September 7, 2019
Are Navies Dying?
Those pesky carrier-killer missiles, new detection methods that can 'unsteatlh submarines' and other threats loom large. Is the age of warships, submarines and aircraft carriers over?
by James Holmes
Are navies dying?
An outlandish question. Which is why it’s worth asking. Bottom line up front: I doubt it.
Strategy goes through cycles. Sometimes offense is dominant, other times defense is. Weapons, tactics, and operational techniques have their day and die out. Others replace them. Few armies field phalanxes or cavalry divisions nowadays; armies endure. Galleys and ships of the line with billowing sails are figments of the past; navies live on. Sopwith Camels flown by knights of the air would meet an ill fate in modern aerial combat; air forces still roam the sky. Recent events probably mark just one more turning of the cycle. Never in the annals of military history has an entire type of armed force gone extinct by dint of new technology or warmaking methods—no matter how revolutionary.
But. That could be one of those statements that’s true . . . until it’s not.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/are-navies-dying-78686
