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 Navy (excluding the Marine Corps) has about 385,000 active-duty sailors, including about 55,000 officers, about 325,000 enlisted personnel, and about 4,000 midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The Navy also has about 185,000 civilian employees.

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.

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 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 18 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. Beginning in the early 2000s, the Navy began converting 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 18 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.

B.

Aircraft Carriers

Each U.S. Navy aircraft carrier has a variety of aircraft, including fighters, bombers, and aircraft for airborne surveillance and early warning, electronic warfare, antisubmarine warfare, and logistics. Carriers stand as the most capable warships at sea. The carrier is the core of a large group of vessels known as a carrier battle group, which includes 12 to 15 other vessels, including destroyers, cruisers, and supply ships.

A Nimitz-class aircraft carrier weighs about 90,000 metric tons and carries 85 to 90 aircraft. By comparison, a Russian aircraft carrier weighs about 61,200 metric tons and carries about 20 aircraft. A typical load of aircraft for a Nimitz-class carrier consists of the following: F/A-18 Hornets (20-24 planes) for air-to-air combat or ground attack; F-14 Tomcats (20-24 planes) for air defense of the carrier; FA-6E Intruders (14 planes) for all-weather bomber attack; E-A6B Prowlers (5 planes) for electronic warfare; S-3A Vikings (8 planes) for antisubmarine warfare; and SH-60 Sea Hawks (4 helicopters) for search-and-rescue and for antisubmarine warfare.

Other aircraft on board might include support airplanes and the AV-8B Harrier—the vertical takeoff and landing attack aircraft used by the Marines. This array of aircraft can strike enemy aircraft, surface ships, or submarines, as well as ground targets deep in enemy territory. Some of the carrier’s aircraft employ electronic warfare, using special electronics to jam enemy communications and to cloak U.S. forces from detection by the enemy. Because of its varied and long-range fighting capabilities, the aircraft carrier also serves a central role in maintaining sea control.

C.

Surface Warships

The U.S. Navy’s surface warships, including cruisers, destroyers, and frigates, can perform a variety of roles. Typically about a dozen surface combat ships escort an aircraft carrier to protect it from enemy attack. Cruisers and destroyers possess extensive antiair, antisubmarine, and antisurface weapons, putting them at the heart of the carrier’s defense. Frigates are designed to escort shipping and also can be used as part of a carrier battle group. Many surface warships carry helicopters, which add an important dimension to antisubmarine warfare, antiship surveillance, and targeting operations. Surface warships also operate independent of carrier battle groups, supporting amphibious landings, bombarding coastlines, attacking distant enemy targets with cruise missiles, and other missions.

D.

Attack Submarines

Powerful, quiet attack submarines can sink enemy submarines and ships with torpedoes, lay mines off enemy ports, monitor enemy ships and coastal activities, deploy and support special operations units, and launch cruise missile strikes against land targets. The U.S. Navy maintains more than 50 of these so-called hunter-killer submarines.

E.

Land-Based Naval Aircraft

The U.S. Navy’s land-based aircraft support its ocean deployments. Long-range antisubmarine planes detect, track, and destroy enemy submarines, and keep track of surface ships over large areas of ocean. The Navy’s communications aircraft allow the president of the United States to order submerged ballistic missile submarines to launch a nuclear attack. Many types of logistical aircraft provide transport, communications, and refueling support to U.S. forces.

F.

Amphibious Vessels

Amphibious forces, working together with the U.S. Marine Corps, provide the United States with an unmatched capability to send combat forces ashore nearly anywhere along the world's coastlines. Amphibious vessels transport Marines into battle along with their equipment and can provide supplies during combat. See Naval Vessels.

IV.

Other Naval Forces

A.

Special Warfare

The U.S. Navy has highly trained special warfare forces for unconventional missions. They include SEAL (Sea-Air-Land) commandos and Special Boat Units. These forces perform risky missions such as beach and coastal reconnaissance, underwater demolition, attacking vessels along coastlines and in rivers, and hostage and prisoner rescue. Quickly deployable and highly mobile, the special warfare forces are lightly armed and rely on stealth, concealment, and surprise to accomplish their tasks.

B.

Mine Warfare

The Navy can deploy sophisticated mines with aircraft, surface ships, and submarines to threaten an enemy’s maritime traffic and naval forces. The mines can be set on the water’s surface to float with ocean currents, or can be attached to the ocean floor with a cable.

C.

Mobile Logistics and Support

The Navy’s combat logistics ships enable the United States to sustain naval forces anywhere in the world. They shuttle fuel, ammunition, food, and other supplies to battle groups and task forces.

D.

Intelligence and Cryptology

The cryptologic (code-making and code-breaking) and intelligence services provide information to both tactical forces and Navy commanders. Shore-based intelligence and cryptologic operations involve the collection, processing, analysis, and reporting of information from many sources, from communications intelligence to human intelligence. This information is used to assess threats to the Navy and to the security of the United States. Tactical intelligence, usually provided by ships, submarines, and aircraft, gives combat commanders indications and warning of impending enemy activity and assessments of ongoing hostile activity and capabilities.

E.

Space and Electronic Warfare

The U.S. Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command deploys satellites for communications, surveillance, weather forecasting, and other purposes. It also maintains command and control computers and other electronic equipment, and conducts research into new technologies that may have military uses.

V.

Deployment Around the World

Since World War II (1939-1945) the U.S. Navy has designated fleets in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea with even numbers, and those in the Pacific Ocean with odd numbers. The numbering scheme skipped some numbers. The Twelfth Fleet was the highest number used, but it was disestablished in 1946. The operating forces of the Navy are divided into five numbered fleets:

• the Second Fleet, at Norfolk, Virginia;
• the Third Fleet at San Diego, California;
• the Fifth Fleet, at Manama, Bahrain;
• the Sixth Fleet, at Gaeta, Italy;
• and the Seventh Fleet at Yokusuka, Japan.

The Navy also maintains a major base at Jacksonville, Florida. Overseas bases ensure that American forces are located in important regions continuously.

In addition to these large bases, the Navy maintains a forward presence (a deployment of substantial military force) outside of the United States to demonstrate its commitment to a region or to allied countries. This forward presence also enables the United States to act quickly in response to threats against American interests. For example, the Navy maintains a large naval base at Diego Garcia, a small island in the Indian Ocean. The base can accommodate the Navy’s largest ships, as well as the U.S. military’s biggest cargo planes and bombers. The base proved invaluable during the buildup of U.S. and coalition forces in the Persian Gulf after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, and in the Persian Gulf War that followed.

The U.S. Navy further bolsters its forward presence by deploying carrier groups or other significant fighting forces in response to political or military tensions. For example, after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush dispatched three aircraft carrier groups to the Indian Ocean, where they took part in the combat operations that eliminated the Taliban government in Afghanistan. The Navy’s ability to assert U.S. military might far from home for long periods of time makes it a key part of U.S. military strategy.

VI.

Compared to Navies of Other Countries

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).

The U.S. Navy has 72 submarines (including 18 Ohio-class missile submarines) and 129 principal surface ships (12 aircraft carriers, 27 cruisers, 55 destroyers, and 35 frigates). The Navy also has 41 major amphibious vessels, 200 landing craft, and 100 support ships. The Navy’s strategic sealift force consists of 62 active vessels, including 32 prepositioned ships loaded with combat equipment and supplies. The Russian Federation, by comparison, has 53 submarines (including 13 ballistic missile boats), 32 principal surface ships, 1 aircraft carrier, 7 cruisers, 14 destroyers, 88 patrol and coastal combatants, 22 amphibious ships, and about 435 support vessels. In 2003 China had 69 submarines, only one of which was a ballistic missile carrier. China had 63 principal surface ships, including 21 destroyers and 42 frigates, and over 360 patrol and coastal combatants. China had no aircraft carriers.

VII.

Structure

The ultimate authority over the U.S. armed forces rests with the president of the United States, who is the commander in chief. The secretary of defense is the president’s principal adviser on all matters relating to national defense. The chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the principal military adviser to the president and the secretary of defense. The other Joint Chiefs (heads of other military services) also serve as military advisers.

The U.S. Navy is divided into two categories: administrative (providers) and operational (combatant forces). The administrative chain of command begins with the responsibilities of the secretary of the navy and the chief of naval operations to train, equip, and deploy naval forces to conduct operations. Below this level the fleet commanders issue orders that flow down to all naval units.

The Navy’s operational forces must act as part of the U.S. armed forces as a whole. The military maintains several unified commands that control all U.S. Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force units in a region. These unified commands report to the secretary of defense and usually issue naval orders through the Navy’s fleet commanders. The Navy’s administrative chain of command must interact with the armed services unified commands in order to provide forces to fight successfully alongside the other services.

VIII.

Life of a Sailor

To join the U.S. Navy one must be a U.S. citizen or legal resident, at least 17 years old, meet the Navy’s physical requirements, and achieve qualifying scores on the aptitude test given to applicants for every service. Navy officers must be native-born or naturalized U.S. citizens. Women have been allowed to join the Navy since 1948 and now make up about 15 percent of enlistees each year. Homosexuals can serve in the Navy, but they must conform to the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Under this policy, homosexuals are not sought out for expulsion from the Navy, but they may be forced to leave the service if their sexual orientation becomes known.

Many people join the Navy after high school as enlisted personnel (the ranks of the service below officer). Some choose the Navy because they want to travel the world on navy cruises, and to serve their country. Others join because of the Navy’s college scholarship programs. Enlisted sailors go to basic training (called boot camp because recruits were once known as boots) at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois, just north of Chicago. During basic training recruits endure several weeks of grueling physical drills, practice water survival techniques, learn to fire a variety of weapons, and study naval history and practices. Basic training concludes with several days of tests known as battle stations, during which recruits work together to complete training drills that test their physical stamina and decision-making skills. After basic training, sailors train in one of more than 60 career fields before joining a fleet. These include such varied fields as aircraft maintenance, electronics repair, communications operation, and nuclear propulsion systems.

Officers of the U.S. Navy must have a college degree and come from one of three sources: Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs at colleges and universities throughout the United States; the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland; or Officer Candidate School (OCS), for selected enlisted sailors with college degrees. Officers train for service with the surface ships, submarines, or aircraft. Nearly all Navy career fields are open to women. Since 1993 women have been allowed to pilot the Navy’s combat aircraft. Women are also assigned to combat vessels, including aircraft carriers, destroyers, and amphibious ships, but are not assigned to submarines. The Navy regards it as impractical to add separate facilities for women on the cramped spaces of submarines. Women are also barred from ground combat units such as the SEAL teams.

Once a sailor’s training is completed, he or she is assigned to a ship. Navy ships go on cruises that normally range from six to nine months, or longer during wars. The crews can keep in touch with friends and family at home through regular mail delivery, special satellite radio connections, and in some cases through e-mail. The long separations during cruises can seriously strain relationships, leading some people to leave the Navy. Life in the Navy is also difficult because most personnel are usually relocated to a new base every few years, severing friendships and disrupting schooling for children. As in other branches of the military, those who make a career of the Navy may move ten times or more in a 20-year period.

While deployed, U.S. Navy ships visit ports throughout the world. At sea, the ships are self-contained communities—that is, sailors work and live on board. Large ships such as aircraft carriers carry thousands of sailors and are essentially floating cities. Every sailor—officer and enlisted—has a specific job to do that contributes to the ship’s efficiency. Sailors perform their assigned duties, known as standing watch, in shifts, so that the ship can operate effectively 24 hours a day. In the event of a crisis or combat, sailors rush to their battle stations, preparing weapons, aircraft, fire-fighting equipment, and other key equipment.

When not at sea, sailors attend schools for their continued professional development. Many Navy officers attend the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island. Others obtain graduate degrees in a variety of subjects from universities throughout the United States. Continuing education is a vital part of the Navy’s professional development program.

Sailors with families may live in subsidized housing on naval bases, which is usually inexpensive but sometimes of only fair quality. Officers, married or single, generally have somewhat better living quarters available on the base. Many Navy personnel live in civilian areas. As with other members of the armed forces, all Navy personnel receive free medical and dental care.

IX.

History

Throughout its history, the United States has depended upon the world's oceans for its security and economic well-being. Businesses use the oceans to transport goods between American cities and to carry imports and exports overseas. The size of the oceans has also served as a strategic buffer by making it difficult for potential enemies to launch attacks against the United States. For more than 200 years, this reliance on the oceans has given the U.S. Navy the same basic objectives. The Navy guards American shores from foreign attack, preserves freedom of the seas for commerce, protects American interests overseas, supports U.S. allies, and serves as an instrument of U.S. foreign policy.

A.

The American Revolution (1775-1783)

The Continental Navy, organized on October 13, 1775, was the predecessor of the United States Navy. During the American Revolution, the Continental Navy was too weak to confront the British navy, then the most powerful in the world. Instead the Continental Navy’s ships attacked British lines of communication and seized transports laden with munitions, provisions, and troops. The Continental Navy was supported by ships from individual state navies and by mercenary ships called privateers. These combined forces struck hard at enemy commerce, taking nearly 200 British ships. This action against British merchant ships forced the British to divert warships to protect merchant convoys and trade routes. One notable battle occurred in the North Sea in 1779 when Captain John Paul Jones commanded an old, half-rotten former merchant ship called the Bonhomme Richard. He gave the Navy one of its first battle cries, 'I have not yet begun to fight!' as he defeated a much superior British ship, the frigate Serapis.

B.

The Birth of the U.S. Navy and the War of 1812 (1812-1815)

The Continental Navy was disbanded after the Revolution. In the 1780s and 1790s, pirates from the Barbary states on Africa's northern coast attacked defenseless U.S. merchant ships, stealing their cargoes and enslaving their crews. Determined to protect the freedom of the seas, the new Congress of the United States authorized the building of a naval force to be sent to the Mediterranean. The United States Navy was created by an act of Congress on April 30, 1798. After a series of sea battles and U.S. Marine operations between 1801 and 1805, and another expedition in 1815, the Barbary rulers agreed to stop their attacks on U.S. shipping.

War broke out between the United States and Britain in 1812 as a result of British interference with U.S. maritime commerce and its insistence on impressing (forcing) U.S. sailors into the Royal Navy. Although the U.S. Navy was unable to match the British fleet in size, the young American navy did win some impressive victories during the war. See War of 1812.

Following the War of 1812, U.S. Navy ships expanded the American presence around the world. The Navy helped suppress piracy in the Caribbean, embarked on antislavery patrols off Africa and Brazil, and led diplomatic initiatives such as those led by Commodore Matthew Perry to open relations with Japan in 1853 and 1854. The Navy also explored the Pacific and the Arctic oceans, and conducted amphibious and blockade operations during the Seminole Wars in Florida and the Mexican War (1846-1848).

C.

American Civil War (1861-1865)

The U.S. Navy's principal role during the American Civil War was to blockade the South's coastline and to use inland rivers to support Union Army operations. Over the course of the war, these joint operations with the Army cut the South off from outside support, gradually constricting its trade and commercial livelihood. Rapid improvements in engineering and weaponry led to the beginning of a revolution in naval technology, notably in the use of iron to fabricate the hulls of warships. The Union’s ironclad Monitor was built to counter the Confederate Virginia, an armored ship built on the hull of the former USS Merrimac. Although the 1862 battle between the Monitor and Virginia ended in a draw, this first battle of ironclads signaled a profound change in the nature of naval warfare (see Monitor v. Virginia). The war also saw innovations in mines, mine countermeasures, and submarines.

Following the Civil War, the Navy was reduced in size until the 1880s, when the United States became increasingly interested in overseas expansion and trade. Although the Navy pioneered many technological innovations in the 1860s, navies in other countries adopted them much faster than the United States. In the 1880s the U.S. fleet remained essentially as it stood at the end of the Civil War—a force of antiquated wooden-hulled gunboats. In the late 1880s and early 1890s the Navy began to build a fleet of new all-steel ships. The Navy’s modernization and expansion in this period was spurred partly by the ideas of Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, an American naval officer and historian who argued that control of the seas would lead to global military domination.

D.

The Spanish-American War

The hopes of the United States to wrest control of Cuba from Spain escalated into the Spanish-American War (1898) when the battleship USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor in February 1898. According to a U.S. Navy study decades later, a defective boiler caused the explosion, but the cause was unclear at the time. The United States blamed Spain for the sinking and declared war on April 25, 1898. Five days later U.S. Navy ships already in the Philippines attacked and defeated the Spanish navy’s Pacific forces at the Battle of Manila Bay. On July 3, the U.S. Navy devastated the bulk of Spain's remaining naval power in a fleet engagement off Santiago, Cuba. A subsequent naval blockade of Santiago enabled the U.S. Army to capture the city.

As a result of the Spanish-American War, Spain ceded much of its empire to the United States, including Guam, the Ladrones (now the Mariana Islands), the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. Spain also relinquished its claim to Cuba, which was ruled by a U.S. military government until 1902. Congress subsequently annexed Hawaii, Wake Island, and part of the Samoa Islands. By the start of the 20th century the Navy had helped deliver to the United States a sprawling empire in the Pacific, and helped ensure access to new markets for the country’s exports. In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt sent about half of the U.S. Navy on a worldwide “practice cruise” to assert the country’s military dominance. The tour, the first of its kind for the United States, was particularly directed at Japan. The Japanese greeted the visiting American sailors warmly but then began improving their own naval fleet. Known as the Great White Fleet, the cruise also helped win congressional support for increased funding for the Navy.

E.

World War I

By the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the United States stood as a major global power. The British and German navies traded blows in the early years of the war, with German submarines inflicting serious losses on British and Allied shipping. The United States claimed a right to trade both with the Allied countries and the Central Powers of Austria-Hungary, Germany, and their allies Bulgaria and Turkey. This position led Britain to try to interrupt the flow of munitions by searching and impounding many U.S. merchant vessels, in violation of international law.

The United States felt pressure from both Germany’s 1917 announcement that it would use “unrestricted” submarine warfare against all civilian ships, and the continuing British restrictions on U.S. merchant ships. These pressures spurred the United States to side with the British and declare war on Germany in 1917. The entry of the United States helped turn the tide of the war. The United States stopped selling supplies to the Central Powers, and the U.S. Navy helped neutralize the German submarines that patrolled the approaches to the British Isles and the ports of France. The U.S. Navy also provided critical sealift support, safely transporting more than 2 million U.S. troops to Europe by the end of the war.

World War I saw the introduction of new, more lethal technologies for sea warfare. The U.S. Navy developed depth charges—underwater explosives that destroy submarines—in an effort to battle German submarines. This and other antisubmarine warfare techniques became a critical aspect of naval operations. Although airplanes were still crude, the Navy’s shore-based aviation force saw its first combat over European shores and coastal seas. Airplanes and other aircraft such as dirigibles (blimps) extended the reach of military forces and made it easier to track enemy troop movements. In addition, U.S. minelayers helped establish the North Sea mine barrage, which was designed to isolate the German submarine force in its home waters. After the war ended in 1918, U.S. minesweepers helped clear the ocean of vast minefields.

In the years following World War I, the United States signed a series of naval arms control treaties that limited shipbuilding and modernization and restricted the growth of the U.S. Navy. By the mid-1930s, however, as international tensions increased, those treaties expired and were not renewed, allowing the United States to begin the buildup of the naval forces that it used during World War II.

Despite the limits placed on the interwar fleet, the U.S. Navy was unsurpassed in the innovations in naval warfare it introduced and tested. In the 1920s the first U.S. aircraft carrier, USS Langley, was commissioned, and additional carriers followed. In the 1930s the Marine Corps established the Fleet Marine Force and began perfecting the amphibious assault techniques they used with great success during World War II.

F.

World War II

In World War II (1939-1945) the United States adopted the strategy that Germany should be defeated first, before Japan. This strategy meant that while the U.S. Navy had to fight in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans simultaneously, the threat presented by Nazi Germany received higher priority—for both the troops and material being mobilized and the offensive campaigns being planned. Just as in World War I, the primary role of the Navy in the Atlantic was to ensure the safe transport of U.S. soldiers and equipment overseas. In 1942 large numbers of German submarines threatened to sever British sea-lanes and starve Britain into submission. In a long and bitter antisubmarine campaign, United States, British, and Canadian ships gradually gained the upper hand.

Large contingents of U.S. Navy forces supported Allied landings in North Africa in October 1942, and in Sicily and mainland Italy in 1943. These ever more powerful amphibious operations formed the prelude to the largest amphibious assault ever—the Allied invasion of northern France on June 6, 1944 (D-Day). Allied navies put about 152,000 United States, British, and Canadian troops ashore (where they were aided by about 23,000 paratroopers) and supported them as they gained a foothold in France.

In the Pacific, the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, sank or damaged most of the U.S. Pacific Fleet's battleships, but the aircraft carriers, submarines, and Hawaii's critical fuel depots and repair installations escaped largely unscathed. The Japanese overran British possessions in Hong Kong, Malaya, and Burma; French Indochina; the Dutch East Indies; and, after a valiant fight by Americans and Filipinos, the Philippines. By the spring of 1942, Japan appeared to be threatening Australia, Hawaii, and the American West Coast.

In May 1942 U.S. Navy carriers stopped the Japanese advance on Australia in the first naval battle waged entirely by aircraft against ships, the Battle of the Coral Sea. In early June U.S. naval intelligence revealed that the Japanese were planning to attack Midway Island in preparation for an assault on Hawaii. A badly outnumbered U.S. fleet met the Japanese armada near Midway, sinking four Japanese carriers and destroying 322 enemy aircraft, breaking the back of Japanese naval aviation for much of the rest of the war. The Battle of Midway marked the end of the U.S. Navy’s defensive strategy in the Pacific.

During the next three years, the U.S. Navy fought its way across the Pacific, supporting Marine and Army landings that purposely bypassed heavily defended Japanese island bases. The bitter six-month sea, air, and land struggle for Guadalcanal in the South Pacific from 1942 to 1943 was followed by a push across the central Pacific, from the Gilbert Islands through the Marshalls, Marianas, and Palaus. In June 1944 the remainder of Japanese naval air power was destroyed off the Mariana Islands at the Battle of the Philippine Sea.

The newly taken Mariana Islands gave the Army Air Corps bases from which to attack Japan itself. In October 1944, a combined U.S. assault on Leyte Island by central Pacific forces under Admiral Chester Nimitz and southwest Pacific forces under General Douglas MacArthur led to the largest naval battle ever fought, the Battle of Leyte Gulf. That battle allowed U.S. Army troops to liberate the Philippines without fear of further Japanese naval intervention. In 1945 fighting at Okinawa and at the Battle of Iwo Jima brought the Navy to Japanese soil and put American forces within striking distance of Japan’s main islands. The Army Air Corps dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, and the war ended early the next month.

G.

Cold War Years

During the Cold War, in which the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) vied for global dominance, the U.S. Navy contributed a key element to the strategy of nuclear deterrence. In 1955 the Navy began developing the Fleet Ballistic Missile system. By 1960 a Polaris missile could be fired from a submerged submarine and accurately strike targets more than 1,600 km (1,000 mi) away. In subsequent years, nuclear-powered submarines have carried nuclear missiles while patrolling the world’s oceans. Later models of submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) included the Poseidon and the Trident. Only the Trident is currently deployed.

The U.S. Navy’s submarine missiles make up one of the elements of the three-pronged nuclear triad strategy of the United States, with the long-range bombers and land-based missiles of the U.S. Air Force making up the other two elements. Under this strategy, the country’s nuclear defense is guaranteed by the use of three different types of weapons. The submarine-based missiles are probably the most secure elements of the triad because it is virtually impossible for an enemy to detect submerged U.S. submarines. A submarine’s exact location is known only by the submarine commander and some onboard crew. Indeed, the stealth of these submarines and the firepower contained in each Trident missile has led some analysts to argue that the other elements of the nuclear triad are redundant, since the Navy could destroy any enemy with just a few of its submarines. See Defense Systems.

The U.S. Navy’s first significant challenge during the Cold War came when North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, sparking the Korean War (1950-1953). Although primarily a ground war, Navy planes bombed enemy targets, provided reconnaissance, and fought North Korean fighter planes. Early in the war the Navy launched a massive amphibious attack at Incheon, surprising the North Koreans by putting thousands of U.S. soldiers behind enemy lines. During the Korean War the Navy first used a jet fighter, the Grumman F9F Panther, in combat. The North Koreans flew Soviet-built MiG-15s in these dogfights, which were among the world's earliest aerial battles between jet fighters.

The Vietnam War (1959-1975) presented the U.S. Navy with its next major challenge. The Tonkin Gulf incident in August 1964, in which a North Vietnamese vessel allegedly attacked Navy destroyers, helped bring the United States into the war. After the incident Navy aviators flew the first air strikes against North Vietnam. Beginning in 1965, the United States bombed North Vietnam and Laos to stop the flow of soldiers and supplies moving south on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and naval aircraft played a major part in the air campaign. Surface ships shelled targets in North Vietnam and provided gunfire support for United States, South Vietnamese, and Allied forces in South Vietnam. The Navy used patrol torpedo (PT) boats to support U.S. Army and Allied units in operations on Vietnam's inland and coastal waterways. In 1968 the USS Pueblo, a U.S. spy ship, was attacked and seized while off the North Korean coast. The North Koreans released its crew after 11 months. Although the United States withdrew from Vietnam in 1973, U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force units moved quickly to rescue as many refugees as possible when the government of South Vietnam collapsed in 1975.

The U.S. Navy’s Atlantic Fleet played a key role in numerous U.S. interventions in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean during the Cold War. These missions brought Navy forces to the Dominican Republic in 1965, the West Indies island nation of Grenada in 1983, and Panama in 1989. In 1985 the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean helped apprehend the hijackers of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. Navy and Air Force aircraft struck at Libyan command and control centers in 1986 in response to Libyan support of international terrorism. In 1987 and 1988, during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), U.S. Navy ships escorted oil tankers and swept mines in the Persian Gulf, thus maintaining global access to oil and preserving freedom of the seas.

H.

Post-Cold War

The Cold War ended in 1991, but the U.S. Navy’s basic role in American defense strategy remained largely unchanged. The need for the Navy's fast sealift and maritime logistics forces was shown when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. Navy ships were a key part of the rapid buildup of U.S. Army, Air Force, and Marine forces known as Operation Desert Shield. This massive movement of manpower, equipment, and supplies provided the military capabilities used during the Persian Gulf War (1991) to force Iraqi troops from Kuwait. Navy aircraft and Tomahawk cruise missiles operating from both the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea were used extensively to hit Iraqi forces in Kuwait and in Iraq. In the years since the end of the Persian Gulf War, Navy aircraft have participated continuously in the enforcement of the no-fly zone imposed over the northern and southern third of Iraq. Iraqi air defense forces have on occasion fired upon these patrols.

In the early and mid-1990s the U.S. Navy faced several major challenges. The most publicized crisis came after the 1991 Tailhook convention, an annual gathering of Navy aviators, at which several women were sexually assaulted. This incident led to severe criticism of the Navy’s treatment of women and helped spur the Navy to permit women to fly fighter jets and serve on combat ships. In 1991 the Navy cut back its nuclear arsenal by removing nuclear weapons from all ships except its ballistic missile submarines. As defense spending was reduced by over one-third in the years after the end of the Cold War, the Navy began cutting the number of ships and personnel in an effort to reduce costs, improve the effectiveness of the remaining forces, and provide some funding for new weapons and new ships. In the mid-1990s the U.S. Navy, along with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marines, began developing the Joint Strike Fighter, a relatively low-cost jet fighter that would be adaptable to use by all three services.

In 1999 Navy aircraft took part in the NATO air campaign against Serbia. Navy planes operated from the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Adriatic Sea and from a land base in Aviano, Italy. The Navy also continued an extensive deployment schedule that had Navy ships operating around the world.

I.

Global War on Terrorism

At the dawn of the 21st century, the Navy found itself on the front lines in the war on terrorism. The Navy not only plays an important role in United States military actions against global terrorists, but U.S. naval vessels themselves have become targets of terrorist actions. The destroyer USS Cole was anchored at a port in Yemen in October 2000 when it was attacked by terrorists who exploded a boat filled with explosives next to the ship. Seventeen U.S. sailors were killed in the attack.

After the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, Navy aircraft carriers were deployed to the Indian Ocean, where they supported land combat operations in Afghanistan with their on-board aircraft. The Taliban government in Afghanistan had supported the al-Qaeda terrorist group that was behind the attacks. Navy planes also flew protective missions over major American cities in the months after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Navy ships continue to enable the United States to project its power in important but volatile regions of the world, such as the Middle East and Persian Gulf, without having to secure potentially vulnerable land bases from which to operate combat and reconnaissance aircraft.

J.

Invasion of Iraq

The Navy’s ability to provide rapid sealift and maritime logistic support again was apparent during the buildup of U.S. forces that preceded the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Not only did the Navy move soldiers, marines, and equipment to the region, but also it was heavily involved in the air attacks that targeted Iraqi forces and military installations. Five aircraft carrier battle groups and 20 amphibious ships were involved in the war to depose the regime of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. From late March to mid-April 2003, they flew more than 7,000 sorties. During the same period U.S. and British naval forces fired more than 800 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iraqi targets. Air supremacy helped enable U.S. and British land forces to capture all the major cities of Iraq in less than a month. See also U.S.-Iraq War.