Single-Purpose Warships for the Littorals
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Authors
Hughes, Wayne P. Jr.
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Advisors
Date of Issue
2014-06
Date
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U.S. Naval Institute
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Abstract
In this cost-constrained era, when it comes to responding to threats in dangerous coastal waters, a single-purpose ship is best suited to the task. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US Navy's large, multipurpose surface warships -- nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, guided-missile destroyers, and amphibious ships -- have been able to efficiently deliver combat power to the land from a safe sanctuary at sea. Multipurpose warships made sense 25 years ago, and they will continue to be best in situations in which the threat of attack is small. But safety is no longer assured in the open sea, and the more constricted littoral waters of many important coastal regions have become downright dangerous for these vessels. While the emphasis in this article is on the operational and tactical advantages of simpler, more affordable warships, the observations of the National Research Council are equally as important. Smaller ships that have resilience against technological surprise due to their easier-to- modify designs are less costly to replace than larger warships.
Type
Article
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Department
Operations Research (OR)
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
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Citation
Single Purpose Warships in the Littorals, Naval Institute Proceedings, June 2014
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.