Naval Development Research Articles

A study in technology strategy: The curious case of Alfred von Tirpitz

ABSTRACTWhile studies of technology and war abound, the processes and reasoning that undergird choices about what to emphasize—i.e., “technology strategy”—have received much less attention. This analysis focuses upon the case of Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, who had a virtually free hand in setting German naval development strategy during the decades leading up to the outbreak of World War I. As significant technological advances characterized this period, Tirpitz's strategic choices from among a range of promising options comprise a fruitful subject of inquiry. That the current era features similarly significant technological advances and opportunities implies the possibility of drawing useful insights from the study of technology strategy in this earlier time.

Decolonisation, corruption and post-colonial politics in the Royal Malaysian Navy, 1946–1976

The Royal Malayan Navy (RMN) was created after the Second World War as Britain sought to secure its regional strategic and economic interests through naval and political federation. By guiding the transition towards independence through political concessions to maintain Malaya's integrity, it was hoped imperial influence could be preserved through transferring pro-British colonial institutions such as the RMN. Thus, while Malaya was declared independent on 31 August 1957, the country's navy depended upon British officers, equipment and ships for more than a decade, with UK firms continuing to profit from procurement. A culture of corruption, which developed during the war, flourished from the new opportunities post-colonial political patronage offered individuals involved in the supply and maintenance of the RMN. The ruling party also furthered their nationalist interests by imposing Malay quotas, language and religion upon the service, side-lining British-trained, non-Malay personnel whose allegiance might lie elsewhere. Decolonisation therefore created a vacuum within Malaysia's post-colonial navy which competing imperial, corporate, personal, and nationalist opportunists looked to fill. Adopting a transnational analysis combining original and existing oral histories and archival sources from Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and the UK, with conceptual writing on imperial transition, corruption and patronage, this article presents new insights into the issues created by Malaysia's decolonisation and post-colonial naval development. It widens debates on neo-colonialism and its consequences for British hegemony; how decolonisation created new opportunities for individual, political and economic advancement through the navy; and the impact of Malaysian affirmative action and ‘Islamisation’ policies upon non-Malay naval personnel.

In Memoriam: Michel K. Ochi

Dr. Michel K. Ochi, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida, Gainesville, passed on April 13, 2013, at age 92. Born in Japan, he moved permanently to the United States in 1958. He acquired two doctorate degrees, one in naval architecture from Osaka Imperial University and another in mathematical statistics from American University in Washington, DC. Professor Ochi’s international academic renown had much to do with his superb work on the prediction of extreme waves critical to the design of ocean structures, including oil and gas facilities. He was the recipient of a number of scholastic awards, including the Davidson Medal and the Linnard Prize, both from the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME), and the Navy Superior Civilian Service Award. He also received an honorary doctorate in engineering from the University of Genoa, was a Fellow of SNAME and the Royal Institute of Naval Architects, and a member of ASCE. During 1958–1979, Professor Ochi was a research scientist with the Naval Ship Research and Development Center near Washington, DC. In 1979, he joined the University of Florida as a professor in engineering and remained until his retirement. He was an excellent research guide and, most of all, greatly admired by students for his clear and precise teaching method in wave statistics and related subjects. An individual of upright character and professional honesty, his humor-filled companywill be sadlymissed by all who came to know him. He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Margaret Duke Ochi.

The research progress of diving medicine in P.R. China

Diving medicine is one of the branches of military medicine, and plays an important role in naval development. This review introduces the progress of researches on undersea and hyperbaric physiology and medicine in the past few years in China. The article describes our research achievement in conventional diving and its medical support, researches on saturation diving and its medical support, submarine escape and its medical support, effects of hyperbaric environments and fast buoyancy ascent on immunological and cardiological functions. Diving disorders (including decompression sickness and oxygen toxicity) are also introduced.

LATE GALLEYS: The Fredriksvern Naval Shipyard and the coastal defence in Norway 1750–1814

From the early 18th century the Mediterranean galley experienced a new golden age in the Baltic Sea, as it was well adapted to the shallow sea with the islands and skerries found there. In Norway the Fredriksvern naval shipyard was founded in 1750 to build a galley fleet. For various reasons progress was slow, and when the galley fleet finally was built in the 1760s, it was probably the last one in Europe. New and more efficient inshore vessels were soon developed in the neighbouring countries, but they were not put into use in Norway in the 18th century. The explanation for Norway’s poor performance was probably too much peace: when Denmark-Norway became involved in the Napoleonic Wars, naval development was dramatically improved.

Cooperation Opportunity or Confrontation Catalyst? The implication of China's naval development for China–US relations

Since the mid-1990s, China's navy has witnessed remarkable progress in force-projection capability build-up which has enabled it to move from coastal waters to the deep oceans. The continuing naval modernization process has aroused deep-rooted suspicions and two prevailing assumptions that these new capabilities will be used to challenge US maritime dominance and to fulfill national reunification of Taiwan. This article examines the validity of the hypotheses and points out that China has neither the intention nor the capabilities to pursue these objectives. By referring to the priority on China's defense agenda and imminent threat identification, this article suggests that naval modernization will enhance China's capabilities to contribute to global commons, including protection of sea lanes of communications and addressing nontraditional security threats, which will provide new opportunities and dynamics for China–US cooperation, rather than for confrontation.

Greek naval policy and the Great Powers, 1931–40

This article focuses on the inter-relationships between Greek naval development, domestic financial constraints and international naval political affairs. It begins with a survey of international naval disarmament during the early 1930s, which reinforced the adoption of the ‘flotilla navy’ concept by the Venizelos administration. This concept was further forced upon the Greek Navy by the poor state of Greece's finances. The increasing polarisation of European power politics towards the middle of the decade did not result in any significant strengthening of the Greek fleet or its supporting infrastructure, despite legislative and diplomatic initiatives. By contrast the Ethiopian crisis stimulated the establishment of a generally comprehensive Greek coastal defence system. In the countdown to the Second World War, the closing of the ring around Greece obliged the Metaxas administration to rely exclusively on anticipated British diplomatic and naval support, which was, however, hardly forthcoming for economic as well as political reasons. Indeed, the satisfactory performance of the Greek Navy during the Second World War stemmed from the successful application of a British-modelled Greek naval educational system rather than any direct and material British naval assistance.

Swedish Naval Administration, 1521-1721: Resource Flows and Organisational Capabilities, by Jan Glete

The untimely death of the Swedish historian Jan Glete has extinguished an original and penetrating intelligence. Though he was only sixty-one, he has left a formidable body of work (including twelve substantial monographs) which deserves to be better known than it is; many historians would have saved themselves time and embarrassment by reading it. The core of his interests was summed up in the title of one of his earlier books, the centenary history of the Swedish engineering concern ASEA which he published in 1987, ‘a study in the organisational, technical and economic development of a great enterprise’. He was an economic historian with a keen interest in state formation. His work was both fully informed by theoretical insights (though it was characteristic of him to have little time for the most fashionable theoreticians), and founded on extensive archival research in several countries. He read prodigiously in at least seventeen languages. Above all, he took technology seriously as a fundamental component of modern history; he did not disdain to master the details, and he did not run away from the complexity of modern states and organisations to take refuge in simple theories about simple structures. ‘Technology is part of many political, social and economic processes studied by historians and economists’, he argued, ‘and technical skills are often decisive for success and failure in human activity’. While the rest of the historical world was obsessed with the ‘military revolution’, Glete early identified navies as the most complex and technically advanced organisations in early modern Europe. ‘In an environment of fragmented and unorganised resources’, as he writes in this book, ‘a complex organisation has power far beyond the individual resources accreted to it’. Over a series of monographs, he examined the links between naval development and state formation from different perspectives, and in different countries. In most of these studies comparisons are drawn with the Swedish case, but only in this, his last book, did Glete comprehensively tackle the naval history of his own country. Swedish naval archives are rich but scattered and disorganised, and for some periods of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries even the outline of wars and battles (always the first interest of an older generation of historians) has not been properly defined. Shipbuilding, gun-founding, manning and victualling have never been covered on this scale. Indeed, scarcely any country's naval administration has been studied in this sophisticated manner, as the key to state formation. This is our first detailed analysis of the beginnings of what Patrick O’Brien has called the ‘fiscal-naval state’, and what he and Glete regard as the prototype of the modern industrial economy. It was characteristic of Glete that he made available to other scholars not only his analysis but the raw materials which underlay it; in this case numerous statistical tables, and a sixty-two page fleet list with details of every Swedish warship over two centuries, and the strength of the fleet for every year.

In Memoriam: Larry Hsu

He was a member of the American Geophysical Union. Larry received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from National Taiwan University in 1969, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University in 1971, and a Ph.D. in Marine Studies from the University of Delaware in 1981. For his dissertation, he investigated turbulent heat transfers in the atmospheric surface layer. Larry began his career in the Navy with the Mapping, Charting, and Geodesy Branch in the Marine Geosciences Division of the Naval Ocean Research and Development Activity NORDA at the Stennis Space Center, MS in 1987. He worked at the Magnetic Observatory for several years investigating ocean processes using laser technology. He developed the Tidal Atlas Software TAS , a PC-based application that allowed users to retrieve and display global tidal characteristics for any region or location. Graphical outputs included tidal data, cotidal and tidal height plots. The application was transitioned to the Naval Oceanographic Office in 1993. Larry served as an active member of the

Chinese navy's new strategy in action

The news from Tokyo on 10 April 2010 that the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force had monitored ten Chinese warships passing 140km south of Okinawa through the Miyako Strait marked a new stage in China's naval development. The deployment was of unprecedented size and scope for the Chinese navy, and was the second such operation mounted by China in rapid succession: in March, a smaller flotilla had been deployed on exercises. The two sets of exercises, along with Chinese counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, demonstrate the flexibility of China's naval forces and their greater prominence in Beijing's strategic calculations.

The biology, fishery and mamagement of the commercial scallop (Pecten famatus) in Jervis Bay, New South Wales.

Jervis Bay, Botany Bay and Twofold Bay are the only large open embayments on the New South Wales coast. Botany Bay, located in the southern suburbs of Sydney, is highly urbanised and used as a major port facility, while at Eden, Twofold Bay is in a relatively pristine state but because of its natural beauty and its proximity to Sydney and Canberra, has a large and growing fishing and diving based tourism industry. Jervis Bay also supports some commercial fishing, including intermittent but valuable scallop dredging. At present, a proposal is being considered for the Bay to be the site for a large naval base development. Since the publication of “Jervis Bay: The Future?” (Pollard, 1973) which discussed the then proposed steelworks and power station developments, few issues have generated controversy about the management of the marine environment of the Bay. During the 1980-82 scallop fishery, one such issue was whether scallop dredging should be allowed in the Bay.

Red Star over the Pacific: China's Rise and the Challenge to U.S. Maritime Strategy (review)

Reviewed by: Red Star over the Pacific: China's Rise and the Challenge to U.S. Maritime Strategy Wei-chin Lee (bio) Toshi Yoshihara and James R. Holmes. Red Star over the Pacific: China's Rise and the Challenge to U.S. Maritime Strategy. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2010. xii, 293 pp. Hardcover $36.95, ISBN 978-1-59114-390-1. If Edgar Snow's Red Star over China foretold in 1937 why the peripheral Chinese Communist Party had the potential to gain victory in the Chinese civil war in 1949, Yoshihara and Holmes's Red Star over the Pacific conveys the message that the Chinese are coming with the intent to march to the seas beyond Taiwan and into the Pacific. This message undoubtedly attracts attention and concern in East Asia because China has long been considered more of a continental power, busy managing and monitoring its long territorial borders with fourteen states, than an ambitious maritime nation. Even if China decides to seek maritime dominance, its oceanic frontier is blocked by a foreign-controlled island chain that encloses the entire Chinese coastal line. As one Chinese analyst frankly admits, China faces the predicament of "having seas but not the ocean" (p. 51)—humming a tune that recalls imperial Germany's struggle to develop a sizable and capable navy that could open the gates to the Atlantic during the age of British naval supremacy. Nevertheless, China's booming economy and technological innovations have offered both the resources needed to upgrade and uplift its naval force and the technological sophistication in missile development required to overcome the geographic barrier to the ocean. This is certainly an alarming signal to the United States, which has served as the predominant provider and guarantor of regional security and stability in the Western Pacific since 1945. Consequently, this book is a welcome addition to the study of Chinese military development. It helps readers size up China's motives and moves for a better grasp of China's naval challenges to the United States and other regional players. Any book on naval development must pay tribute to Alfred Thayer Mahan for his geopolitical insights in strategic analysis. The book opens with a layout of Mahan's dual tridents of sea power. The first trident explains why countries covet access to distant places to secure access to sources of economic well-being—foreign trade, commerce, and resources—by political measures conducive to military, particularly substantial naval, strength. With economics and commerce ranked as the predominant priorities in the first trident, any sea power should concentrate on the second trident's three prongs: domestic production base, merchant and naval shipping for economic exchanges, and overseas markets. Therefore, Mahan stresses the importance of forward naval bases and powerful battle fleets to retain command of the sea for unobstructed access to commercial benefits. For Mahan, geopolitical conditions and strategic considerations for gaining maritime access for commercial purposes construct the logic of sea power, while the material grammar of sea power consists of superior weaponry and operational platforms for naval battle efficiency and warfare. [End Page 281] In various chapters, the authors investigate and portray the intersection between Mahan's logic and grammar in China's recent naval development and deployment. By examining how Chinese military strategic thinkers interpret and apply Alfred Mahan's theory in China's geopolitical environment, chapter 2 of the book shows how Beijing pursues its maritime strategy. Much as with the introduction of Western ideas into China in the past, Chinese scholars and seafarers modify and adapt Mahan's thoughts to China's unique circumstances. They have incorporated the country's historical legacy of Sinocentric view and Mao's "active defense" concept into Mahan's malleable claims for a sea power theory "with Chinese characteristics" (p. 16). The complexity of regional alliance politics, the U.S. concerns over the effect of Kenneth Boulding's "loss-of-strength gradient" in its power projection, and China's initial jeune école approach to fleet building as well as diplomatic prudence have so far prevented both countries from outright and tense saber-rattling confrontations in their bilateral interactions in the Pacific. The authors point out that China's...

Naval and commercial fast ship development experience and further prospects

Based on reviewing various stages of the fast ship development and the problems experienced, this paper attempts to predict future optimised applications for particular engineering solutions. Also, it evaluates present research challenges facing further developments in the high-speed fleet and potential prospects of future achievements.

The Influence of Preretirement Planning and Transferability of Skills on Naval Officers' Retirement Satisfaction and Adjustment

Although there is a plethora of research regarding civilian retirees' satisfaction and adjustment, there has been very little systematic research on the same issues for military retirees. Therefore, we sought to determine if preretirement planning and having knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that are readily transferable to civilian work affected the retirement satisfaction and adjustment of retired naval officers. Data (N=672) from a large scale, longitudinal study of naval officers' career development was used. Results indicate that both preretirement planning and transferability of KSAs influence the retirement satisfaction and adjustment of naval officers. The authors discuss how these findings add to our understanding of both military retirement and civilian late career transitions.

VHF radar sea scatter and propagation at grazing angles less than 1°

Measurements of low grazing angle radar sea backscatter and multipath in the frequency range from 30 to 300 MHz, along with the supporting theoretical modeling, have been lacking because of the practical difficulties associated with fielding radars in this band. An ultrawideband (UWB) radar that radiates waveforms encompassing this band has recently been installed at a seaside location near the Naval Research and Development facility, Pt. Loma, San Diego, California. Propagation path loss measurements were performed at 40, 90, 140, and 190 MHz. Broadband clutter measurements were performed over the frequency band 200 to 300 MHz. The theoretical model is based on an integral equation solution for the surface fields. The surface fields are obtained using a new mathematical derivation of the integral equation for the surface fields (Ott, 1992). This new integral equation extends the frequency range of the former algorithm, WAGNER, to the VHF band. The surface fields are then integrated to obtain either the forward scatter (multipath) or the backscatter (clutter).

The Civil War World of Herman Melville (review)

BOOK REVIEWS8 1 Ironclads and Paddlers. By Ian Marshall. (Charlottesville, Va.: Howell Press, Inc., 1993. Pp. 108. $3495) In some ways, the title of Ian Marshall's latest work is misleading. Although Ironclads and Paddlers does in fact discuss those particular ship types, it goes far beyond and offers what amounts to an introductory survey of nineteenthcentury naval development. The author, an accomplished artist in his own right, brings the subject to life in almost forty original paintings depicting representative vessels ofthe era in natural settings. The paintings lend a certain grace to these proud ships often missing from the period photographs and drawings included in similar works. The majority of the book examines the evolution of warship construction over the course ofthe century. Great Britain's Royal Navy receives the most attention , althoughAmerican, French, Italian, and German designs merit mention when necessary. Marshall also includes biographical sketches of Lord Thomas Cochrane and Lord John "Jackie" Fisher as representative agents ofthe changes taking place from the Napoleonic wars to the introduction ofthe dreadnoughts. Finally, he briefly discusses the importance of overseas bases to the steam navies of the nineteenth century, using Bermuda and Malta as examples. Marshall describes his work as "the celebration of an era," noting that "it makes no claim to break new ground" (io). Still, Ironclads and Paddlers is more than just another picture book for the living-room coffee table. Never intended as a definitive work, it nonetheless offers an engaging and informative overview of the period. The author draws on an extensive, but not exhaustive, range of scholarly works for his text. Even though he might have included such classics as Frank M. Bennett's The Steam Navy of the United States or James Phinney Baxter's The Introduction ofthe Ironclad Warship, those interested in further reading will find the appended bibliography a useful point of departure. Kurt Hackemer Texas A&M University The Civil War World ofHerman Melville. By Stanton Garner. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1993. Pp. 544. $29.95.) By the time Herman Melville brought out Battle Pieces andAspects ofthe War in August 1 866, his contemporary literary reputation had been declining for over fifteen years. From 1 846 to 1 857, he had written only narrative prose and occasional lyrics composed specifically for his fiction but no other poetry before Battle Pieces, a poetic record of the Civil War that also constituted Melville's futile plea to restore national unity without rancor or vengeance. Most of the poems were written long enough after the incidents on which they were based to have benefited from the poet's pondering over the circumstances and events that inspired them. In The Civil War World ofHerman 82CIVIL WAR HISTORY Melville Stanton Garner, a retired naval officer and English professor (including ayear as visiting professoratAnnapolis)—and president-elect ofthe Melville Society for 1995—traces the composition of the poems in Battle Pieces from their historical sources through Melville's ambivalent response to aspects of the conflict so as "to suggest what he intended them to accomplish" (443). Although Garner's naval experience gives a special authenticity to his descriptions of ships and maritime battles, all of his depictions are rendered in sharp, convincing detail. Twenty-five vintage photographs complement the text, which would also have been well served by a few maps to facilitate the location ofsites and routes. Melville participated directly in neither the government nor the military during the war, but while visiting a cavalry encampment near Washington in April 1 864, he did accompany a large scouting party for a few days when reports of Mosby's Rangers in the vicinity called for an expedition to find and harass them (310). Garner describes this adventure and Melville's poetic adaptation of it in "The Scout toward Aldie." To explore Melville's frame of mind through the war years, the author situates him amidst a network of family and acquaintances, many of whom held governmental or military positions. After observing that politics were a binding force among American families at the time (2), he identifies many ofMelville's relatives and associates to suggest the intricate social and political affiliations that, in myriad different ways, are likely...

The pen behind the fleet: The influence of sir Julian Stafford Corbett on British naval development, 1898–1918

Julian Corbett, a lesser known naval strategist compared to his American contemporary Alfred Thayer Mahan, provided pre‐World War I Britain with invaluable lessons in naval strategy and in strategic thought through his writings and lectures. Unlike Mahan, however, Corbett's works on the interdependence of the military services in future conflicts, and the need to understand the limitations of maritime power, remain relevant in the 1990s. What is astounding is that Corbett's warnings against perceiving naval strategy as a series of “Trafalgars” occurred during his tenure at the Royal Navy War College, in an era when Britain unreservedly ruled the waves. Corbett's conclusions attracted considerable attention, in particular from Lord John Fisher, first sea lord of the Admiralty, and Admiral Edmond Slade, chair of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defense, and later, director of naval intelligence during World War I. Corbett's close relationship with these men permitted him to put his writings into practice. Respect for the authority with which Corbett advanced his views was recognized with his posting as the official historian for the war. Corbett's writings and lectures on naval strategy were cut short by a fatal heart attack in 1921.

Former Naval Cheapskate: Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill and the Royal Navy, 1924-1929

Winston Churchill is justly admired for his lonely advocacy of rearmament in the 1930s, but as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 1920s he was an equally staunch and eloquent critic of arms budgets, particularly those of the Royal Navy. Motivated by a desire for funds to reduce taxes and increase social spending, as well as a sincere belief that no enemy could or would challenge Britain's strategic position in the foreseeable future, Churchill campaigned vigorously for strategic complacency and against naval expenditure throughout his tenure as Chancellor. He promoted the formal assumption that any war was at least ten years away and he strenuously opposed Admiralty plans for warship construction, naval aviation development, and a Singapore naval base. The result was a seriously weakened Royal Navy in the following decade when Churchill demanded a more assertive British foreign policy.

War Plan Orange: The U.S. Strategy to Defeat Japan, 1897-1945.

Based on twenty years of research in formerly secret archives, this book reveals for the first time the full significance of War Plan Orange - the U.S. Navy's strategy to defeat Japan. Prior to World War II, the plan was formulated over forty years before the outbreak of war. It recounts the struggles between the 'thrusting' and 'cautionary' schools of strategy, the roles of outspoken leaders such as Dewey, Mahan, King, and MacArthur, and the adaptation of aviation and other technologies to the plan. Miller shows that the strategy of War Plan Orange was the basis of prewar U.S. naval development in training, ship and aircraft design, and amphibious and tactical thought. He ends by demonstrating how the grand strategy and key campaigns of World War II followed Plan Orange and its descendants.

Fouling Control of Navy Surface Ships - 1990

1The Author The Author received a B.S. degree from the New York State College of Forestry, Syracuse University. He joined the staff of the Material Laboratory at the New York Naval Shipyard in 1951 and carried out applied research as a wood technologist in the foreign wood program for all wood minesweepers. In 1962, at the Naval Applied Science Laboratory, he was engaged as a rubber technologist in the development of elastomeric vibration damping materials and the Laboratory's research studies on marine fouling. Since 1970, at the David W. Taylor Naval Ship Research and Development Center, he has been a materials engineer involved with the Center's programs on deck coverings, corrosion and conservation of energy. He is a member of ASNE. ABSTRACT Ongoing investigations on three test ships covering a period of five years have identified the performance characteristics of an antifouling (AF) paint for long-term service. This paint ablates by the sequential hydrolysis of the surface and shearing action of the ship's passage through the water to remove the persistent settlement of microorganisms while continuously releasing an environmentally acceptable component to control calcareous fouling. During the past decade a variety of toxicants have been investigated and formulated into a number of AF paints that can be grouped on the basis of how the toxicant is combined and released from the paint matrix. Observations relative to color change, fouling and paint deterioration, define the qualitative criteria for evaluation. Quantitative data obtained with improved instruments for taking dry film thickness measurements and roughness determinations both in drydock and underwater accurately track these parameters during long-term service. Field studies have shown that ablation of the AF paint is an effective mechanism to limit the formation of microbial biofilms on AF paint surfaces. Field studies have also revealed that reliance on toxics will not control the accretion of microorganisms on a ship's hull. The ablative AF paint has been found to be superior to all non-ablative AF paints evaluated by the Navy to date.