Jul,Aug-Sep, Nov-Dec 1965-Jan 1966 - Navy League of Australia

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Ltd.31 NORTH LAKE RD., MELVILLE, W.A.•fo Divers and Lightermen•fe Bridge and Jetty Building SpecialistsAll Marine Salvage Performed — Pile Driving — Land or Water — For Hire: WorkBoats, from 220 h.p., 42 and 45 foot — All Types of Boats Slipped and RepairedMoorings Raised or Laid —For Anything MarinePhone 30-2458 Phone 30-2458***+****+**** SJ +***+********+******+******+********Pag* Fifty-two THE NAVY, Nov.-Dac.-Jan., 1965-196'THE SMALLER NAVIES~By Capt. C P. NIXON, Royal Canadian Navy, in the "United Service Quarterly"^The smaller navies of ihc worlduday are being buffeted by confusedseas. Almost daily their numbergrows as the emerging nationshunch their own fleets. But aheadloomi an economic squall — thespiralling cost of weaponry —which threatens the present usefulnessas well as the very existence ofthese small navies.What do we mean by 'small"? Ihave arbitrarily designated assmall" those navies with a personnelstrength of about 25,000 or less.This takes in navies of all nations-inc'.uding my own — which arenot, and never have been, consideredgreat powers. A large and assortedcatch falls into such a net; fromthe biggest of the small to thesmallest of the small; from historicallyancient, through recent, tobrand new; from highly modern• hrough obsolescent, to "Fleets"which, since they exist largely onpaper, represent aspirations ratherthan hardware. Jane's Fighting Shipsmentions 93 navies of the world byname; all but a dozen or so ofwhich come within my definition ofmull.There are other ways to catcgorsethis heterogeneous group than byncre gradations of size. For example,they may all be considered asbelonging to at least one of the folowingseven collectives: NATO.he Commonwealth, the satellites of:he Soviet Union. Latin America, theemerging countries of Africa.SEATO. and other neutrals.As far as order of battle is concerned,possession of one or morebattleships used to be an absolutenecessity for a major or at least amore-important lesser navy. Contemporarily,it is the aircraft carrierwhich confers this dignity. Nofewer than six small navies — Argentina.Australia. Brazil, Canada,India, and the Netherlands — possessone light carrier of the BritishMajestic/Colossus-class, of whichTHE NAVY, Nov.-DM.-Jon , 1965-1966Britain herself has paid off the remainingsister ships.The point to note, however, inthe progression from battleship toaircraft-carrier, is that since carriersand their squadrons arc more expensive,countries which had twobattleships, e.g. Argentina andBrazil, now have but one carrier.And more important, some countrieswhich had only one battleship didnot venture into the carrier field, e.g.Turkey and Chile. These lattercountries, like others who used tohave coast defence battleships, havecither switched to cruisers or, insome cases, to destroyers and frigates.Assuming that the future badgeof a fully modern fleet will be toown cither a nuclear submarine,possibly nuclear - armed, or a guidcd-missileship or cruiser displacement,which nations will fall by thewayside this time? Will financialreasons prevent some of the naviesnow operating carriers and an airarm from acquiring nuclear submarinesor guided missile ships? Itis probably safe to predict that thenumber of small navies withoutfrontline ships will be added to notonly from those of the newly independentsmall countries, but alsoby fugitives from ihc prohibitivecosts of new weapons systems.Another mark of distinction goesto those navies which, thoughsmall, design and build their own.or some of their own, ships. Sweden,the Netherlands and Canada are examples.And all of the Scandinaviancountries, notably Norway, bothbuild and maintain their own merchantfleets.It is interesting to note that somerelatively small countries such asSouth Korea and Yugoslavia possessgood-sized navies, whereaslarge countries such as India andMexico have relatively small fleets.World War II provided a noveltwist — the navies of governmentsin exile. Most notable besides thatof the Free French were those ofNorway, the Netherlands, and Poland.While individually small, someeven tiny, these navies, together withothers, such as the Royal Australianand Canadian navies, made a significantcontribution to the Alliednaval war effort.The small navy, then, is not anorganisation which one has to makea case for; rather, it is a fact of20th-century life. The transcendentquestion, therefore, is not whetherthere should or should not be moreor fewer small navies, but howsmall navies are being affected bythe price of modern weapons andthe latest trends in international relations?First let us conscider what thesmall navies have to offer the majorpowers. My list is inevitably controversial,certainly not exhaustive and.of course, does not apply across theboard. Small navies offer:• Manpower. Officers and menare often of superior quality, especiallyin countries with long establishedmaritime traditions• Moral support. Even thoughtheir numbers are usually small,sometimes to the point of insignificance,in the over-all fighting potential,the presence of other nationalsin. for example, a predominantlyU.S. Force means a great deal. TheForce then becomes an Allied one,based on the free decision of independentsovereign states.• Base facilities. The small navyoften guards a lengthy, strategiccoastline (often out of all proportionto the population and wealth ofthe country concerned).• Further fields for researchand new ideas which the pressuresof poverty and scarcity seem to provoke.Officers connected with NATOwill be familiar with recent examplesof this in the field of anti-submarinewarfare.Pag* Fifty-thre-