United States Navy

I

Introduction

United States Navy, maritime military force of the United States. The United States Navy can deploy ships, submarines, and aircraft to any of the world’s oceans. The Navy also has the military might to attack land targets in many parts of the world and to transport weapons and personnel for other branches of the U.S. military. Navy ballistic missile submarines represent a significant segment of American nuclear forces. The Navy is under the control of the Department of the Navy, which also includes the United States Marine Corps.

The strength of the United States Navy is unparalleled. Although its size has been reduced considerably since the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) collapsed in 1991, the U.S. Navy remains by far the most capable navy in the world. In addition to the unmatched capabilities of its principal surface combatants, United States naval forces enjoy advantages in technology, training, and readiness (the ability to fight effectively on short notice).

II

Strategic Importance

Because it is nearly surrounded by water, the United States uses the oceans as defensive barriers. The importance of the oceans to American security and economic interests makes the U.S. Navy a crucial component in the country’s military.

The Navy performs four critical military functions for the United States: (1) controlling the seas; (2) using that control to project American power abroad; (3) transporting troops, supplies, and equipment by sea, a process known as sealift; and (4) operating naval craft armed with nuclear weapons to provide deterrence against a nuclear attack on the United States.

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Sea control refers to the ability to control areas in, over, and under the oceans. It ensures that the United States and allied naval forces can operate without enemy interference. Sea control also prevents an enemy from using the seas to launch attacks against the United States or its allies.

The Navy projects its power by using Navy and Marine troops to attack enemy forces on the sea or land. Power projection operations include attacks by carrier-based aircraft, strikes by cruise missiles, assaults by the Marines, bombardment by naval gunfire, mine-laying operations, and landing of supplies and equipment by transport vessels.

Sealift involves the use of ships to transport troops, equipment, and supplies to conflicts. The Navy uses its sealift capability to deploy United States Army and Marine forces. The Navy also stores combat-ready equipment and supplies onboard Maritime Prepositioning Ships (MPS) that are deployed in important areas around the world to reduce the time needed to deploy U.S. forces.

Strategic nuclear deterrence is the Navy’s fourth function in America’s defense. Navy submarines, warships, and aircraft maintain an arsenal of nuclear weapons to use against adversaries. This arsenal helps ensure that the United States can maintain a retaliatory capability to fight in the event of an attack against the United States or one of its important allies.

III

Navy Vessels and Aircraft

The U.S. Navy maintains a wide variety of military equipment, including ballistic missile submarines, aircraft carriers, surface warships, attack submarines, land-based aircraft, and amphibious vessels.

A

Ballistic Missile Submarines

The core of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear deterrent capability is its fleet of Ohio-class submarines. (Each model, or class, of Navy vessel takes the name of a state, a military leader such as Chester Nimitz, or other name deemed appropriate by the Navy.) Each of these submarines can carry 24 Trident II nuclear missiles, which can strike targets at a range of 7,400 km (4,600 mi). The Trident II missile can deliver up to eight 475-kiloton nuclear warheads, each the equivalent of 475,000 tons of TNT, for a combined explosive force more than 250 times as powerful as the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.

More than half of the Navy’s Ohio-class submarines remain on patrol at sea at all times, and they are nearly undetectable by sonar and other types of sensors. In the early 2000s, the Navy converted four of its Ohio-class submarines to carry conventional cruise missiles and SEAL (Sea-Air-Land) commandos or other special forces. With the end of the Cold War, the Navy decided it no longer needed to use all of its Ohio-class submarines as part of its strategic force. The conversion enabled the Navy to adapt to the new realities of the war on terrorism. See SLBM.

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