5 Military Sea Transportation

5.1 Introduction

Transportation has long been a key to human civilization. The ability to transport ourselves or anything else has always been a key to our ability to survive and thrive. Humans for generations have used different forms of transportation throughout the centuries to propel our ability to better transport ourselves from one place to another. As the goal has become apparent to do this as safely and as quickly as possible the need for new and different forms of transportation technology has become apparent. That is why today there are many different styles of transportation across the world. These include a multitude of different forms of transportation for land, sea, space and air. This chapter though will focus on the main types of transportation that are used for sea transportation.

Ships and Submarines are two of the most commonly used styles of transportation for sea travel. Ships have been used now for centuries for transportation as they were created long before submarines. This has caused for transportation of ships to have a very long history that is often seen most prevalent during times of war. Ships have been used during many of the most famous naval battles and are well documented throughout history. The life changing naval battles have decided outcomes that have had long lasting effects across the entirety of the war. The difference between each battle has been the technological advancements of the shipping industries as each battle has tended to come with new and different advancements in the weapons used by the ships. One of these times was when naval warfare was changed forever due to the usage of submarines. Since the early 1900s submarines have had a lasting impact on use of naval warfare specifically during the World Wars. This makes them an intricate part of some of the most devastating wars in history. Sea warfare is an intricate part of the transportation technology history and will continue to impact the world both through its use in the past, present and future.

5.2 What is Sea Technology?

For centuries now people have used the sea as a method of transportation from one landmass to the next. The main way that this type of transportation has occurred is by ship. Ships are a large vessel that are designed to transport people and goods over the sea. Ships and boats are commonly referred to as the first real form of technological transportation. The idea of using water as a transportation method appealed to many as the Earth is mainly covered in water. The idea of being able to travel faster, farther and without the effort of walking were all key factors in why early people were inspired to find a way to use the oceans as a means for transportation. Due to its vast history sea transportation has many different aspects and interesting topics that can be looked into such as conzializtion of the New World, early transportation, commercial use and many more different topics. Though, in this chapter we will be focusing on some of the different forms of military technology that have been created in the centuries of sea technology.

The main style of sea transportation in this chapter will be the military use of ships and submarines. Warships have long been used as a form of sea combat in many wars. Warships are ships that have been designed for warfare and have been equipped with weapons for combat. The ships are mainly designed to be able to attack other ships and sea vessels. Another main use is to be able to transport materials and soldiers across large bodies of water. These two roles of ships allow for continued innovation of warfare across the war. Before ships most battles were fought on land but the creation of sea transportation provided for an entirely new form of warfare. Since the creation of this form of warfare the goal of every country has been to continue to develop new technology in order to create the largest navy in the world in order to have control over the oceans. Through different technological advancements and periods in history many different countries have held the mantle of having the largest navy in the world. For some countries this distinction was gravely important to military success due to the size and fact that they are surrounded by water. Other countries and specifically those that remain landlocked even to this day have found there is no reason for ships and the use of them for military purposes. Even so, naval battles, warships and transportation have had a profound effect on the world today.

5.3 The History of ships and other sea technology in warfare?

Naval warfare occurred well Before Christ with the first battle said to have occurred during the time of 1210 BC. This long timeline shows how long sea transportation and warfare has been around throughout history. In the first battles of the world fought in the water. In the early days of naval warfare the only goals of the wars were in the form of boarding other ships and preventing attackers from boarding their own. During this time period all of the ships were made from wood and would stay that way until the 19th century. The ships which were often powered by oars and sails and directed by steering wheels were used throughout the world to fight wars all across the oceans of the world. Eventually though one major change occurred with the use of ships during the time period of their wooden use. This was the creation of gunpowder and canons. In the early 1600s, cannons and gunpowder were created and added to ships. The new powerful creation changed the style of warfare between countries at sea as now it was not needed for people to board an enemy ship to sink it. The use of cannon fire and subsequent addition would lead to an increase in naval battles across the world. One of the more famous naval fleets at this time was that of the Spanish Armada. The Spanish Armada backed by their naval fleet of 130 ships traveled to England believing that they had the strongest Navy when they were subsequently easily defeated by the British. The battles are some of the more famous in the history of both countries and the world.

 “Great Western” by William Marsh is in the Public Domain, CC0

One of the main changes to shipping technology occurred during the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution was a rapid change in the economy that occurred in the 1800s. This period brought upon a more machine based economy. The use of machines during this period brought about a new way and more efficient ways to create new and more enhanced products. This led to creation of the steam engines and use of steel instead of wood for the ships. The steam engine used coal as its main form of fuel. This allowed for the ships to be self powered by a source other than the wind. Many problems still existed even with this new technological advancement, “Steam ships still had some other problems. A great deal of coal was needed to travel even fairly short distances. On a voyage to a distant part of the world, there might not be anywhere to collect more coal. For this reason, ships continued to be fitted with sails even though they carried engines”(Greenwich, 2021). The use of steam engines would allow for an advancement in the use of ships and self powered machines. The other new relevantion of this period is also that ships began being created from steel instead of wood. This change caused by the industrial revolution allowed for ships to be created at much larger sizes and be a lot more durable than their wooden counterparts. These two changes to the shipping industry have had a pronounced impact on technological advancements of ships.

“Battleship Texas rising stately and worn out of the Houston Ship Channel near the San Jacinto Monument on a blue sky summer day” by Thomas Park, Unsplash is under an Unsplash license

In the United States and across the world, war would dominate during the 1900s. The first and second world wars would bring war to almost every section of the world. As a byproduct of the industrial revolution every country had developed new technologies which included new ships and other sea technology such as the submarine. A submarine which is a warship designed to be able underwater for long periods of time and armed with torpedoes was able to attack other ships at will during the war. The British naval blockade which had slowly starved Germany and halted their assault was slowly dismantled through the use of the submarines also known by their design name U-Boats. A blockade is an act of war designed to prevent goods and people from leaving an ear. The first real use of the submarine occurred during World War I by the Germans. The submarines which are able to stay underwater for long periods of time and are unseeable and were untrackable at the time proved to be very deadly to ships. The inability at the time to track the ships made it extremely difficult to fight against the submarines. The German’s use of their submarines were the main reason the United States eventually joined the war on the side of the allies. “Germany’s resumption of submarine attacks on passenger and merchant ships in 1917 became the primary motivation behind Wilson’s decision to lead the United States into World War I”(Foreign Service Institute United States Department of State). The decision of the German’s to continue their use of submarine warfare prompted the United States to join the war which turned the tables of the war in favor of the allies and led to Germany’s defeat. Even though the German submarines remained an almost undefendable threat their decision to bring the Americans into the war would prove to be too much and Germany would lose as a result.

“Submarine” by Thomas Haas, Unsplash is under an Unsplash license

5.4 Present Day Impact of Naval Warfare

In recent decades naval warfare has not had the same type of impact as other branches of war. As wars against terriosm across the globe have taken centerfold, there has been a lessening of naval warfare and sea fighting all together. Even so, naval transportation of troops and military cargo ships have continued, along with  the creation of new technologies. Even so the United States operates some of the greatest naval technology across the world. The United States currently operates 40 naval bases on the East and West coasts with one the Norfolk one being the largest one in the world. The United States naval and military presence has become more global in both their fights in the war against terriosm and their belief of needing to have American and NATO troops in areas of potential hostility to America and its allies. This need of being able to fight globally has led the United States to develop the largest number of aircraft carriers in the world. Aircraft carriers are ships designed to allow for air planes to be able to refuel and takeoff from the ship in the middle of the ocean. The United States has constantly been developing new technologies in order to find ways to defend these massive ships. Some of these defenses come from having other naval ships around them but others are new technologies that have better enhanced the United States aircraft carriers abilities to defend themselves, “Deployed carriers are always moving. And they are moving fast—fast enough, in fact, to outrun most submarines. Because they can sustain speeds of 35 miles per hour, the Nimitz-class carriers populating the current fleet can move to anywhere within a 700-square mile area within 30 minutes”(Thompson, 2019). The speed of the aircraft carriers in the water is hoped to be one of the new better ways to protect the ships which had previously been destroyed very easily during naval battles.

Another new technology is its increases in defense and offense of their destroyer ships. The destroyer is a fast ship designed to be able to quickly respond to different situations in record time. Destroyers are a ship that are able to defend themselves and other ships such as an aircraft carrier in a time of a potential attack. The United States has continued its development of new and intricately important new ships throughout recent years. In a recent decision the United States decided to build a new technologically advanced destroyer group. “The Zumwalt-class destroyer will be capable of performing a range of deterrence, power projection, sea control, and command and control missions while allowing the Navy to evolve with new systems and missions. It does all of this while maintaining its stealth – making this visually imposing ship difficult to find whether close to the shore or far out to sea”(Prepare to defend). The new technological advancements that the United States has created in order to better advance their abilities across the seas are evident in their upgrades of the aircraft carriers and destroyers in recent years.

5.5Future Outlook of Naval technologies and Transportation.

The future plans of the Navy mainly revolve around the growing threat of China and Russia. The threat that the two countries pose in 2021 is very real to the rest of the world. With hostilities already increasing over Taiwan and the threat of more future issues, the United States has decided it will continue to attempt to expand their influence and naval capabilities in the region. The growing threats of Chinese expansion has started to undermine and threaten United States interest and allies in the region. That is why the United States has continued its development of new technologies such as, “The Navy on the other hand wants a CV-LX carrier, basically an amphibious assault ship meant to carry strike fighters, freeing up deck space on the big Nimitz and Ford-class supercarriers to carry specialized aircraft such as tanker and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance drones”(Mizokami, 2017). The Navy is looking into how it can upgrade its aircraft carriers even after all of its developments in the past years. The navy in the future would like to institute all of these features in order for the United States to be best equipped and prepared whenever called upon.

Due to the potential looming threat caused by China the United States has readily been looking for the best possible ways to deploy their forces in the regions around China if there was ever an attack. The use of new technologies is needed to counter China’s growing arsenal of weapons and naval strength. The Chinese decisions to spend a lot of their money on defense and military upgrades have allowed them to greatly expand their military ranks. That is why new technology is needed to better prevent potential attacks from China and from other countries abroad. One idea from a study was that, “One idea in that vein would be to build unmanned vehicle hubs in the Black Sea in Romania and Turkey that would create a constant U.S. presence in the region without running afoul of the Montreux Convention that creates specific limits for ships that enter through the Bosphorus Strait. The surface and subsurface unmanned vehicles could provide defense and offensive power in the region quickly”(Eckstein, 2017). The use of new military vehicles that do not risk the death of Americans are a potentially great way to respond to any crisis as quickly as possible. These minutes and seconds in response time can be the difference between saving lives and preventing catastrophes or failure.

5.6 Case study

2.7 Chapter Summary

This chapter focuses on the relationship between transportation and military use in the United States and across the world. The chapter solely focuses on the different aspects of sea warfare as it has appeared in its many different forms throughout the years of history. The chapter presents all the different types of technological advancements that have helped shape the world into what it is today. Through showing how significant some of these naval battles were to shaping history this chapter provides information about how naval technology has contributed to some of the most well known battles throughout history. Also, provided in the chapter are current day updates of what naval technologies have been created and their reasoning for the continued development of these technologies. The final section of this chapter is a predictive guide of where naval technology may be going in the future and how it might affect sea transportation and warfare across the planet.

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