Yin/Yang Truths of Fleet Tactics and Naval Operations

Review by Bill Doughty

Technology, information, cyber warfare, and operations in the littorals take the spotlight in the third edition of "Fleet Tactics and Naval Operations" by Capt. Wayne P. Hughes Jr., USN (Ret.) and Rear Adm. Robert P. Girrier, USN (Ret.), with foreword by Adm. John Richardson, USN, Chief of Naval Operations (Naval Institute Press, 2018). 

We get the yin and yang of history/now, art/science, human/machine, and tactics/strategy, among other balanced tensions. 

Updated for modern combat in the information age, this edition is a must for any naval officer and strategist and is part of the Blue & Gold Professional Library, which includes classics such as the "Watch Officer's Guide" and "The Bluejacket's Manual."

Capt. Wayne P. Hughes Jr., USN (Ret.)

Author Hughes writes in the preface, "This book is not a comprehensive guide to all the lessons of twenty-first-century naval warfare, but anyone who reads it will be better equipped to reach sound conclusions about modern combat at sea."

Lessons in history come from the age of sail, Civil War, Mahan's golden age of tactics, World War II battles including Battle of Midway, and maritime operations through the Cold War. Modern revolutions include the influence of information, cryptography and cyberwarfare, new forms of deception and surprise, unmanned vehicles and countermeasures, artificial information, space satellites and tactical information warfare.

Expansion/compression: The book drops anchor on the tense intersection of an expanded battlefield (thanks to "greater weapon range and lethality") and compressed inshore operations (due to geography and "strictures of littoral warfare" resulting in "an explosive mixture of threats – from air, land, sea and undersea").

Old/young: The yin/yang applies to patience and wisdom of experienced seniors compared with the creative insights, confidence and skill of young leaders using new tools. The authors advise, "Preparing future Navy leaders for information warfare should start early."

"To add weight to the case for youth and the need for seniors to help them stay ahead in creativity we remind the reader of some combat leaders and the age when they achieved greatness: Napoleon was a general at age twenty-three, J.E.B. Stuart at age twenty-eight, and George Custer at age twenty-three; and Lt. W.B. Cushing was only twenty-two when he sank the CSS Albemarle. The list of past heroic military achievements by creative young men is a long one. Perhaps skill in information warfare among young men and women today is analogous to the talent exhibited early on by mathematicians and classical music composers. In both of these sharply contrasting professions the truly great ones made lasting contributions while still in their teens."

Sailors pull together at the Center for Information Warfare Training, Information Warfare Training Command Monterey. (Photo by YN1 David Lee)

Control/freedom: "To a person, strong military leaders want freedom for initiative from their seniors and reliability from the juniors," the authors write. "Good doctrine reduces the number of command decisions in the heat of battle, for even a cool head will be gripped by passion and, very quickly, bring emotional and physical exhaustion." "Doctrine must be whole and firm but not dogmatic."

Art/science; leader/follower; East/West:

"Some people emphasize war as a science, while others view it as an art. This book emphasizes the special qualities that commanders must have, which seem to historians or journalists to be instinctive, almost like a 'sixth sense.' An effective leader has the human qualities that brave, wise and inspiring leaders have displayed in the past. When these are present, the debate over whether war is an art or a science seems unimportant. Good practice is an art that grows from good theory that is more scientific. Both are necessary, but neither of them is sufficient by itself to explain the repeated successes of great tactical leaders such as Jervis, Nelson, Suffren, Togo, Spruance and Burke."

Fact/Fiction (truth is truth): The authors bring in examples presented in works of fiction by Erskine Childers, Tom Clancy and Peter Singer and August Cole. The third edition culminates in a fictional narrative by the authors to synthesize their points in an extended "The Battle of the Aegean." While the scenario is false, the principles remain true.

Strategist Adm. Thomas B. Hayward, former CNO.

Finally we get appendices on terminology and principles of war from Sun Tzu, Clauswitz and Mahan to Nimitz, Mao, Montgomery and Hayward, among others.

Here are some nuggets of wisdom spicing this very readable book:

• "Tactics and technology (are) two sides of the same coin."
• "Our ablest naval officers were tacticians who knew their technology."
• "What is true in ground combat where machines serve human beings, is magnified at sea, where human beings serve machines."
• "A fleet fights on the momentum of two flywheels. One is fleet doctrine; the other is stability in the fighting force."
• "The first aim of every seagoing captain and commander should be to find two officers better than himself or herself and help in every way to prepare them for war. That done, everything else follows." 
• "Ideas not communicated are seeds cast on rocks."

Prose/Poetry: Sun Tzu meets Nelson in this found haiku of their axioms: 

"The seat of purpose

is found on the land" ... ''a ship's 

a fool to fight a fort"

Information warfare tactics inform the truths of strategy and policy, according to the CNO in the book's foreword. 

"Tactics are inextricably linked to strategy and policy," Adm. Richardson writes. "The Information Age is upon us and has dramatically changed everything, including naval warfare and fleet tactics."

In Richardson's words, "This update is a timely 'kick' to remind us to rig for sea and get underway."

PACIFIC OCEAN (June 28, 2018) An MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter, right, conducts underway operations with an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter and the littoral combat ship USS Coronado (LCS 4). The Fire Scout variant is expected to deploy with the LCS class to provide reconnaissance, situational awareness and precision targeting support. Coronado is working with Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 1 to test the newest Fire Scout unmanned helicopter. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jacob I. Allison/Released)