NAV0042
Written evidence submitted by Jonathan D. Caverley
Jonathan D. Caverley
Professor, US Naval War College
Using data from Jane’s Fighting Ships, the above figure depicts the relative investment by tonnage of nine existing major navies in their surface and subsurface combat fleets (auxiliary ships are excluded).[1] Each cell’s color varies from yellow to green based on a heavier emphasis on a platform relative to the other fleets. For example, the United States and United Kingdom have very a high tonnage percentage devoted to combat logistics ships. France, on the other hand, currently devoted relatively little of its fleet tonnage to attack submarines.
Some insights that emerge:
- No other fleet has as much of its tonnage in its carrier fleet than the Royal Navy. While Asian states have few carriers, the Royal Navy’s carrier tonnage is about 50% higher even than that of France or the United States.
- The Royal Navy has the lowest relative tonnage of any fleet when it comes to surface ships. This has implications for both naval diplomacy in peacetime and carrier defense in wartime.
- The Royal Navy is remarkably strong in terms of logistics ships, comparable to the world’s leading deployed fleet (the United States). That said, many US Navy studies point out that its current logistics fleet is inadequate for the forward-deployed conflicts it envisions.
- Asia is a submarine-intensive region, and Russia is a submarine-intensive navy. Yet the Royal Navy lacks either the subs or surface ships necessary for effective antisubmarine warfare (ASW).
In terms of UK-only or NATO missions, based on the balance of platforms in its fleet, the Royal Navy is optimized for power projection missions in highly permissive environments (i.e. Libya). It is not optimized for a major fleet engagement in the Pacific. Nor is it optimized for an ASW campaign in either Europe or Asia.
In terms of interoperability with the United States, it appears that the Royal Navy is well-suited for coordinated combat logistics or providing an economy-of-force strike group to discourage opportunistic behavior by an adversary during a major-power conflict.
21st October 2021