INTRODUCTION 19

2. NAVAL WARFARE

THIS CHAPTER TELLS YOU

Why warfare at sea is different from that on land or in the air

Why the coast changes naval tactics

What roles you have as a naval warfare of cer

What the aim is of military tactics is

When to ght and when not to

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 20 NAVAL WARFARE

ONLY A FEW WILL DECIDE

A battle at sea involves a clash of warships, either with aircraft or with

other warships, some of which may be submarines that are able to ght
from under the sea.

Although such battles may involve thousands of men and women, they
are decided by only a few. In principle, only those in command of a ship
determine how that ship ghts. In today's round the clock ghting scenar-
ios these commanders will delegate parts of the ght to of cers who stay
on watch in the operations rooms of modern warships.

It is these warfare of cers who must monitor the dif cult process of nd-
ing the enemy and making snap decisions when a ship comes under attack
or instigates an attack. The fate of many is decided by the abilities of but a
few. It is those abilities that must be trained relentlessly. That is also what
this book is about.

WAR AT SEA

War at sea differs fundamentally from the war on land or in the air. Alt-
hough these warfare domains may interact and have many similarities,
they cannot be fought in the same way. To think so would be a mistake.

NOWHERE TO HIDE

On land you may hide and in the air you may run away. At sea, once
found, there is no place to hide and nowhere to run. You must ght out the
battle that is coming. It requires every effort to either win an engagement
or break contact in such a way that your enemy has to start searching again.
There are however two advantages at sea.

The rst is that the world's oceans are immense and if you know how it
is possible not to be found. Moreover, at sea there are no or hardly any
borders. This expanse is what gives you the ability to hide. Your second
advantage is that, depending on your ship, time can work in your favour.
At sea you can try to choose the moment in which you get back into the
ght. It means that as a ship you can leave the battle area, something that
is very hard to do on land. In the air it is much more dif cult to wait and if
you try it may not be worth the risk.

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 INTRODUCTION 21

BEWAREOF THE COAST

Thestrategic advantages of the sea are only relevant if you can in uence
eventson land. People live on land and war is fought between nations of
people. Alternatively, if the con ict is irregular, wars can be fought by
groups pretending or
wishing to be a nation.
Although the sea gives
almost unlimited space
in which to manoeuvre,
this becomes irrelevant
unless you can produce
an effect on land. Your
ships must come close
to the shore to have an
Understand the effects of sailing close to shore impact on the situation
on land.

Thus the advantages of the high seas vanish in coastal areas. First, your
options to manoeuvre decrease due to water depths and tidal streams. The
performance of sensors is in uenced by the land and the chances of your
shipbeingdetected will increase. Land heights will generally block radar.
Secondly, threats increase. Starting with aircraft and smaller boats and
subsequently rising to mine threats, land-based missiles and eventually
even ground artillery all pose a threat.

BECOMING A NAVAL WARFAREOFFICER

Warships are potential weapons manned by many but controlled by but

a few. Ultimately it is one man who decides how a ship will be used, and
that is the commanding of cer. However as war is a business 24/7, and one
requiring constant vigilance, he needs subordinates to act on his behalf.
Theseare the naval of cers and the safety of the ship is their responsibility.

FIRST BE A SAILOR

To be a naval of cer, you must rst bea sailor. If you do not understand
the ways of the sea and the abilities and limitations of a ship you are useless.

4Some advanced radars, such as EASA type radars are able to solve this shading problem
tosome extent by using multiple frequency transmissions and advanced processing.

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 22 NAVAL WARFARE

To ght a war at sea, you must understand what effects the sea can have
on the ship and its crew. You must know where you are and that means
you must be able to navigate. Although nowadays GPS and computers
make position taking less arduous, these systems cannot be counted on one
hundred percent in wartime situations. You must know where you are to
be safe and effective.

A ship can do a great deal but must be in the right position and on the
correct heading to do so. Knowing how to get to the right place at the right
time requires seamanship. No ship turns on the spot or instantaneously.
Knowing how fast your ship turns and traverses is essential, both in an
absolute sense because of the actual waterdepth and geographical
circumstances and in a relative way when related to other ships or aircraft.

A sailor is a member of a ship's crew who depend entirely on each other

to sail their ship. In fair weather and foul the sea may always be your worst
enemy. Especially in time of war a ship depends on her crew even more so.
Before you can be anything else on board you must be part of, and want to
belong to, her crew. This interaction is independent of your rank for thesea
neither understands nor acknowledges rank.
Lastly, you must know what the sea can do to your crew. Incorrect use of
your ship may severely degrade your ability to ght. It may even kill your
crew without even meeting the enemy. To go into battle with anexhausted
team is tantamount to suicide.

BE A WARRIOR

When you have become a sailor, the next thing is to become a warrior.
You must be prepared to put yourself and your crew in harm's way. If you
are engaged in a battle, you must be able to take advantage of the opportu-
nities as they present themselves. No outcome of a battle is one hundred
percent certain. It is your job to handle the uncertainties. To be a warrior
requires both thorough planning and the realisation that (to quote Van
Moltke) no plan survives contact with enemy. If you go into battle, you go
with the best possible odds but never with guarantees.
A warrior must be able to conduct himself well in circumstances of ex-
treme uncertainty. It is the most important reason, perhaps the only reason,
why you are there: to make decisions under uncertain conditions. Decision
making in situations of certainty is anyway a strange notion as if the out-
come is inevitable there is nothing to decide.

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 INTRODUCTION 23

To be a good warrior requires study and thought, knowledge and wis-

dom, courage and caution. It requires both experience and training. You
must be able to doubt everything you see as well as know, with as much
surety as you can, what to do. Your men will look to you. They have no
choice, they have put their lives in your hands.

BE AN ORGANISER AND A COACH

No one is able (yet) to sail a ship on his own, let alone ght a ship alone.
To operate a warship requires team effort. Whilst warships can be bought,
teams must be built from the bottom up. Once assembled, they have to be
kept in shape and even be rebuilt on occasions when team members move
on in their careers. This is part of your job as a naval of cer.

To builda team, you must organise it so that it functions properly. This

means de ning their tasks in different situations and setting standards for
performance. It also means providing training at different levels to ensure
your team members are able to execute their tasks properly. If you set up a
training programme, you have to ensure that the time and assets are avail-
able to train. When necessary, outside assistance must be available to help
your team to grow. This is a never ending task as teams change and can
always be improved upon.

As you train your team, you must be able to coach them to become better,
better even then they think they can be. This requires a hands-on approach
on an almost daily basis. You must see where and how they fail to identify
areas where they must improve. You must also see how and when they
succeed and make their self-con dence grow.

Most importantly, however, you have to organize and coach yourself.

Time will always be scarce and things to do will always be too many. You
yourself will need to achieve the highest output at the lowest cost. You have
to accept failures for what they are: learning points. You have to learn to
celebratesuccess but never dwell on it. In short, you have to become better
and more self-assured every step of the way.

BE A LEADER

A naval of cer is by de nition a leader as he or she is in a position to lead

other men and women. On a ship, this is done by sailing it, running it and
leading its team in the daily routines. Although being given a certain posi-
tion makes you a leader, it does not necessarily make you a good leader.
Moreover, a ship and its crew need a good leader in order to do their job.

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 24 NAVAL WARFARE

Foremost to being a good leader is the requirement to make decisions.

This does however not mean that you have to make every decision. It isup
to you to make those decisions others cannot. This means that the more
complex, and more speci c, the more uncertain the decision is, the more
likely it is that you will have to make it. This is of course assumingthatyou
have been authorised to make these decisions by your commandingof cer
or any other higher authority. If the uncertainty of the choice is lowenough,
you must try to delegate it.
Of course being a leader demands more than just decision making.These
other aspects are also sometimes even more critical than 'deciding inuncer-
tainty'. Ultimately, during naval warfare, it is up to you to decide.

When preparing for warfare, you must use your other leadership skill.
To train your team, you must be a coach. To care for your team, you must
be their representative. To organise your team, you must be theirmanager.
Moreover, to ensure the proper working of your ship you must be boththe
specialist and the one who sets the requirements. When ashore and on
of cial occasions you are even the person who represernts that ship and
everything the ship represents. There is much to do, and to be, as a naval
leader. That is why it is so much more than just a job.

ABOUT TACTICS

Tactics are about winning a ght. It means that at the end of a battle you
have survived and that your enemy has, at least, been disabled. It does not
prove you have won the battle or the war, it only means that you cancon-
tinue ghting.
To win battles, you must achieve your operational objectives. Winning
battles gives control of speci c areas, even if it is only temporary. The art
of operational warfare is not explained in this book, it calls for another
volume.
If you continue to win battles, eventually you may win a war, orsome-
times, more critically, not lose the war. To succeed in combat, you must
have a clear and achievable strategy. Again this will call for at least another
volume to explain. I would suggest reading history to understand thecom-
plexity.

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 INTRODUCTION 25

ABOUT FIGHTING

Know when to ght. Even brilliant strategies or brilliant operational

planning may fail if the ghting is wrong. To ght, you must understand
the abilities of your ship and that of your allies and opponents. To ght
well, you must comprehend the laws of nature, and of men, that limit your
actions. To win, you must understand the importance of time and the way
men (or for that matter machines) make decisions.

Know when not to ght. Maybe even more important than knowing how
to ght is knowing when to ght or, even more speci cally, when not to
ght at all. The most important job of the commander of a ship is to keep
his ship ready to ght. Combat is never possible if your ship has been sunk
or destroyed, your crew is too exhausted to think or if you are out of fuel
or ammunition.

Escaping a bad ght is not cowardly, it makes good tactical sense.

Fighting, however, may be unavoidable. In thatcasemake your effort count,
for in naval warfare even against all the odds, there is always a chance to
win. For that, you must know how to ght.
Know when to stop ghting. The only winner of any war at sea is even-
tually the sea itself. The sea remains unchanged and will welcome lost souls
into her depths. At the end of any ght, those who have fallen short will
nd themselves alone and lonely in the waters that engulf them.

Ifa ship is disabled if it is burning or sinking, if sailors,marines or airmen

are in the water or in a life raft, a seaman must always offer assistance. The
only excuse not to is when your ship is still under threat of enemy attack.
In that case, your responsibility is to your own crew. However, in every
other case, you must attempt to save your fellow seamen, who just previ-
ously were your enemy, from their cruel fate at sea.

Under no circumstance are you to engage anyone helpless at sea. It is a

war crime to kill a drowning man or to shoot at a life raft.

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