Echoes of the Past: Naval Convoys in Great Power Competition
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By Harrison Schramm, Bradley Nye & Joseph Rego
June 20, 2020
We were captivated this week by the new Tom Hanks film “Greyhound[ii]â€, dramatizing the Battle of the Atlantic. The film takes a gritty look at what conflict would look like between a convoy of supply ships trying to cross from America to Europe and German submarines. Since this battle is in the public eye, we wanted to offer some commentary on both the past and future of convoys.
Oceans are big, and individual ships are small. This is a truth known by every mariner. Looking for ships at sea – whether they want to be found or not – is always a difficult undertaking. Doubly so during wartime, where a game of hunter and hunted takes place on and below the surface of the seas. This article focuses on the competition between hunter and hunted, and addresses the issue of the size of the sea – specifically, with advantages in sensing technology and the proliferation of satellites and unmanned systems, are the oceans still 'big,' and is the convoy still a valid approach to make a column of ships 'small,' and how this would impact the protection aspect of naval supply?
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2020/06/20/echoes_of_the_past__naval_convoys_in_great_power_competition_115399.html
