Portugal had been blockading the
Strait of Gibraltar, which prevented pirates from the Barbary states from sailing out into the open Atlantic. At the start of the French Revolutionary Wars, though, Portugal and Algiers negotiated a truce that allowed the pirates to roam the seas once more. American ships, which had long enjoyed the protection of the Royal Navy, were now fair game- and almost immediately, Barbary pirates captured 11 American ships and over a hundred sailors.
The United States was too poor to pay the tribute demanded by the Barbary states, and with no navy to protect them, American merchants were at the mercy of roving pirates. The northern states pressed Congress to invest in the building of a new fleet, but the southern states largely believed that it would ultimately be a waste of money and only cause trouble, inviting the US to get embroiled in foreign affairs. Ultimately, the Naval Act of 1794 would authorize the construction of six frigates, revitalizing the American navy. However, due to pressure from relatives and the public at large, Congress ended up amending the Naval Act after raising $800,000 to appease the Algerians and ensure the release of hostages. Only three of the six frigates would end up being built: the United States, Constellation, and the ship that would become a national legacy: the Constitution.
Soon, though, more problems would be heaped on the young nation. Under the same Treaty of Alliance, signed in 1778, which had brought France into the war on the Americans side, the US was obligated to help France in its wars with Britain. The fledgling US sought neutrality with both sides, which led to predictably poor relations with both Britain and France. Ultimately, the US would sign the Jay Treaty in 1794, normalizing relations with Great Britain and opening up economic opportunities for the colonies. This angered the French,
who immediately went to war with America on the high seas. By 1797, the French had seized over 300 American merchant ships, and President John Adams threw his full support behind building the three additional frigates originally part of the Naval Act of 1794. The Department of the Navy would be formed on April 30th, 1798, separate from the War Department and responsible for running the entire maritime war against France. The war was largely fought by French privateers who plundered American shipping right off its own coast. In an act of unofficial cooperation, British and American merchants would band together and sail in protected convoys guarded by each other's warships. The quasi-war as it was known- for a declaration of war was
never issued by either side- would result in the first official victory of the United States Navy, with the capture of the French privateer Le Croyable by the USS Delaware on July 7th, 1798. The Navy's first victory over an actual warship would be on February 9th, 1799, when the Constellation captured the French frigate L'Insurgente and her full load of croissants. By the end of 1800, France ended the quasi-war with a formal agreement with the United States. Fearful of the US Navy being disarmed a second time, Congress rushed through an act authorizing a peacetime navy before elections took place- this would prove a wise decision almost immediately.
On May 10th, 1801, the Tripoli pirates chopped down the flag in front of the American embassy and declared war on the United States. This was in response to the United States refusing to pay tribute to Tripolitania in exchange for its pirates not raiding American shipping. Sweden would join with the United States, as it had already been at war for a full year for also refusing to pay tribute. The Barbary pirates were made up of the semi-autonomous Ottoman provinces of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, as well as the independent Sultanate of Morocco. These pirates ran roughshod across the Atlantic, capturing as many as 1.25 million Europeans between the 16th and 19th centuries and selling them as slaves. This made the pirates very wealthy and very powerful.
On June 23rd, 1786, Morocco signed a treaty with the United States that ended all Moroccan piracy against US interests. It also stated that any Americans captured by any Barbary pirates aboard ships docked at Moroccan ports were to be set free and placed under the protection of the Moroccan government itself. Negotiations with Algeria, however, failed to produce any results. All four Barbary Coast States demanded $660,000 in tribute each, but the American diplomats had only been allocated a budget of $40,000 total. War was inevitable, and in 1801, when President Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated, he refused a renewed request for tribute.
The US would cooperate with the Kingdom of Naples and the Swedish Navy to wage war on the Barbary pirates within the Mediterranean. Ultimately, it would be a cross-desert march by 8 US Marines and a force of 500 mercenaries that captured the Tripolitan city of Derna and urged the signing of a peace treaty. The First Barbary War would be a huge boon to the United States, which until that point had been untested in a major war away from home. It proved to the world that the colonies could fight together as a cohesive force, as well as the skill and bravery of American sailors and Marines.
Having learned nothing from history and under financial stress, President Jefferson reduced the navy significantly after the war. Instead, Jefferson believed that only a force of gunboats- far smaller ships without the capacity to fight war on the open sea or far from home- were necessary to protect Atlantic harbors. This would come back to bite the US in the rear with the declaration of war against Britain in 1812. In order to bolster its forces during its wars against France, the Royal Navy had taken to impressing American sailors since 1799. Under the guise of repatriating British deserters- which, technically, every single person in America was one- the British impressed an estimated 10,000 sailors in thirteen years. This prompted the United States to declare war on Britain.
The American navy was outnumbered 50 to 1, with the British fielding better ships and more firepower. Despite this, the young navy managed some impressive victories early in the war, and the Constitution would earn her nickname of “Old Ironsides” after sailors from HMS Guerriere watched their cannon balls bounce off the incredibly strong oak hull. American sailors would score victories in South America and the Pacific, where the USS Essex raided British shipping and whaling vessels. However, ultimately,
the weight of numbers was against the Americans- and soon, US ships were blockaded in their ports, unable to leave. Despite this, stunning American victories at the Battles of Lake Champlain and Lake Erie prompted an end to the war by cutting off the British advance in the north. They would ensure that the lakes would not become economically exclusive to the British in the subsequent peace treaty. This would be a massive boon to the future economy
of the United States- with hundreds of millions of dollars in shipping crossing each lake every year. At the end of the War of 1812, the US turned its attention back to the matter of Barbary piracy. Morocco had rescinded its earlier agreement with the US, and piracy had continued during and after the war against the British. President Madison requested that Congress declare a state of war against the Dey and Regency of Algiers to solve the problem once and for all, and while the war was not formally declared, the president was given full power to do as he saw fit to protect American seamen and commerce in the region.
On May 20th, 1815, a 10-ship squadron left New York and headed for the Mediterranean. After capturing and sinking numerous Algerian ships, the naval squadron started negotiations with the various rulers- demanding compensation for past offenses and threatening all-out war if it was refused. After returning two captured vessels to the Algerians, they agreed to end all tribute demands and released any American hostages, along with $10,000 in compensation. This would mark the beginning of the end of Barbary piracy,
with America and European powers now building much technologically superior and better-equipped ships that the pirates couldn't hope to match. At the end of the Second Barbary War, three centuries of piracy had come to an end, a major accomplishment for the young US Navy. For the next three decades, the US Navy enjoyed a period of relative peace and quiet. The young nation was growing, which meant a stronger economy and better funding- but the Navy was still frequently underfunded. While the adoption of new technologies such as steam power,
armored ships, and shell guns made the Navy more than a match for any pirate- and effectively ended the age of piracy- the US still lagged significantly behind larger global powers such as Britain and France. Luckily, no new conflicts arose, and the United States' growing land power made it untenable for European powers to challenge it on the continent. The age of piracy persisted a bit longer in the waters off South America, where the newly independent Latin American countries hired privateers to harass European shipping. President James Madison made it a priority to end piracy and open up American shipping in the area, but preferred a carrot-and-stick approach that prioritized diplomacy, backed up by the guns of the West India Squadron. This formation of American warships utilized frigates to protect merchant ships, while smaller and faster ships would scout the coastline and nearby islands, looking for places pirates would lay in hiding. This allowed the Navy to rapidly
find and destroy the pirates; their ships either sunk or seized. The USS Sea Gull would be the first steam-powered ship in history to engage in combat during this counter-piracy operation. By 1826, South American pirates had been pacified either through diplomacy or force of arms, and the region was safe for American shipping.
Back on the world stage, the US Navy was called upon to help the British enforce an end to the trans-pacific slave trade. However, the southern states and their chosen congressmen worked hard to suppress the effort, sabotaging it from within. The African squadron was formed in 1820 but withdrawn just three years later, with claims that the ships were needed for the South American anti-piracy campaign. In truth, vested southern business interests were putting major pressure on Congress to not stop the slave trade they depended on. It wouldn't be until 1842, and the signing of the Webster-Ashburton treaty, which resolved several border disputes between the US and British colonies in North America, that US ships were forced by treaty to return to the duty of intercepting slave vessels. However, fewer ships than were required for the mission were assigned,
and of those that were assigned, they were too large to operate near the African coast, where slaving vessels would lurk. In five years, the British would capture 423 ships carrying 27,000 slaves, while the US squadron only captured ten ships. During the Mexican-American War of 1845 to 1848, the Navy would play a far smaller role than the US Army- but a critical one in two key conflict zones. On March 9th, 1847, an operation was hatched to assault the Mexican fortress town of Veracruz.
At the time, Veracruz was the most heavily defended fort in all the American continent, with a garrison of 3,360 soldiers spread out across three mutually supporting forts. Two of the forts were equipped with 89 guns each, and one, sitting just off shore, had 135 guns. The Navy, operating a small fleet of various craft, would be instrumental in the siege to come by successfully landing the invasion force in a single day without any loss of life. Back home, it was becoming clear that discipline and poor training were a significant problem in the US Navy. Discipline was much more lax than in the Royal Navy, after which the US Navy had been modeled, and there was no professional training for officers. This would change with the establishment of the United States Naval Academy in 1851, reshaping the old American Navy into a more modern, professional force. The experience
and education gained by new officers would also prove indispensable in various smaller conflicts that the Navy would take part in during the next few decades. When the siege officially began, the Navy would bombard the defensive works from offshore, breaking the walls of Fort Santiago. Meanwhile, in the Pacific, the navy cut Mexican troops off from reinforcements and chased off any Mexican ships. This would, in turn, lead to the capture of California from Mexico, which the Mexican government was forced to accept as a term of peace. Unable to challenge the Pacific squadron, Mexico was left without hope of holding on to its territory in what would become a future US state.
After the war, the United States turned its focus on opening up trade with Japan. The nation was in a state of full-blown xenophobia, wanting nothing to do with Europeans whom they considered barbarians. After witnessing the first and second opium wars, the Japanese became even more adamant about keeping Westerners out- but a fierce debate raged within the Japanese government on how best to do that. Traditionalists wanted to stick to Japanese methods and strategies, while reformists pointed out the need to adopt advanced Western technology. Amidst this debate, Commodore Matthew C. Perry arrived in Japan with a squadron of four heavily
armed frigates. The United States wished to open Japan up to American shipping- if not trade, then at least to allow American whalers to dock and purchase supplies and for ships experiencing emergencies to be granted access to Japanese ports and their crews to receive good treatment. Perry had come prepared for diplomacy or violence, and to demonstrate his resolve, he ordered his ships to fire on several empty buildings around the harbor in Tokyo Bay. The new Paixhans shell guns blasted the buildings to pieces, deeply impressing the Japanese observers. Eventually, Japan agreed to the establishment of an American consul in Shimoda and to allow American whalers or those experiencing maritime emergencies to dock in Japanese harbors. This would kick the door open to Japan for the rest of the world, ending centuries of isolationism.
The opening of Japan would catapult the United States to the forefront of the world stage, now seen as a mature and global power. It directly led to the normalizing of relations with Europe, including trade, and the grudging respect and acceptance by European powers of American might. The US, which had been largely seen as a backwater nation, had scored two major back-to-back victories- the defeat of Mexico in the American-Mexican war and the opening of Japan to global trade.
When the First American Civil War broke out, the Union Navy would prove decisive in the conflict. Winfield Scott, commanding general of the American Army, decided that the best way to defeat the Confederacy was to strangle it to death. The South's lack of heavy industry made it extremely reliant on imports for its war needs, with trade deals in place with many European powers. Southern
cotton and tobacco were highly sought after and fetched high prices around the world. Yet if the South couldn't export its cotton, it wouldn't be able to finance its insurgency. Thus, the Anaconda Plan was devised, with the Union Navy establishing a blockade of every Southern port along the eastern seaboard and into the Gulf of Mexico. This, combined with the capture of the Mississippi River, would effectively paralyze the Southern economy. The Confederates grew desperate to break the Union blockades, which were
choking the South economically, prompting some ingenious developments in naval war, such as the first use of the submarine in combat. The CSS David would attack the USS New Ironsides utilizing a spar torpedo- which amounts to an explosive mounted on a long pole and put at the bow of a ship. When the explosive head made contact with an enemy vessel, it exploded. The crude weapon successfully detonated but caused only minor damage to the New Ironsides, while the resulting geyser of water drowned the proto-submarine's boiler and immobilized her.
While submarines were tried and tested as ways of beating the suffocating Union blockades, the South did manage to produce more ironclads during the war than the Union. However, the Union responded by building a fleet of monitor ships- small, lightly armored but disproportionately armed ships that could be produced quickly. These ships rode so low in the water that only their turrets were above the breaking waves and carried very powerful cannons disproportionate to their small size. The monitors were very effective and would be exported to Europe, where they served until after the First World War. The Union blockade would prove decisive, ending the war by starving the South into submission. However, immediately after the war, the US Navy went into a steep decline
once more. At the end of the war, the US Navy operated 700 ships and 60 coastal ironclads, making it the second most powerful in the world after the Royal Navy. However, this was slashed down to 48 commissioned ships and 6,000 men, with decrepit shore facilities and dockyards that Congress had allowed to languish. When Cuban revolutionaries hired an American ship to deliver troops to Cuba to fight the Spanish, the Spanish navy captured said ship and began to execute its American and British crew, charging them as pirates. Britain stepped in,
and negotiations between the three sides began. During those negotiations, the Spanish sent an ironclad to dock in New York harbor. US Navy leaders realized that, at the moment, they had no ships which could defeat the Spanish ironclad in service, prompting a panic by Congress fueled along by the belief that the US and Spain might go to war soon. In 1881, President James A. Garfield took office and ordered a review of the US Navy. He discovered that of 140 ships on the Navy's registry, only 52 were actually operational- and of these, only 17 were iron-hulled. 14 of the 17 were obsolete and aging Civil War relics of little
use in a modern fight. A focus on building monitor ships meant the US could not project power past its own shores, and morale in the US Navy was low as every officer and sailor knew that in case of war with Spain or any other maritime power, the US would be easily defeated. The Navy would embark on a period of rebuilding in 1883 when Garfield's request for lasagna and increased funding for new ships was approved by Congress. This led to the construction of
several protected cruisers as well as the first battleships of the US Navy: the USS Texas and the USS Maine. These new ships were quickly proven to be technologically advanced and extremely capable. As the US accomplished its expansion across the American continent, it began to look outwards for new avenues of economic and political power. The strong support for further American expansion led to a building boom for the US Navy, with the building of nine more battleships by the start of the 20th century. But the US would soon prove itself a global maritime power. In 1898, the USS Maine was sunk by an internal explosion while docked in Havana Harbor. The US had been trying to pressure Spain to sell some of its colonial holdings, but Spain had refused. Despite knowing the Maine had been sunk by an internal accident,
newspapers pushed anti-Spanish propaganda that soon put the US on the warpath with Spain. The US Navy would perform admirably during the war, with the Asiatic Squadron dispatched to the Philippines, where they crushed the Spanish fleet protecting their colony. In the Caribbean, the North Atlantic Squadron likewise delivered a decisive defeat to Spanish vessels protecting the Cuban colony. However, despite these victories, it was clear that the United States had taken a significant risk. With no overseas holdings, the US had flirted with disaster, as severe damage to the ships would have left them with nowhere to dock for repairs. Likewise,
operating 7,000 miles from friendly ports, as in the case of the Asiatic Squadron, meant that there was always the risk of simply running out of supplies and being forced to surrender. The taking of the Philippines would give the US a critical foothold in the Pacific, while at the start of the 20th century, President Theodore Roosevelt reached agreements- sometimes through coercion- with Latin American nations. However, Roosevelt had his eyes set on a major prize- the construction of a canal across Colombian-controlled Panama. This would allow ships to easily transit from the Atlantic to the Pacific, a major strategic and economic boon for the United States. However,
the Colombian senate failed to ratify a treaty that would allow the construction of the canal by the United States and subsequently leave it in US control. In response, Roosevelt told Panamanian rebels that the US Navy would prevent interference from Colombia if they rebelled. The rebels would successfully liberate themselves from Colombia thanks to the assistance of the USS Nashville, which prevented Colombia from dispatching reinforcements. The canal was
approved for construction, and the US purchased control of the Panama Canal Zone for $10 million. Roosevelt's Big Stick diplomacy hinged heavily on an invigorated US navy, and under his watch, the American Navy expanded to become the second most powerful in the world. A program of apprenticeship also established a formal and professional military education for enlisted sailors. By
the construction of the Panama Canal, the United States Navy began to resemble the Navy of today. But Roosevelt wasn't done. He ordered the construction of 16 pre-dreadnoughts, which were formed into what was termed the 'great white fleet' for the color of their hulls. These mighty ships were then sent on a cruise around the world, stopping in ports of friends and enemies alike, with foreign dignitaries invited aboard. The professional conduct of the American sailors, coupled with the considerable firepower on display, cemented the US as a world power, as well as the credibility of American military might.
Behind the scenes, though, a fight for the future of the Navy was playing out, and it almost ensured the United States lost World War II. At the turn of the 20th century, two key technologies were sparking debate about the future of naval warfare around the world. The first of these was the torpedo, which had originally been developed as an unpiloted, self-propelled boat that could be steered using long yoke lines.
However, in 1895, the use of the gyroscope allowed torpedoes to correct their own course, greatly opening up the possibilities of the torpedo. Soon, torpedoes were able to alter their course up to a full 90 degrees from launch, meaning ships no longer had to be broadside to an enemy vessel. Further refinements to torpedoes allow them to travel further and without the need to be physically tethered to a launch platform. Packed with a large warhead, torpedoes could sink or seriously damage even the most well armored battleships, and soon navies around the world began to develop small, fast torpedo boats. The Royal Navy would
be the first to adopt the use of torpedo boats, with others quickly following suit. The invention of modern torpedoes at the turn of the century created great controversy amongst American naval officers. The battleship was an impressive and fearsome weapon of war- but during its entire history, the battleship only played a decisive role in a single naval engagement: the Battle of Jutland. In the pre-war years, many American naval officers were already aware of the battleship's vulnerability to small, fast torpedo boats and their general lack of utility other than as a powerful symbol of political resolve. They argued that the navy would be better served with a fleet of small, nimble torpedo boats for ship-on-ship combat and a few larger gun platforms for shore bombardment.
At the same time, the airplane was becoming exponentially more capable. Many had already seen the writing on the wall during the First World War, and immediately after the war, there was a strong push for wider adoption of the airplane and the aircraft carrier not as tools to support the battleship but to be the premier tool of naval power. This ignited a heated internal war amongst the political and military leadership of the United States, with the old guard refusing to believe the aircraft could ever supplant the mighty battleship. In 1919, Chief of Naval Operations William S. Benson even tried to do away with aviation entirely in the Navy, but his plans were scuttled by President Roosevelt.
Leading the charge for the adoption of the aircraft carrier was US Army airman Billy Mitchell. Mitchell directly attacked Navy leadership, which made him deeply unpopular, but his status as a World War I hero gave him significant public reach. It was his access to the public that forced the navy to accept his challenge when he proposed trials using decommissioned battleships that would pit his bombers against their ship. Navy leadership
scoffed at the idea that an airplane could sink a ship, and the trials were approved- but Mitchell was sabotaged at every step of the way. The Battleship lobby was so afraid that Mitchell might succeed that they repeatedly changed the rules of the exercise, including moving the target battleship out to deeper waters where the reverberation from bomb strikes couldn't bounce off the sea floor and strike the ship from below, damaging or even sinking it. The added distance also significantly reduced the amount of time Mitchell's pilots would have for bomb runs, and they even tried to limit how many bombs could actually be dropped.
Despite the best efforts of Navy leadership, Mitchell's team struck true, and the target battleship was sunk in short order. Mitchell would repeat the results in two more tests, sinking another two decommissioned dreadnoughts with his bombers. However, the Navy attempted to suppress the results of the tests until they were leaked to the press. Despite this, the Navy refused to budge and give up its battleships- but the limitations on the total tonnage and number of capital ships each nation could build put in place by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1921 favored the building of more aircraft carriers. Before he died, Mitchell predicted that the next great war would be waged with the aircraft carrier as the primary tool of naval might. He also predicted that the war would be against Japan and that Japan would carry out an attack on Pearl Harbor using aircraft carriers.
As the tensions leading to World War II mounted, the Navy saw a significant increase in capability with the Second Vinson Act, which prompted a 20% increase in the size of the Navy, and the Two-Ocean Navy Act of 1940, which would lead to the greatest increase in naval power in US history. The Act authorized the navy to procure 8 Essex class aircraft carriers, 2 Iowa class battleships, 5 Montana class battleships, 6 Alaska class large cruisers, 4 Baltimore class heavy cruisers, 4 Atlanta class anti-aircraft cruisers, an additional 115 destroyers, 43 new submarines, and 15,000 aircraft. As the US began a major shipbuilding program, it started to lend its old destroyers out to Britain in 1940 in exchange for access to British bases. As German U-boat attacks escalated, the Atlantic Fleet was formally reactivated a year later. On April 9th of 1941, the destroyer USS Niblack would be the first US Navy vessel to engage an enemy ship during the World War 2 period. While engaged in the rescue of the crew of a Dutch freighter who'd been torpedoed by a German U-boat, the Niblack detected the submarine and dropped depth charges on its location.
The submarine had grown in capabilities during the interwar period. American naval officers were so impressed with the German use of U-boats in the First World War that they lobbied for a large expansion of the submarine force. However, on inspection of captured German U-boats, it was clear that America needed to do some significant work to increase the capabilities of its submarines. Older officers believed that submarines should serve as scouts for the surface fleets and assist during fleet-on-fleet engagements. However, submarines were far slower than surface vessels and unsuited for the role. Younger officers, impressed by the German U-boat campaign in the First World War, instead lobbied for the submarine to be used as an offensive weapon to attack merchant shipping deep in enemy waters. They would win out in the end,
and shortly after Pearl Harbor was attacked, US submarines were let loose on Japanese shipping. In the wake of World War II, the United States would become- and remain- the undisputed global naval power. But how it projected that power was once more in fierce debate. The Truman administration wished to depend on strategic bombers in
use by the Air Force combined with nuclear weapons as the primary deterrent to war, while the Navy argued that conventional power was still critical to safeguarding US interests. The Navy also wanted the role of strategic nuclear bombing for itself, prompting intense disagreement from the Air Force. Eventually, Truman would get his way, and the Air Force would get its strategic bombers, but as the Korean War broke out, it became clear that nuclear power alone was not enough to deter conflict. All of Truman's proposed cuts to the Navy would end up being reversed, though the Air Force would remain the strategic arm of the nuclear triad. The Korean War also made it clear that in order to preserve peace, the United States could not afford to be an isolationist power anymore. Traditionally, the size of the US naval fleet always shrunk dramatically during peacetime, but now, for the first time in its history, the United States realized that it needed a much larger peacetime navy than ever before. The US would
develop the seeds of what would eventually become its global strategic commands, with different navy fleets assigned to different geographic areas around the world. The threat of a US fleet near the shores of potential hot spots had a dramatic effect in limiting the spread of new wars. The adoption of nuclear power made this possible, and now US carriers and nuclear submarines could prowl waters far from home without intense logistical support. With the successful integration of submarine-launched ballistic missiles, the Navy was once more treading on the Air Force's toes- who at the time held the sole job of responding to nuclear attacks with its own ballistic missiles. But submarine-launched weapons were far more survivable than land-based ones, and the Navy's fleet of ballistic missile submarines- or boomers- became the third leg of the nuclear triad. Despite its global mission, though, the Navy would shrink again due to the focus on ground and air combat in Korea and then Vietnam. By 1978, the Navy numbered at only 217 ships and
119 submarines- dwarfed by the Soviet fleet in everything but aircraft carriers. American military planners believed that in case of war, there was a good chance the US Navy would be beaten by the Soviet Navy and its superior numbers, prompting President Ronald Reagan to dramatically increase shipbuilding. The Navy swelled to 588 vessels by 1988, though inevitably, that number would decline with the end of the Cold War. Entering the new millennium, the Navy operated under a doctrine that called for the US to fight and win two simultaneous high-intensity wars anywhere in the world. The importance of the Navy, with its global reach, was paramount in such a scenario, yet the lack of a true peer competitor led to stagnation. US anti-submarine capabilities, which had once made it the best in the world at the task, had atrophied to such a sorry state that in exercises against a Swedish sub in 2005, the HMS Gotland managed to score multiple killing blows on a US carrier.
The focus on the war on terror wouldn't help matters much for the Navy, and it wouldn't be until the 2010s that the United States would wake up to the threat posed by the rising power of China. In his second term, President Barack Obama announced the famous pivot to the Pacific, moving a significant amount of Atlantic naval power into the Pacific theater. Up against China, the US Navy realized that it was now facing a foe that its aging Cold War-era fleet would be ill-prepared to face. A slew of rapid modernization initiatives were immediately put into place, including the development of a new generation of aircraft carriers, a new carrier fighter, and a new anti-ship missile. The Harpoon had performed admirably in Cold War era conflicts, but by the 21st century, it was dated technology, and there was a loss of confidence that its small warhead of 500 pounds would ensure a fatal blow on an enemy ship. Advancements in missile defense also made the probability of intercept unacceptably high. The Long Range Anti-Ship Missile would be set to rectify those problems with a warhead
double the size, and stealth features to dramatically reduce intercept ranges. Yet today despite fielding a navy more capable than its Chinese counterpart, the US Navy still faces a significant shortage of combat power. To remedy this situation, the Navy has begun what might be its most revolutionary change since the adoption of the aircraft carrier. Known as the Ghost Fleet, the US Navy is planning to add over 100 unmanned vessels to directly support manned ships. These drone ships would offset superior Chinese numbers and undertake missions too dangerous for crewed ships in China's increasingly lethal anti-access/area-denial bubble. The United States Navy has been the dominant naval power for nearly a hundred years and is set to remain so despite challenges from China. Yet the rapidly evolving nature of technology
could change the balance of power in the blink of an eye if the Navy proves as stubborn about embracing change as it has been in the past. Now go check out What If Hitler Won WWII- 1950s, or click this other video instead!
2024-05-19 00:10
