ISSUE 154

FINAL ISSUE – June 2015 Surface Warfare: Taking the Offensive The Indonesian Maritime Doctrine: Realising the Potential of the Ocean The Naval Build-Up in the National Defence Strategic Policy as a Function of National Leadership An Ocean for my Kingdom World Naval Developments ANZAC Frigate Upgrade sustains WA jobs

Fit to be a Frigate? Navigating the Black Ditch: Risks in the Taiwan Strait To Safeguard the Seas WWI Book Reviews

Journal of the 2

Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 3

An e-7a Wedgetail and two f/a-18a Hornets provide a fly past during the Anzac Day 2015 National Ceremony held in Canberra. Contents

Australian Naval Institute 2015 Report 4

Message from the President 6

Surface Warfare: Taking the Offensive 8

The Indonesian Maritime Doctrine: Realising the Potential of the Ocean 10

Front page : The Naval Build-Up in the Clearance Divers Philippines 16 are the Australian Defence Forces’ specialist divers. National Defence Strategic Policy as a Clearance Diver Function of National Leadership 19 tasks include specialist diving An Ocean for my Kingdom 23 missions to depths of 54 metres, surface and underwater World Naval Developments 29 demolitions, and the rendering ANZAC Frigate Upgrade safe and disposal sustains WA jobs 32 of conventional explosive ordnance Fit to be a Frigate? 36 and improvised explosive devices.

Navigating the Black Ditch: Risks in the Taiwan Strait 39 Ms Diane Bricknell came on board the ANI Headmark project from the start of To Safeguard the Seas 44 a changeover to a more dynamic design, around 10 years ago. Through more than a decade she has WWI Book Reviews 46 contributed her expertise and design capabilities to produce a dynamic and Book Reviews 54 attractive publication. As Headmark moves to an all-online format, we wish her well and thank her for her dedicated input. Visions from the Vault 59 Issue Number 154

Printed in Australia SPONSORS: Style Notes for Headmark 61 ISSN 1833-6531 DMS Maritime – Lockheed Martin – Austal Design & DTP by Diane Bricknell Saab Systems – Australian Defence Credit Union ANI Membership Application Form 63 Raytheon Australia – Thales Naval Group [email protected]

Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 4 Australian Naval Institute 2015 Report By RADM Gregory Sammut CSC RAN

ANI President’s Report 2015 reviews which we generate from our original articles or commentary on what is already there. regular writers. Our long term aim is There is more work to do to make the site increasingly n the face of a rapidly changing to attract some of the naval luminaries interactive, but we are on our way to making the website the environment, I am pleased to stand who write for the major journals to front door of the ANI rather than the cat flap around the back! Ibefore you this evening and report that supplement Norman Friedman our We are looking at continuously improving the website the ANI can be confident in successfully most regular international contributor. and a couple of examples of a new look have been included navigating the last 12 months. More This remains a work in progress. in the Power Point presentation you will see shortly. A new importantly, it has done so while laying The criticism of the ANI website in look would greatly assist to expand our appeal and grow the strong foundations for the changes that the past was that it never changed and subscriber database. it must make to remain successful into was therefore not worth visiting. It was the future. more of a notice board than a website. Proposed Cessation of This is no longer true. All of you should Headmark as a publication ANI’s Online Presence be receiving from the business manager If I could turn to Headmark. The most obvious ANI advance over a weekly email pointing out new items Last year the Council agreed to reduce the number of the past 12 months has been online. It is on the ANI website. New high quality Headmark editions to two per year to offset costs to develop now a year since the institute revamped material is being placed on the site every the website in the first instance, and to also control ongoing what had become an almost moribund day and is being read by our subscribers, costs over the longer term. We have been monitoring this website. We have leveraged the and a consistent effort is being made step, with a keen eye on website use and the balance sheet. experience and advice of our webmaster, by members of the Council to keep the At the first Council meeting after this AGM, a decision Crispin Hull, who has proceed with website refreshed. on publication of Headmark editions and the format of future appropriate caution but always with the Articles and essays are becoming publications will be made in the context of the finalisation of Institute’s aim of furthering debate on available on a range of international the business plan which will be completed by mid-year. naval and maritime matters in mind. maritime strategic issues and defence I should explain, however, that we assess the cost of The Council decided that we would matters closer to home. More than producing Headmark and posting it to members can no allow free access to online material 200,000 words have been added since longer be sustained without an unaffordable drain on current on the condition users became a the revamp and the rate of addition is and projected resources. The expenditure of $30,000 pa to subscribers to the site and provided growing without sacrificing quality and produce four editions of Headmark is disproportionate when their email address. All ANI members pertinence to the maritime debate. considering we are only reaching our 350 members. Even were subscribed immediately. The a more economical two per year is unsustainable in light of number of subscribers has slowly grown Forty years of ANI present income from membership and sponsorship. towards 500, including a dozen or more published archives online The council will therefore be asked to consider a proposal from overseas. A critical part of the revamping exercise that the next hardcopy edition of Headmark, due in June this Ongoing growth in the number of was to ensure that the 40 years of the year, will be the last. At that point the name ‘Headmark’ will on-line subscribers will be important ANI’s journal and Headmark would migrate to the Website and money saved will directed towards to the business shift the ANI is in the be made accessible online to the naval a staged upgrade. course of making to adapt to new community and the public at large. realities and survive as an organization It was a significant undertaking. The Proposed: “Australian International of relevance. archive consisted of about four million Journal on Naval and Maritime Affairs” words and thousands of images. Now It is planned that ANI will continue to publish annually, Centre for International the website has all of that in a text though perhaps in a simpler format and under a different title Maritime Security form which can be searched, as well as - possibly the Australian International Journal on Naval and In January this year, the ANI became scans of the original pages. It’s quite Maritime Affairs. the Australian partner of the US-based an outcome that our valuable resource The proposal will be to produce this as a small annual Centre for International Maritime has now been preserved and made edition of important maritime papers, which we do not Security. This partnership has opened accessible. put onto the website. The journal would be an academic access to a wealth of new naval maritime With such rich content, we hold publication and therefore may not require pictures. It could and geo-political articles and essays, hopes that the website will encourage be produced very simply in A5 size, though we would aim which we are permitted to place on our more people to contribute to the for it to become a prominent publication, both nationally website to supplement the articles and maritime debate whether by way of and internationally. There is no equivalent publication, Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 5

which may offer market opportunities. Changes to Presidency stand down from the position as I continue to serve as Head of Consideration is being given to of the ANI the Future Submarine Program. positing the annual publication for As the ANI seeks to reshape the manner international readership, which will in which it furthers the maritime debate, Expanding Sponsorship hinge on the profile of its contributors. so must it consider the relevance of its If I may touch on the ongoing importance of our membership It will be distributed to the ANI constitution in the current day and into before concluding. Without our members we would not be an financial members with the objective of the future. Institute. sustaining part of the basis for current We have reached the point where We need support from the existing membership and to and ongoing membership. there are too few senior serving officers expand the paid up base while also attracting a much larger Publication of this new ANI journal to fulfill the responsibilities of President. number of online subscribers. We need to shore up our is not anticipated until mid-2016. This Indeed, I am finding it increasingly relationship with our sponsors and seek new sponsorship from will avoid the expense of a producing difficult to exercise my responsibilities as companies which have not been previously been approached. a hard copy magazine over the next 12 President while also serving as Head of Brian Mansell has kindly agreed to take up the banner and is months allowing us to: the Future Submarine Program. Many actively approaching sponsors for this year’s Vernon Parker a. Reinvest in website, and of our valued sponsors legitimately oration and looking beyond to a long term and sustainable b. Focus on seeking support and seek opportunities in the program I income stream from sponsors submissions for the new journal. am responsible for delivering, and the ANI will approach the National perception alone of a conflict of interest Conclusion Security College at ANU to seek papers. on my part is enough to damage both To conclude … The CDSS is another logical place to the ANI and, of course, Defence. There remains a place for the ANI in 2015 and beyond if seek high quality submissions. For this reason and the related need we are willing to understand the new environment in which An active Editorial Committee to for the ANI to avail itself of the talents of we operate, and adapt as we must to remain relevant to the both seek content, and review and assess those not serving in the RAN, a special maritime debate, and meet our enduring charter. In other articles provided will be important. resolution will be put to you to amend words, our vision and goal has not changed, but the manner in A notice to members explaining why the constitution to allow the President to which we achieve these must if the Institute is to survive. Headmark will no longer appear will be be either a currently serving member or Change is never easy. But I commend to you the initiatives placed in the June edition and inviting a previous serving member of the RAN. that I have outlined in this report, and others will expand upon all members to take advantage of the And for the reason I just outlined, during this meeting. new Headmark, which will be on their I will be stepping down as President of As I step down from role of President, I must acknowledge Institute’s website. the ANI at the conclusion of this AGM. the unfailing support of the Council of the ANI. There are a I do so, however, in the sound comfort number of dedicated individuals who are working hard for your Events 2014/15 of announcing that Vice Peter Institute. I pay special tribute to the Vice President, Captain The major ANI event this year was the Jones has nominated for the position Timothy Brown (who has spearheaded reform); the Secretary, Vernon Parker Oration in October, and will stand for election to the role Commander Ben MacDonald; Councilor the inimitable delivered at the National Press Club later in this meeting along with the Lieutenant Commander Desmond Woods; our Public Officer, by Mike Carlton. This was very well other office bearers and members of the Lieutenant Commander Sophia Hill; Treasurer Lieutenant Lee attended with over 100 diners and Council. Subject to your agreement to Robinson, and our exceptional business manager, Ms Sue Hart represented a break from our practice the change in the constitution, he will be (who has gone beyond the call on so many occasions to support of holding this dinner in ADFA or at the able to take up the role once the updated the Institute). ADC. -Emden was well and truly constitution is lodged with the Registrar To the membership, thank covered by Mike only a couple of weeks General for the ACT. you for your support for the before the centenary of the engagement. The lodgement must be done within Institute and the privilege Sponsorship was provided for the third one month of the AGM, but the I’ve enjoyed to have served as consecutive year by Lockheed Martin Business Manager will achieve this President. for which we are most grateful. within 5-10 days. The ANI will be I submit my last report. I will leave the events manager to without a President for this short period. Thank you again. speak on the plan for the next Vernon I don’t hesitate to say that we are Parker Oration on 26 May and the very fortunate that VADM Jones has RADM Gregory Sammut Goldrick Seminar we hope to hold in nominated for role of President, which CSC RAN October after Sea Power Conference 15. also lessens the regret with which I Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 6

Message from the President

fter 40 years of publishing a hard copy of the Journal of the Australian Naval Institute, our organization has decided to shift our main forum to the ANI internet website. This edition is therefore the last hard-copy version. This change was Athought over long and hard. Besides the growing costs of production, there was a realization that the ANI website can reach members and subscribers with greater immediacy and penetration than a hard-copy. After a 12 month trial, I can report that the website is moving forward in leaps and bounds. We will continue to solicit and publish thought-provoking articles, they will just be available on-line. We will consolidate these articles on a quarterly basis into an online Headmark edition. As we mark this important milestone I would like to acknowledge the work of our current editor Dr Tom Lewis and his talented production team. Importantly, the 12 month trial period has also allowed us to look at options as to ‘how’ we can better leverage what we can communicate in paper print. So I can inform you that we are also in the final throes of refining options to produce a new journal for our members and the broader community. This journal will be different to that which has gone before, and provide the much- needed opportunity to elevate the ANI in the national and international strategic discourse. The plans will see this Journal supported by a distinguished editorial board and will help put the ANI on a stage with other prominent strategic institutions. The changes to Headmark is but one of a significant number of changes underway within the ANI. At the recent Annual General Meeting members agreed to change the Constitution to allow retired members of the RAN to be Council members. The drivers for this change were two-fold. First, there was a ecognition that serving members are often hard-pressed with their duties to find the necessary time for roles such as the President. Second, this move may give the ANI greater freedom in what it publishes. I am therefore the first retired member of the RAN to be President of the ANI. I believe the change offers other opportunities for the ANI to engage more actively and lead in the public discourse on naval and maritime affairs. It is my intention to seize opportunities where they present themselves to do just that. Many of the changes underway have been spawned during the stewardship of Rear Admiral Greg Sammut. I would like to acknowledge his significant contribution both as a President and member of the ANI over many years. The ANI has a unique place in the spectrum of naval and defence associations. It has through its members the greatest professional knowledge of naval affairs. We need to better harness this intellectual capital for the benefit of the RAN and our nation’s defence. In particular, the ANI should have a particular focus on future developments in the naval and maritime spheres to help shape the bright future we all believe the RAN must have. The ANI is also looking for other opportunities besides its annual dinner and associated Vernon Parker Oration such as the Goldrick Seminar to provide public forums for discussion. The ANI will also develop plans to publish in hard and soft copy more substantial papers as proceedings of such events. To the members and sponsors of the ANI I seek your continued support as this great institution changes course to its new headmark. We will engage with you in this journey and keep you updated on our progress.

Vice Admiral Peter Jones, AO, DSC, RAN Retired

Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 7

Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 8 Surface Warfare: Taking the Offensive By Rear Admiral Thomas S Rowden, USN

aptain Jim Kilby started off this theme recently with “Surface CWarfare: Lynchpin of Naval Integrated Air/Missile Defense”, and Captain Charlie Williams followed up with “Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) – The Heart of Surface Warfare” and “Increasing Lethality in Anti-Surface Warfare (ASUW)”. Both of these officers were recently selected for flag rank, and the Surface Force could not be more fortunate. Their years of fleet experience in these mission areas uniquely qualify them to lead our force in the future. Together with our continuing mastery of land attack and maritime security operations, the three operational thrusts they describe a Surface Force that is moving from a primarily power projection operations. I call this and devise new tactics designed to The coastal patrol ship USS Typhoon defensive posture to one on the offense. “offensive sea control” and it takes into counter them. We need to master the launches an MK-60 This is an exciting development, consideration that in future conflict, we technology that is coming to the fleet – surface-to-surface and I want to spend some time here may have to fight to get forward, fight Navy Integrated Fire Control (Counter missile during reinforcing their messages. through our own lines, and then fight Air), or NIFC-CA; the Air and Missile a Griffin missile The single most important to stay forward. Defense Radar (AMDR); the SQQ- exercise. (US Navy) warfighting advantage that the US Pieces of ocean will come to be 89 A(V)15 ASW Combat System; Navy brings to the joint force is the seen as strategic, like islands and the LCS ASW Mission Module; the ability to project significant amounts of ports, and we will offensively “seize” introduction of the Griffin missile in combat power from the sea, thousands these maritime operating areas to the PC class; new classes of Standard of miles from our own shores on enable further offensive operations. Missiles; Rail Gun; Directed Energy. relatively short notice and with few Put another way, no one viewed the We will need to use these systems geo-political restraints. amphibious landings in the Pacific in and then do what Sailors always do – No one else can do this, and for the WWII as “defensive”; there was broad figure out ways to employ them that better part of two decades, our ability understanding that their seizure was the designers never considered. to do so was unchallenged. Without offensive and tied to further offensive Going on the offensive is a mind- this challenge, our mastery of the objectives. It is now so with the manner set, a way of thinking about naval fundamentals of sea control –searching in which we will exercise sea control. warfare. It means thinking a good bit for and killing submarines, over the What does this mean to fleet more about how to destroy that than horizon engagement of enemy fleets, Sailors? It means that we have to hit how to defend this. Don’t get me wrong and long range air and missile defense the books, dust off old TACMEMOS – we will still need to be able to defend – diminished, even as the world figured and begin to think deeply again what it high value units, amphibious forces, out that the best way to neutralize means to own the inner screen against convoys, and logistics – but we will this power projection advantage was submarines, to hunt down and destroy increasingly defend them by reaching to deny us the very seas in which we adversary surface vessels over the out and destroying threats before those operate. horizon, and to tightly control the outer threats are able to target what we are Surface Warfare must “go on the air battle. defending. offensive” in order to enable future We need to study the threats We are moving to a concept of Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 9

dispersed lethality in the Surface Force, will dominate the outer air battle, weapons and sensors necessary to one that presents an adversary with a eliminating threats to the force at enable this offensive shift. considerably more complex operational range. The Surface Force will seize I am bullish on Surface Warfare, problem. It will not be sufficient to strategic “maritime terrain” to enable and you ought to be too. I look forward simply try to neutralize our power synchronized follow-on operations. to continuing this dialogue on the projection forces. Those who may ask how the Renaissance in Surface Warfare, and While these will be vigorously current fiscal environment impacts I am proud to be part of the greatest defended, other elements of the surface this vision, my answer is that it does so Surface Force in the greatest Navy the force will act as hunter/killer groups substantially. We will be forced to favor world has ever known! t taking the fight to the enemy through capability over capacity. We will favor the networked power of surface forces forward deployed readiness over surge Rear Admiral Thomas S. Rowden’s exercising high levels of Operational readiness. We will continue to invest in current assignment is on the Chief of Security (OPSEC) and wielding both forward-looking capabilities through Naval Operations Staff as director, lethal over-the-horizon weapons to a strong science and technology/ Surface Warfare Division. A native of destroy adversary capabilities and research and development budget, sophisticated electronic warfare suites while ensuring we accelerate those Washington, DC, and a 1982 graduate to confound adversary targeting. promising technologies closest to of the United States Naval Academy, Especially in the Pacific, vast fielding and most effective in advancing Rear Admiral Rowden has served expanses of ocean will separate the our offensive agenda. in a diverse range of sea and shore carrier air wing from dispersed surface We will posture more of the force assignments. operations, so the paradigm of the forward, and more of it in the Pacific. past few decades that suggested the While the total size of the fleet will carrier would provide strike assets to likely decline if current conditions Originally published by the Center Surface Warfare - supplement the Surface Force is no continue, more of it will be where it for International Maritime Security Taking the Offensive/ longer valid. We will leverage air wing needs to be, it will be more effectively at http://cimsec.org/surface-warfare- System consols of capability, but we will not be dependent networked over a larger more dispersed taking-offensive/11651 and republished AN:SQQ-89(V)15 upon it. area, and it will be equipped with the with permission. onboard of USS Momsen (US Navy) Working in tandem with shore-based maritime patrol aircraft and our organic helicopters, we will seek out and destroy adversary submarines before they threaten high value units or fielded forces. Bringing together the networked power of surface IAMD forces and the mighty E-2D, we Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 10 The Indonesian Maritime Doctrine: Realising the Potential of the Ocean By Mervyn Piesse

Key Points • To achieve those ambitious goals, county’s infrastructure deficit and • President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo he will need to attract private achieve the rate of economic growth has outlined an ambitious maritime and foreign investment. That that Indonesia is capable of. doctrine that may become the could become easier now that the centrepiece of his five-year term. uncertainty of an election year is over Analysis • The doctrine seeks to boost economic and Jokowi is beginning to establish growth by improving connectivity himself as a capable reformer. Maritime Doctrine between the islands of the Indonesian archipelago. Increasing domestic Summary Jokowi’s maritime doctrine is set to connectivity will enhance an become the defining feature of his underperforming logistics network This article examines the main elements five-year presidency. In the document and reduce the cost of shipping goods of Jokowi’s maritime doctrine, the outlining his policy platform, he around the country. instrument by which the president promised to focus upon maritime • Certain sectors of the Indonesian aims to boost the economy into the security, diplomacy and naval economy are set to benefit from the upper middle-income bracket. It seems, development. Later, in an interview president’s maritime vision. Jokowi however, that a lack of interest among with Western media, he stated that aims to protect and modernise the investors in infrastructure projects is his maritime vision is about more fishing industry, further develop the the largest obstacle to realising this than just basic statecraft; it also ship-building industry and continue maritime doctrine. Without private encompasses trade, tourism, fishing and the naval modernisation initiated by and foreign investment, it will be transportation. In the same interview his predecessor. exceedingly difficult to remedy the he also alluded to the need for foreign

Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 11

investment to fully realise his aspirations. In a speech at the East Asia Summit, in November 2014, Jokowi introduced four pillars guiding his administration. Together, they display a desire to rebuild the maritime culture that existed prior to European colonisation and the disruptiveness of the independence process. The doctrine shows a re-conceptualisation of Indonesia’s place in the world and the role that geography plays in shaping foreign and The fast missile- domestic policy. the established power of the US, will This initiative envisages a maritime equipped patrol boat Rather than viewing the waters that likely be an unofficial part of Jokowi’s trade network stretching from Beijing, KRI Layang (Chris surround the Indonesian archipelago maritime doctrine. A closer relationship through Indonesian waters into the Sattler) as a weakness, the president wishes to with India is likely as recent Chinese Indian Ocean and onto the Middle recast them as a source of great strength actions in the South China Sea, East and, perhaps, as far as Europe. and economic potential. This vision, particularly in regard to the waters China will benefit from any maritime if fully realised, promises to transform around the Natuna Islands, threaten development that is undertaken in Indonesia into a maritime power with Indonesian interests. Indonesia as it is a major transit point considerable regional heft. Jakarta wishes to maintain an for Chinese trade. outward appearance of having no direct Jakarta is open to receiving Chinese External Component of interest in the dispute, thereby allowing aid to further the president’s vision. the Doctrine: The World’s it greater credibility as a mediator and Rizal Sukma, the presidential advisor go-between. Jokowi will, therefore, still for foreign policy, views Chinese Maritime Axis attempt to cling to the well-established and Indonesian maritime plans as The outward-looking element of the foreign policy position of bebas dan complementary. He has identified maritime doctrine has been taken as a aktif (“free and active”), in which Jakarta three areas where the aims of the two means to reorient Indonesia’s place in does not officially lean towards any states overlap, specifically in terms of the world. Indonesia has long focussed foreign power. connectivity, safety and diplomacy. In upon the Association of South-East For its part, Beijing is also keen to his view, the doctrines are not designed Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Pacific contribute to Indonesian maritime to further either side’s hard power and Ocean while generally attaching less development. Wang Yi, the Chinese instead offer mutual gains. significance to the Indian Ocean to Foreign Minister, has indicated that In terms of balancing between the its west. In declaring Indonesia the his government is willing to assist in Indo-Pacific powers, Jokowi’s maritime “world’s maritime axis”, Jokowi has infrastructure projects. Jokowi has also doctrine seeks to continue existing positioned Indonesia as an Indo-Pacific been quoted as saying that ‘Indonesia foreign policy goals. Building a closer power, with a geopolitical situation that is on the way of developing [sic] into a relationship with India has been on is influenced by events in both regions. maritime power, while China proposes Jakarta’s diplomatic agenda for most of The president could seek to foster closer to build the twenty-first century the last decade and could now gather relations with countries within the Maritime Silk Road; the two initiatives greater momentum. At the same time, Indian Ocean Region, particularly India. highly fit with each other.’ Indonesia does not seek to isolate China Developing closer relations Chinese President Xi Jinping or the US. Warmer relations between with India, to balance against the launched his Maritime Silk Road Washington and New Delhi could increased assertiveness of China and (MSR) concept in Indonesia in 2013. also reduce any unease that Jakarta Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 12 The Indonesian Maritime Doctrine: Realising the Potential of the Ocean

could experience in furthering its ties discussions with India is, in itself, maritime approaches and how a closer with India, as doing so will likely be unlikely to significantly further the relationship with that country could supported by the US. Indonesia will bilateral relationship. be perceived internationally. This continue to maintain, and benefit from, Under the joint Malacca Strait Sea wariness will slow efforts to improve its relationship with all three powers. Patrol (MSSP), Indonesia, , the relationship. and patrol the Strait Maritime Diplomacy: of Malacca that lies to the south-east Domestic Components of the Finalising Maritime of India’s Andaman and Nicobar Maritime Doctrine Islands. These four states have been Boundaries with India reluctant to allow China, India or the Domestically, Jokowi hopes to boost Unlikely to Significantly US to increase their naval presence in trade between the various islands Further Relations the area as they are ostensibly wary of the Indonesian archipelago, re- of the Strait becoming the scene of assert sovereignty over marine-based Maritime diplomacy is a significant great power confrontation. Singapore, resources, develop a shipbuilding part of the president’s doctrine and Malaysia and Thailand have shown industry and strengthen naval is designed to manage the sources of a willingness to allow India to patrol capabilities. conflict at sea. According to Jokowi, the Strait, but Indonesia has remained these conflicts are caused by the theft resolutely opposed. Indonesia has Boosting Inter-Island of fish, the violation of sovereign renewed defence co-operation with Connectivity borders, territorial disputes, piracy India, undertaking co-ordinated patrols, and pollution. Diplomatic efforts, and bilateral or multilateral exercises, Poor port infrastructure has made at least over the next two to three as well as humanitarian assistance and shipping goods between the thousands years, are likely to focus on the Indian disaster relief. of islands that make up the Indonesian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), with India has displayed a willingness to archipelago prohibitively expensive. Indonesia assuming the role of IORA become more engaged in South-East According to data published by the Chair in November 2015, and the Asia. Indonesian Chamber of Commerce finalisation of maritime boundaries After Malaysia Airlines flight MH and Industry (Kadin), the cost of with neighbouring countries. 370 went missing in March 2014, transportation in Indonesia makes up Jokowi has taken office at a India responded to the Malaysian over 15% of the cost of doing business, propitious time in Indonesia’s efforts Government’s request to contribute to compared to less than 7% in other at reconnecting with the Indian Ocean search and rescue (SAR) operations. regional economies. In Indonesia, less Region. IORA is currently focussed Despite the limitations of its own than 5% of total freight is delivered via upon maritime safety and security, naval forces, Indonesia has not been the sea. trade and investment facilitation, receptive to Indian offers to assist To encourage business to utilise fisheries management, disaster risk with SAR operations during the sea-based routes rather than roads, management, science and technology search for Air Asia flight QZ 8501. the government is planning to offer Indonesian warship and academic co-operation and tourism It seems that Indonesia is still wary incentives to shipping operators, KRI Clurit (Public domain) and cultural exchanges. At the last of Indian involvement within its including fuel subsidies. Offering fuel meeting of IORA, in October 2014, there was a greater focus on business and increasing trade and investment flows in the region. Indonesia is likely to utilise its position as Chair of IORA to bring increased regional attention to its maritime doctrine and the opportunities that it presents. By 2019, Indonesia plans to have settled its unresolved maritime boundaries with Timor- Leste, India and Thailand. Completing boundary Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 13

subsidies to shipping operators may fish stocks become depleted in seem contradictory, given the urgent South- East Asia, foreign fishing desire to reduce subsidies for motor vessels venture further afield into the vehicles, but incentives such as this territory of neighbouring states. It is are likely to help encourage the wider not uncommon for Thai, Vietnamese use of sea-based transportation. Such and Chinese fishing vessels, among measures will further the development others, to stray into Indonesian waters of Jokowi’s so-called “sea highway”. in search of more abundant fishing Over the course of his first term in grounds. office, Jokowi is aiming to significantly In response to this problem, the agricultural economy and yet it is Indonesian Navy Nomad N-24 reduce the cost of domestic logistics. Jokowi Administration has adopted underdeveloped. Modernising fishing Maritime Patrol Upgrading or constructing 24 existing the hard-line measure of destroying practices and expanding aquaculture Aircraft (Michael or new ports within the next five foreign fishing vessels that have entered facilities will help Indonesia to better Nitz) years will allow for greater domestic Indonesian territory. Vessels from utilise its fisheries resources. connectivity. Modernising ports to Vietnam and Papua New Guinea have bring them into line with international been sunk as part of the initiative. Developing a Shipbuilding standards could also increase access to Chinese boats, however, have been Industry Indonesian harbours with benefits for confiscated but not destroyed, international shipping. The government suggesting that Indonesia may be Despite growing demand, domestic has also proposed the importation of hesitant to draw the ire of the regional shipbuilders have struggled to meet up to 2,500 boats, with plans to import power. production targets. In a bid to assist the 500 from China, to connect the major As an archipelagic country, with development of a domestic shipbuilding islands, reduce transportation costs and vast seas to exploit, one could expect industry, the Jokowi Administration increase the flow of goods throughout Indonesia to have a flourishing seafood is considering the abolition of import the country. industry. That, however, is not the duties and the value-added tax (PPN) The efficiency of Indonesian ports case. The industry lacks sufficient cold on foreign ship components that are lags behind that of other shipping storage facilities and transport vessels. still required by local shipbuilders. Such destinations in South- East Asia. In a bid to expand and modernise the barriers increase the costs associated Dwell time measures the time from sector, there are plans to construct 100 with domestic ship production by up the moment a shipping container is fishery centres, with auctioning, storage to 25%. Consequently, many shipping unloaded, until it leaves the container and processing facilities. Developing companies prefer to import ships terminal. The main port of Tanjung the small aquaculture industry rather than purchase them from local Priok, in Jakarta, has an average dwell that currently operates will further manufacturers, as fully-built imports do Typical Indonesian time of 6.4 days. In comparison, strengthen maritime food security in not attract import duties or PPN. fishing boat Singapore has an average dwell time the country while also taking pressure The majority of the country’s - this one was of 1.5 days and Malaysia, three days. A off marine resources. shipbuilding industry is concentrated apprehended north focus upon port infrastructure can only The fishing industry accounts on the island of Batam, a designated of Australia for “blast help to improve efficiency and promote for almost one quarter of the total free trade zone located just south of fishing.” AF( MA) a greater level of connectivity between Indonesian islands, which has long been seen as a major impediment to the economic development of the country. Protecting and Modernising the Fisheries Industry

Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a major regional problem that has significant domestic repercussions for Indonesia. As Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 14 The Indonesian Maritime Doctrine: Realising the Potential of the Ocean

Singapore. Scrapping trade barriers the Indo-Pacific but several obstacles reach for the foreseeable future. that restrict the development of the could yet impede that lofty goal. industry on a national level will help the The defence budget is slated to Attracting Investors more than 200 other shipyards located increase to 1.5% of GDP over the next outside of Batam to become more five years. Although it has risen in Securing the required level of funding competitive with international imports. recent years, from 0.5% of GDP in 2001 for the development agenda set out In the short term, the domestic to 0.9% in 2013, Indonesian defence in the maritime doctrine will be the shipbuilding industry will lack the spending as a proportion of GDP still main difficulty in seeing the vision ability to satisfy the demand for lags behind most other South-East become reality. Estimates by McKinsey increased tonnage that the maritime Asian states. In dollar terms, however, & Company, a global management doctrine could unleash. In the longer it is second only to Singapore. While consulting firm, suggest that Indonesia term, if the plans to reduce trade Indonesia could be on its way to needs to invest at least US$600 billion barriers that inhibit the competitiveness becoming a formidable regional naval over the next ten years to improve the of domestic shipyards are successful in power, that will be a long-term goal, country’s infrastructure. Scrapping attracting more shipbuilders into the beyond Jokowi’s five-year term. generous fuel subsidies, which were industry, then the country could reduce There have been suggestions that slated to consume over 10% of the 2015 its reliance upon foreign manufacturers. the maritime doctrine indicates a move budget, is a step in the right direction. away from the land-based strategy Such reforms will go some way to Naval Development Indicates that Indonesia has followed since boosting investor confidence. an Emerging Naval Strategy independence. A focus on land-based Savings from the scrapped fuel force was fostered in the early years of subsidy can now go some way towards The maritime doctrine continues independence as a means to maintain funding the development of much- the modernisation agenda control over far-flung regions of the needed infrastructure. A large portion begun by President Susilo Bambang archipelago and to better ensure the of the funds, however, will be spent Yudhoyono (SBY) in 2005. SBY’s plan, unity of the country. While the state upon social programmes, such as the Minimum Essential Force (MEF), no longer faces the challenges from health care and education, calling into aimed to develop a green-water navy separatist groups in Aceh or East Timor, question how much additional public capable of patrolling the extent of others remain active. spending can be directed to funding the Indonesian archipelago by 2024. The Free Papua Movement infrastructure investment. The Indonesian military (TNI) is (Organisasi Papua Merdeka: OPM) Borrowing money is also a difficult currently hampered by outdated in Papua and West Papua, as well as proposition, since the government’s weapons systems that make it difficult an extremist network, with its hub in budget deficit is legally capped at 3% to effectively protect the country’s Central Sulawesi, while weakened, still of GDP. Public finances will therefore territorial waters. pose a significant domestic threat. The not be able to fund all of Jokowi’s One of the MEF’s major aims is simmering tension between the military infrastructure promises. Private to achieve total independence in the and the police, which occasionally investors, however, are hesitant defence industry by 2024. Gaining turns deadly, presents another threat to invest in a country plagued by knowledge and experience from to internal stability. In the long term, corruption and bureaucratic red tape. international operators has been a key these threats are unlikely to prevent Domestic reforms will be necessary part of this aim. In 2011, Indonesia the formation or implementation of to attract the level of investment entered a technical assistance and an Indonesian naval strategy, but they required to fulfil the ambitious export deal with the South Korean could disrupt its timely and efficient development programme. company Daewoo. As part of the execution. The poor state of basic infrastructure joint venture the state ship-building It is more likely that, as a result deters many investors, making them company, PT PAL, will take part in the of the president’s maritime doctrine, hesitant to risk capital in a market that construction of two naval submarines Indonesia will be in a better position could struggle to provide basic services, in South Korea with a third to be built to patrol its maritime territory and such as roads, water and electricity. domestically. It is not improbable defend key transport lines. Engaging in Complicated land acquisition laws that, in the long term, Indonesia could naval operations beyond its territorial compound the situation, as these become a significant maritime player in boundaries will, however, remain out of often make the process of setting up Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 15

businesses an overly long one. As a result, private and foreign investment remains below the target set by the Indonesian Investment Co-ordinating Board (BKPM). On 1 January 2015, however, a new land acquisition law came into force that should expedite infrastructure development. Already there are indications that the investment climate could be improving, although infrastructure and maritime projects continue to lag behind other sectors. Infrastructure development will depend on foreign direct investment There are strong indications that the frames given, but steps certainly could Indonesian Navy Parchim I-class in the country. This process is already investment climate is likely to change be taken towards doing so. In any (Kapitan Patimura- underway with Indonesia joining the for the better in the near future. Rather case, as the world’s largest archipelagic class) corvette, KRI Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure than continuing the overly cautious country, it makes sense for Indonesia to Hasan Basri (Michael Investment Bank (AIIB) and seeking approach to change demonstrated by turn to the seas in search of economic Nitz) to benefit from Beijing’s US$40 his predecessor, Jokowi has shown growth. The maritime doctrine is billion Silk Road Infrastructure Fund. a desire to be a force for reform. In certainly a step in the right direction ASEAN is another potential source the months since his inauguration, for the future development of a country for infrastructure investment. ASEAN he has shown a genuine resolve to that is shaping up to play an important is currently focussed upon increasing combat corruption, has reduced the role in the emerging Indo-Pacific regional connectivity and Jokowi’s politically-sensitive fuel subsidies before regional order. t bid to increase maritime connectivity scrapping the subsidy for gasoline within Indonesia has obvious regional altogether and introduced policies to Mervyn Piesse is a Future Directions benefits. The ASEAN Infrastructure tackle economically harmful practices International Research Analyst, at the Fund (AIF), in partnership with the in the forestry, fishing and oil and gas Indian Ocean Research Programme. A Asian Development Bank (ADB), began sectors. As long as his initiatives are not footnoted version of the paper may be lending operations in 2013. opposed by groups keen to preserve Four Indonesian infrastructure their privileged positions, future found at http://www.futuredirections. projects, jointly funded by the AIF and reforms appear likely and that can only org.au/publications/indian- ADB, are already underway. Efforts assist in attracting investment. ocean/2087-the-indonesian-maritime- made by multilateral infrastructure doctrine-realising-the-potential-of-the- funds to address the infrastructure Conclusion ocean.html deficit should help to improve the investment climate and contribute to Jokowi’s maritime doctrine contains a stronger economic growth. Japan is wide array of ambitious ideas that are increasing its investment in the ASEAN likely to boost the Indonesian economy. region, and Indonesia in particular, due It predominantly focuses upon growing to rising labour costs in China. the domestic economy by tapping into Escalating tensions between the country’s vast maritime potential. Tokyo and Beijing, due to territorial In the sphere of foreign policy, it seeks issues in the East China Sea, to widen Jakarta’s diplomatic focus into have only intensified the shift in the Indian Ocean. investment. Jokowi has called upon The time frame for achieving these Japan to increase funding for his goals is very tight, in many cases, only country’s infrastructure development five years. It is unlikely that all these programme. ambitions will be met in the time Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 16 The Naval Build-Up in the Philippines By Tyler Malcolm

ike many of its regional peers, the Philippines is in the midst of La defense buildup, motivated in no small part by China’s assertive moves in the western Philippine Sea and the resource-rich Spratly islands. The donation recently of two Balikpapan-class (Heavy) (LCH) vessels from Australia was the most recent boost to Philippines defense efforts. The LCH donation is particularly timely, as it complements the upcoming pair of Strategic Sealift Vessels, being built by PT PAL Servicemen of the Indonesia. Based on the Indonesian As gifts stand, the donation of basic conventional force capabilities, navy’s successful Makassar-class ex-HMAS Tarakan and Brunei is there have been other, quieter stage themselves to Landing Platform Dock, the 8,600-ton particularly generous – the Royal acquisitions that directly support transport bottled amphibious lift ships can transit to Australian Navy will hand them over war-fighting and maritime domain water in the wake of Typhoon Fengshen. remote areas and serve as a mobile fully refurbished with new safety and awareness. (US Navy photo by base for helicopters and smaller landing navigation components, plus spare Notably, the service signed a Senior Chief Mass craft. parts packages. is considering Memorandum of Understanding in Communication As evidenced during Typhoon purchasing other LCHs as well. 2014 with the Philippine National Oil Specialist Spike Call) Haiyan, the dearth of such assets While the media focus of Manila’s Company to transfer three retired hampered the Philippine government’s defense acquisitions under the 2, 500 ton petroleum tank ships. aid response to the hardest-hit parts of Capability Upgrade Program has been This acquisition would enable fuel the country. centered on big-ticket items to restore replenishment at sea and increase on-station time for high-endurance assets like the patrol frigates Ramon Alcaraz and Gregorio Del Pilar, both formerly US Coast Guard Hamilton-class cutters. Another low- profile capability is the National Coast Watch Center program – a surveillance system designed to monitor oceanic traffic in the A Philippines Navy western Philippine diver works with US Sea. forces (USN) Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 17

As expected, details of this national of the patrol frigate intelligence capability are closely force. While the held, but much of it is likely based negotiations have been on the successful implementation stymied by a complex of the earlier Coast Watch South two-phase process, program. With heavy US assistance, a list of qualified the Philippines created a network of bidders has emerged, monitoring stations combining radar, including well-known maritime surveillance and radio/ Spanish shipbuilder Philippines Navy logistics support vessel BRP Dagupan City data networks that provides a real- Navantia and several (Public domain) time strategic and tactical “picture” South Korean firms, among others. of oceanic traffic in the Southern A winning bid Philippines ­– the so-called Sulawesi was to be selected Sea Triangle. That area is a hotbed of in late 2014, but the illicit trafficking by sea and a favored acquisition process logistical trail for transnational reportedly has been insurgent forces that prowl the region. complicated by efforts When completed in 2015, the west- to separate the tracks facing Coast Watch chain will monitor of selecting a ship the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic from the embedded Zone, extending 200 nm into the weapon systems. This Philippines Navy upgrade/LCH HMAS Wewak (Chris Sattler) contested Spratly Islands group. In the may have to do with future, additional monitoring chains current challenges of will cover the Northern and Eastern the Philippines not facing portions of the country as well. being easily cleared for The most recent, visible and well- purchases of regional- publicized modernization program balance changing has been the integration of the weapons, such as a multipurpose helicopter program long-range surface-to- with the patrol frigate force. Five surface missile, with Augusta-Westland A109s twin-engine which this ship class is helicopters equipped with forward- normally equipped. looking infrared have been delivered The Armed Philippines Navy upgrade/LCH HMAS Tarakan side view (RAN) to the fleet to replace long-retired BO- Forces of the Philippines has benefited 105s. under President From an operational perspective, Benigno Aquino the navy has made quick strides to III’s administration. integrating the air asset with ships of To date, multiple the line. The AW109s had a maiden modernization deployment on board Ramon Alcaraz programs have either during the Australian multinational reached significant military exercise Kakadu 2014, acquisition stages or approximately eight months after have been completed receiving the first helicopters. entirely during his Out of all the projects to restore tenure. capabilities, the Navy is still awaiting However, as the final determination of its premier new paint smell wears acquisition – the multi-role frigate. The off for the navy, the Philippines wants to buy two units to historical challenges serve as major and modern combatants that have haunted its Philippines Navy patrol boat BRP Artemio Ricarte (Public domain) Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 18 The Naval Build-Up in the Philippines

Equipment past acquisitions and programs loom. The operates around 130 ships and several aircraft. It is critical that the next presidential administration continue to support Ships the acquisitions, as well as the services, both politically and fiscally. The Navy The Philippine Navy is currently operating three frigates. There are 11 active corvettes and numerous patrol boats, 11 amphibious landing ships and seven auxiliary ships. needs to ensure that internal expertise among the ranks to maintain their Naval Air Group newly acquired equipment is present and sustainable. Naval Aviation Squadron MF-30 – operates BN-2A Islander Above all, operating effectively Naval Aviation Squadron MH-40 – operates MBB Bo 105C and AW 109E and efficiently at sea continues to be Naval Air School Center NATS-50 – operates Cessna 172 and Robinson R-22 the primary objective. The nation’s seafaring history and ties to the Bases maritime culture give impetus to the In line with HPN General Order No. 229 dated 7 July 2009, the Philippine Navy has adopted new names current goals of ensuring territorial for its bases and stations to pay homage to distinguished naval leaders. The new base names, followed by the old base names are as follows: integrity and establishing a credible defense. Given the relatively rapid pace Naval bases of modernization, the Philippine Navy Naval Base Heracleo Alano (Naval Base Cavite) - Headquarters, Philippine Fleet is well on the road to restoring the Naval Base Camilo Osias (Naval Operating Base San Vicente), San Vicente, Santa Ana, Cagayan capabilities necessary to meet those Naval Base Rafael Ramos (Naval Operating Base Mactan), Mactan, Cebu demands. t Naval stations

Naval Station Jose Andrada (Fort San Antonio Abad), City of Manila – Current headquarters of the Armando J. Heredia is a civilian Philippine Navy observer of naval affairs. He is an Naval Station Jose Francisco (Bonifacio Naval Station), , City, IT Risk and Information Security Naval Station Pascual Ledesma (), practitioner based in New England, Naval Station Ernesto Ogbinar (Naval Station Poro Point), Poro Point, San Fernando, La Union – Headquarters of NAVFORNOL with a background in the defense Naval Station Leovigildo Gantioqui (Naval Station San Miguel), San Antonio, Zambales – and financial services industries. He Headquarters, NETC is a regular contributor to the Center Naval Station Apolinario Jalandoon (Naval Station Puerto Princesa), Puerto Princesa City, Palawan for International Maritime Security’s Naval Station Carlito Cunanan (Naval Station Ulugan), Ulugan, Palawan NextWar blog. Naval Station Narciso Del Rosario (Naval Station Balabac), Balabac Island, Palawan Naval Station Emilio Liwanag (Naval Station Pag-asa), Pag-asa, Kalayaan Islands, Palawan Naval Station Julhasan Arasain (Naval Station Legaspi), Rawis, Legazpi City, Albay – Headquarters of This article was republished by NAVFORSOL permission of the Center for Naval Station Alfonso Palencia (Naval Station Guimaras), Guimaras International Maritime Security. Naval Station Dioscoro Papa (Naval Station Tacloban), Tacloban City, Leyte Naval Station Felix Apolinario (Naval Station Davao), Panacan, Davao City – Headquarters of NAVFOREM Naval Station Romulo Espaldon (Naval Station Zamboanga), Calarian, Zamboanga City Naval Station Juan Magluyan (Naval Operating Base Batu-Batu), Panglima Sugala, Tawi-Tawi Marine bases Marine Barracks Rudiardo Brown (Marine Base Manila), Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, Metro Manila - Headquarters, Marine Barracks Gregorio Lim (Marine Base Ternate), Ternate, Cavite – Marine Basic School Campus Marine Barracks Arturo Asuncion (Marine Base Zamboanga), Zamboanga City Marine Barracks Domingo Deluana (Marine Base Tawi-Tawi), Tawi-Tawi Camp Gen. Teodulfo Bautista, Jolo, Sulu

Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 19 National Defence Strategic Policy as a Function of National Leadership By Rear Admiral Ian Crawford AO AM (Mil) RAN (Rtd)

n the development of defence the debilitating intrusion of narrow on the organisational structure strategic papers the questions often perceptions which can divert us from that reflects the administrative Iasked are: “How does this defence better courses of action. arrangements and responsibilities. If strategy relate authoritatively with the There is a well-known aphorism: you get the organisational structure other elements of national strategy? “Every day we are facing opportunities, right you have a better chance of Where is the national strategic cunningly disguised as threats”. getting the planning outcome right guidance?” Instability in any government can than through a defective structure. Also time and time again, and in mean a lack of cohesion and authority. We have always had leaders in leading article after leading article Sometimes self-interest can derail a government. Nobody could rise to the journalists and commentators bewail commitment to the general interest. position of Prime Minister unless he the lack of a strategic approach to Internationally this phenomenon in or she had the attributes of leadership. particular issues. Governments in modern societies can be identified What we do not provide is the recent times have announced studies as the failure of democracy. Is it supporting structure for leadership at or white papers on defence, or relations time to have a look at the way we the chief executive level. with Asia, or infrastructure, the car meet the principles of democracy in This goes far beyond the dimensions industry or the Murray-Darling Basin; government? of the Prime Minister’s office. It calls the list goes on. The future of Australian for an adequately resourced Prime Yet in all cases of particular issues governance has been a hot topic in Minister’s department to confer these are elements of a wider strategic recent years, generating calls to review authority on national strategic policy. outlook. These matters and many the Constitution and formats for And this resourcing calls for the others should be coordinated within a government. It has been foreshadowed highest quality staffing incorporating national strategy and clearly they are that we shall get round to this in intelligence, judgment, objectivity not. connection with a number of sub-sets and integrity, qualities that we cannot Getting the direction of the government function. Now is the be confident are generally available right for policy. The Leadership and How to time to air some thoughts on this. through electoral and Public Services Grand Design, from Make it Work How we achieve the government selection processes. Yes Minister. (Gerald function of strategic planning depends Scarfe) I wonder whether we really understand leadership and how to make it work. Leadership is not just a personal attribute; it requires a structure to support the function. And we are not going to get to a national policy by random snatches of what we should be including, no matter how convincing the arguments for the separate functions. What this country needs is the national leader’s authoritative guidance at the national strategic policy level, provided of course this guidance stems from a structure and process deliberately established for national strategic policy development. We lack a strategic perception of what we should be doing supported by an objective evaluation of issues avoiding Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 20 National Defence Strategic Policy as a Function of National Leadership

Weaknesses in the and judgments of national Australian Model interest. I have often noted with disappointment the Our present structure is prone to the way agencies have presented divisive and de-stabilising influences of information to suit sectoral self-interest. The authority of ministers aspirations, which at best to contribute their departments’ corresponded to a narrow perceptions of their functions’ perception of the strategic contribution to a national strategy needs of the nation. It is well empowers them to disruptive practices, recognised that the control of which can reflect the aspirations of information confers power. their Public Service advisers and their There is a need in any personal ambitions. government structure at the In Australia many of the national chief executive level determinations contributing to for a central planning function strategic issues are undertaken by with responsibilities for a agencies or committees located in national plan, information functional federal departments. These and studies, which would strategic issues are usually endorsed at guide the organisation Cabinet level but there is little evidence and activities of functional A great leader. World that they are ever drawn together in a departments and by extension At that time it had a five star War II wire photo of national plan to guide the functional the whole country through a balanced (equivalent to four stars in British, French leader Charles departments. and authoritative perception of the US, Australian rank structures) air De Gaulle leading a The questions can be asked how national interest. Corporate structures force general as Secretary-General, Paris victory march objective and national in perspective in business provide models for what significantly the same rank as the celebrating the Allied are assessments made by agencies we should be seeking. But we can also French Chief of the Services Staff, but invasion, which forced the Vichy or staffs embedded in specialist look at what happens elsewhere in the today it is a senior public servant with a government to flee departments and how penetrating can world. four star (NATO three star equivalent) (Public domain) committees be when they are staffed general as assistant. The Secrétariat from within a single department An Alternative Model Général de la Défense Nationale was or in the case of Cabinet lack the located organisationally in the office of supporting staffs to make detailed France provides one model that should the Prime Minister. analyses? National strategy needs go be included in whatever structure In France the responsibility beyond analysis of the work of others; it we consider. No one country has for a central planning function is requires ab initio development drawing a monopoly of good government established in the office of the Prime on fundamental factors. Of even practice but France has some concepts Minister. In informal discussions with greater importance there needs to be worth considering. And we should not French officials I became aware of the cohesion in whatever emerges amongst limit ourselves to looking at the French Commissariat Général du Plan also the different elements of national structure. in the office of the Prime Minister. planning. My interest in the potential The function and organisational Even within the Public Service benefits to Australia of the example location of the Secrétariat Général administration where ‘without fear of the administrative arrangements in de la Défense Nationale grew from or favour’ has been a byword for the France outlined in this article started the perception – at the time when integrity and objectivity of the advice when I was Australian Defence and de Gaulle was President of France – from Public Service officers, there can Naval Attaché in Paris. I found that that as well as the shortcomings in be no doubt that for many officers the for information and negotiations on the French Army at the time of the interests of a government department, certain strategic matters and weapons surrender in 1940, the institutions of in its turf battles with other I was referred by Ministry of Defence France were totally unprepared for war departments and the competition for officers to the Secrétariat Général de la and that the function of responsibility budget money, can cloud perceptions Défense Nationale. for war preparedness for economic, Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 21

infrastructure and social matters water, the environment, the as well as military matters required development of secondary cohesion and the authority of the office industry, defence industry all of the Prime Minister. In its present have relevance to each other in format the Commissariat Général du a balanced way within whatever Plan is the Commissariat Général à la purports to be a national plan or Stratégie et à la Prospective (CGSP). strategy. The Commissariat Général à la They should be guided by Stratégie et à la Prospective (CGSP) studies and information, which has responsibilities for central are free from the influence of the planning for national economic, at-times narrow perceptions of social and infrastructure functions. the department in which they An example of his central planning are located. Inter-departmental function is that in the time of socialist committees cannot achieve the would this be, as perceived by some, Whither new direction for adherence to concepts of a planned same outcome as dedicated staffs with a planned economy, understandably the country and economy and nationalised industries access to the information needed for repugnant to advocates of free defences. LHDs to the the Commissariat influenced national the national leadership’s responsibility enterprise. fore? (Public domain) strategic decisions to progress to for a balanced perception of the Political special interests are another privatisation of government-owned national interest. thing and of course grass roots political industries. With Australia’s federal structure activists would not wish to surrender To-day, through assessments, there is a different approach to their political aspirations to the ‘frank studies and the comprehensive use of decisions having national relevance and fearless’ policy development by information the Commissariat Général but it is arguable that the country as a government functionaries. Political à la Stratégie et à la Prospective whole, Commonwealth departments, aspirations can be accommodated makes available the product of State governments and industry would once an objective assessment has been its undertakings to government benefit from drawing on consistent completed. Or perhaps injected as a departments and industry. This information from an organisation factor at the outset. The phenomenon provides the information necessary for that is located beyond the reach of of politics’ getting in the way of good decision-making on such matters as the influence of narrow ministry governance has always been a hot infrastructure, regional development, or sectoral interests, and leading to potato but we stand a better chance social conditions and sourcing energy strategic policy direction with the of getting it right nationally if we get and materials, so that all government authority of the Prime Minister. This the fundamentals right and make departments and industry have would not be a resource-expensive adjustments for political perceptions access to consistent and authoritative new function but a restructuring of rather than fudging the fundamentals information from an organisation existing functions, probably with at the outset. that is located beyond the reach of savings through rationalisation and the It is no longer acceptable to the the influence of ministry or industry elimination of monitoring functions in thinking community to excuse the lack sectors. other departments. of forward planning involving difficult In the French alternative the office There are some who maintain that decisions on the political phenomenon of the Prime Minister sets the national the needed cohesion of departmental of the three year term of a Federal policies and the ministries implement activities to represent adherence to government. them. This is consistent with sound a national plan could be achieved in We have an Office of National management practice used in the the Cabinet. This was influenced by Assessments. Let us now take it the corporate world. United Kingdom perceptions. For next step to a whole-of-government reasons of the lack of dedicated staff strategic planning function, located A Way Ahead for Australia for a central planning function in the within the Department of Prime Cabinet and the lack of a continuum of Minister and Cabinet. Such an In Australia such matters as the need authoritative guidance it is impractical approach in Australia would not for infrastructure, a national transport to expect Cabinet to achieve a coherent require a departure from the cherished strategy, regional development, energy, central planning function. Neither Westminster system of ministerial Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 22 National Defence Strategic Policy as a Function of National Leadership

responsibility; it would be merely a recognition that in sound corporate structures, whether business of government the chief executive has to give the lead and authority for corporate policy and strategy and should be resourced to achieve this. t

Rear Admiral Ian Crawford RAN (Rtd) served in the from 1949 to 1989; one the the staff of the Australian Naval Attaché, Washington for the RAN’s DDG program; in HMAS Sydney during SMARTER AND SAFER the Vietnam War, and was the first UNDERWATER SOLUTIONS Australian Defence and Naval Attaché, Paris from 1978 to 1981 in connection ...Since the beginning with the technical support for the building of HMAS Success. As the Chief of Supply Department of Defence he initiated organisational changes to For more information, please contact: [email protected] reflect the dual responsibility for the www.thalesgroup.com.au supply function to the Chief of the Photograph © Australian Department of Defence Defence Force as well as well as the Secretary, Department of Defence.

Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 23 An Ocean for my Kingdom By Robert Cuthbert Blake

he story of HMS Ocean has of the Thatcher years – for those The design of HMS probably not yet been fully told – of us who remember the 1970s Ocean was in every sense Tfrom humble origins as a sea transport there was a profound greatness a bastardisation. Its hull Ro-Ro vessel to get an Embarked to her achievements – had been ultimately took from the Military Force (consisting of British eclipsed by the end of the Cold War designs of the Through Army / UK and Netherland Royal (brought about by the remarkable Deck Cruisers – HMS Invincible; 3 Marines) on their one-way ticket to rapprochement enabled between Illustrious and Ark Royal – now all 1 Norway (and hopefully back) after 30 Mrs Thatcher, President Gorbachev sadly decommissioned as a result of days, to Flagship of the . and President Reagan); the first Gulf the UK’s disastrous and poorly thought The story was never intended or War; the early 1990s recession and the 2010 Strategic Defence Security designed as such. Hence in this story dismal (Ed: John) Major Governments Review (SDSR). of the ugly duckling – for by any with its failure to intervene with France Disastrous for four specific reasons stretch of the imagination Ocean is effectively in the emerging Bosnian to do with the fundamental failures 4 an ugly ship compared, say, to HMAS conflict. of the UK MoD and its political Canberra and Adelaide – there is a Within the failure of UK to engage classes: first, just as other nations were degree of poignancy and greatness. in the Bosnian conflict lay also the moving towards a form of Asymmetric Like any story of a ship, Ocean reflects seeds of what would become HMS Offshore Counter Balancing (AOCB) the technology and the technology, Ocean. As is so often the case in and a reinforcement of maritime force the crew and social dynamics of the British History, Ocean was essentially structures the UK did the opposite; time. She would not be designed an emergent warship building upon secondly, the UK took the decision and built today – and therein lies the the skills and competencies and drive a) to get rid of its remarkable GR9 greatest pity. For, at its heart, Ocean of a small number of principled and Harrier Fleet Air Arm capability was an experimental ship based dedicated senior officers – more by (and its pilots) in favour of Typhoon upon a principled understanding of accident than design. In the case of and the RAF; thirdly, to cut back Amphibious Warfare and a desire to HMS Ocean, she owed much of her proportionally much more on the RN get Royal (as in Royal Marines) back to existence and final designs to a senior than the other forces and, fourthly, to sea in their own dedicated ship. and much respected Royal Marine continue investing in poor, (militarily, This article examines the Ocean Officer whose aim was to get ‘Royal’ industrially, politically or economically) story from its bastard birth through back to sea in their own, dedicated unaffordable and over expensive build to gaining its operational spurs warship. If you have ever wondered designs such as the Type 45 and and, ultimately, to Flagship. The reverse why Ocean has a Phalanx proud and Queen Elizabeth Class. Hood-like, 2 of the motto intentio non casu (or centre on its bow, it was to prevent these designs will never deliver more by intent and design; not accident or a ski-jump being placed there – so than the sum of their parts and will cause) applies to HMS Ocean. Her constraining, by design and build, be obsolete from the day they finally HMS Ocean showing wider application and current role the ship’s role to that of a rotary wing enter service: both designs being landing craft on was never by design or initial intent. platform. This was both a blessing and simultaneously too big (for what they davits and stern ramp deployed. (RN) The sadness is that the lessons of her a limitation as future events unfolded. are intended for) and too small (to being were never learned by the UK and it may now be too late for the Royal Navy to do so. Inauspicious Beginnings Britain in the 1990s was ‘another country’. The greatness Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 24 An Ocean for my Kingdom

survive the challenges of 21st Century of Naval Engineering Standards and neighbour economics, led to the warfare). those required to keep the ship in receivers being called in when the UK In many regards, the decision to class by Lloyds Register. For example, government awarded the contract get rid of the Harrier Fixed Wing watertight boundary requirements to VSEL. Subsequent investigations Capability – during a last weekend were less than those expected of into the decision to award the botch of the SDSR by the PM, then a warship; while accommodation contract to VSEL suggest that two Chief of Defence Staff (an Airman) and standards were less than those then different philosophies were at play: a major manufacturer with nothing being applied for commercial shipping. one adopted by VSEL that the design more to be had from the Harrier – Despite the shipbuilder indicating ‘was a merchant ship with military bore the hallmarks of the decision to that they could provide at the same hardware bolted on’; the other taken by get rid of the TSR-2 Tactical Strike/ cost civil-type accommodation for Swan Hunter, that this was a military Reconnaissance aircraft in the 1965 the crew and embarked military force vessel. Both assumptions were right Defence Review. As per the orders with more bathrooms and comfort, and wrong – the result was that many of the then UK Chancellor (Dennis this was turned down by the then of Swan Hunter’s finest shipwrights Healy), the jigs for the TSR-2 were MoD Procurement Executive (PE) and designers ended up crossing the dumped in the mid-Atlantic trench to in its pursuit of Naval Engineering Pennines and working for VSEL in prevent any hope of rebuilding. A form Standards! It is also important to recall Barrow (where Ocean was fitted out; its of Soviet-Marxist, Turnpike economics that the ship was being built in the late hull having been built in the Kværner for brutally re-capitalising labour by 1990s, no office skyscraper then under Yard on the Clyde). maximising capital investment in construction would not have been Decidedly Not the First XI alternative export markets. fitted with a copper or even fibre-optic Charles Handy, the Irish In the case of the Harrier, the FAA LAN. Yet no such provision was made organisational-behaviour philosopher, and RAF pilots were sacked and the for Ocean, so requiring very expensive maintains that if one manufactured a GR9s – the preferred weapon of choice post-build retro-fitting of cables and First XI, then it would be unlikely to (flown by Navy and Marine (USMC/ watertight, through deck glands at 20- function as a team, essentially because HMS Ocean RM) pilots) in Afghanistan – were 30 times the cost of fitting during build. each player would be competing for (centre right) in broken down into parts and gifted to Finally, for those of us old enough the same resources and one would end a five-country multinational fleet, the USMC. There is another story to be to remember Swan Shipbuilders on up with unhealthy hyper-competition. during Operation told and the capability could have been the Tyne (that built the last HMS Ark Sounds a bit like the current Wallabies, Enduring Freedom in kept alive – both pilots and machines Royal), the cost of political shenanigans perhaps? The first plank holders (or the Sea. – to be available in need / for the QEII at the time and a drive to beggar thy crew) – no names; no pack drill – of (US Navy) class but this was refused by the MoD, the Treasury and its elite (Oxbridge trained) senior public servants and incompetent politicians. The Harrier may as well have been buried alongside the TSR-2 in the mid- Atlantic. I digress, while the hull took on the form of an Invincible Class Carrier, its fittings decidedly did not. In many regards the ship got the worst of both worlds: the minimum Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 25

HMS Ocean were decidedly not from too much! So the Commander was the RNs Top Drawer; in fact quite the effectively resisting three forces: the reverse. As one Midshipman put it comforts of sailors-gone-to-shore; the shortly after the ship was launched senior naval marine engineer officer’s (and after its first operations under focus on quality and command (in the Red Ensign, following Hurricane build), which he would rescind on the Mitch), ‘all the officers [including ship going to sea, and the MoD PE / at least one of the Officers Under Builders reluctance to let the ship go. Training] had been Court Martialled, The Commander, in true Nelsonian Decorated and/or both’. fashion – with the full support and and ‘was never intended, designed to An Army Air Corps Apache helicopter connivance of the then First Sea Lord, do otherwise (e.g., as a Flag Capable takes off from The same (not from the Top Sir Jock Slater – cut Ocean free of Platform)’. In every particular regard HMS Ocean during Drawer) was not necessarily the case Barrow and, despite all the threats and they have been proven wrong. Operation Ellamy, for the Royal Marine Officers (other warnings, sailed for . It was Yet in the summer of 1998, as the UK’s contribution than Decorations and Court Martials) to be a short but important operational HMS Ocean finally made its way up to UNSCR1973 in the – although, in truth, many RM test, ending in Portsmouth for an Plymouth Sound to its Base Port, the Mediterranean Sea near Libya. (RN) Officers were quite content by their emergency docking when a misaligned welcoming could not have been more focus on Land Centric operations in shaft was replaced and repaired. under-whelming. Despite being one the Balkans and in Northern Ireland, From the start, there was an air of the most important ships to enter and had rather taken their eyes off of independence and the rogue in the Royal Navy since the 1980s, there the Amphibious Ball. What one had, the semblance of HMS Ocean and its was not one call-round for officers though, in HMS Ocean’s first crew various crews. The MoD PE lead was and senior ratings from the assembled was a remarkable degree of sheer particularly frustrated by the fact that ranks of Frigates and then professionalism and a determination Ocean had been cut out of Barrow and, alongside. Not one. Rather, there was to understand the amphibious systems the more so, that the Crew had created a combined critique about the loss of A Sea Harrier FRS.2 and make the ship work – supported, a close working relationship with VSEL their dockside wharfs to make room for of 800 Naval Air also, by a functioning (in the parts that was actually driving the designs HMS Ocean. Squadron lands on where it counted) MOD PE; Defence and fitting out of the ship; so excluding Operations and Beyond a CVS aft of four Research Base and shipbuilders. the MoD PE and its rather out-classed HMS Ocean sailed that autumn RAF Harrier GR.7s 5 By 1998, despite some setbacks project managers. of 1998 to complete its Part IV during a combined embarkation by and delays, HMS Ocean was ready to But this was nearly twenty years ago, operational sea trials in the West several squadrons sail from Barrow but MoD PE and the when the spirit, thinking and designs Indies. The ship has been operational from Joint Force Shipbuilder – for various contractual of Blake, Nelson, Fisher, Cunningham ever since, from being redirected to Harrier (RN) and indemnity reasons – were dragging and Fraser had their feet in terms of releasing the ship yet to be driven to the RN for its Part IV Trials. This out of the Royal may sound rather familiar – noting, Navy. Forever though, that in the case of HMAS people were Canberra the crew were not allowed on telling the First board during the same stage in its build Crews that ‘HMS programme. Ocean could not However the First Crew may be (e.g., take CH47 described, it was decidedly ‘Old Navy’ Chinooks)’, and particularly the Commander, who ‘would not ever had been with the ship from the start. do this that and A penalty of long builds with crews the other (e.g., standing-by in non-Base ports is that deploy Attack sailors have a tendency to ‘go native’. Helicopter as In other words, they start enjoying the Platform the comforts of being ashore rather of Choice)’ Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 26 An Ocean for my Kingdom

support humanitarian relief operations from HMS Ark Royal post Hurricane Mitch off Nicaragua, off Iraq. Despite the through to Sierra Leone (I and II); the warnings from HMS Amphibious Assault of Afghanistan Ocean’s experience and in 2002; the amphibious led sweep near identical ATCS, through the Al-Faw peninsular at the the 2007 Inquest was start of the 2nd Iraq War; to Libya; to told: support of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq through to today and A Royal Navy air becoming the Flagship of the Royal traffic controller did Navy. One of those things we were told not warn the pilots ‘would never happen’. of two Sea King Critical to the success of this was a helicopters they principled design and understanding were on a collision of three component systems: the Air course because he Traffic Control Systems (ATCS); the thought they could Explosives Support System (ESS) see each other, an – including the proving of the Lynx- inquest into the Tow combination from sea – and the worst accident Communications Support System involving British (CSS), including a satellite TV system service personnel gifted to the ship by Sir Donald Gosling in the Iraq war was (of UK NCP fame) and fitted by the told yesterday…the crew, which proved to be an essential radar on the carrier morale and strategic communications Ark Royal often force multiplier during Sierra Leone; showed aircraft to to do with the campaign and arguably US Marines ride the incorporating Flag and EW (Cyber) be closer than they really were: put his ship unnecessarily forward forward aircraft lift systems. “Although it looks like they are and in danger. The people who should into Ocean‍‘​s hangar Each of these systems had to be flying towards each other, they can have been awarded by top tier (3*) deck during an exercise in 1999. integrated and each was designed miss each other by a considerable promotion (the Captain of HMS (US Navy) and built in situ (by the first crew) margin”. Ocean and the Commodore of the – something we were blessed by the Names have not been mentioned in Amphibious Task Group, a FAA Pilot support of other Services (and those this article but those who know, know. and a Submariner respectively) who pockets of excellence in MoD PE and The sadness and tragedy is that the led the campaign were in almost all Defence Research (before it became Royal Navy failed to learn and or to cases denied: considering the two ‘Sir Dstl and QinetiQ) then in existence) promote the experience and skills Robs’ who served in HMS Ocean as and excellent Captains in doing. The developed by the Ocean crews. Not one Commando COs, both should have ATCS is more important in an LPD senior engineer, for example, who took gone on to be at least CINCFLEET, or LPH, since one is dealing with HMS Ocean from build to operational Second Sea Lord and/or Vice Chief. soft-skin aircraft such as helicopters status – the last to take a capital ship The Frigate Captain, of course, and the radars (then/still in use) were from build – was employed on the QE2 proceeded ever upwards – fitting the not designed for such purposes; had Class. mold of the simple sailor, Frigate and blind spots, complicated by the fact There are other aspects. Sierra- Queen and member of that there were not enough dedicated Leone was a major All Arms success the Master Race. This fixation on the frequencies to achieve positive control for UK, orchestrated from HMS Ocean Master Race, apartheid class and rank of more than a few helicopters at a – yet every one of the decorations rather than ability conscious regime time. issued was reduced for the crews/staffs has proven hugely destructive to the None of this was truly appreciated of HMS Ocean by at least one level. Royal Navy and perpetuates still – to on build – and led tragically to the loss, Instead, the one DSC was awarded to the detriment of the Service and in 2003, of two Sea Kings operating the Frigate Captain who had nothing Country. Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 27

Ultimately, the HMS Ocean through a costed commercial model. HMS OCEAN design was not bold enough. It was In other words, the VM Fleet would be General Characteristics a step in the right direction, to move scalable and replicable –and would be radically towards what has been what we were doing today if we were Class and type: Landing Platform described as Versatile Modular at war, like the first HMS Ark Royal Helicopter Systems (VMS) where the platform carrier! Displacement: 21,500 t (21,200 is largely separated from the systems Since UK is bankrupt and at war long tons: 23,700 short tons) and commercial (where possible) (without understanding the war it is Length: 203.4 m (667 ft) dual-use design are used – thereby fighting), the mystery is why these Beam: 35 m (115 ft) retaining the sophistication in systems designs have yet to be taken up. Draught: 6.5 m (21 ft) integration and hi-tech and the Perhaps HMS Ocean first crew was Propulsion: affordability provided by perfectly also to blame – for identified by some • Two Crossley Pielstick V12 diesel viable commercial platforms. HMS of the expert Scientific Civil Servants engines Ocean was also designed with a 15 at the time, they engineered the ship • One Kamewa bow thruster year life (then extended to 20 years). By into something it was never designed/ (Currently removed) maintaining such a tempo, one drives intended for. • Speed: 15 knots (28 km/h) cruise out Defence Cost Inflation; retains Finally, RAN has also gained from • 18 knots (33 km/h) max skills and maintains affordability and the HMS Ocean experience and the Range: 8,000 miles numbers in the design and class. tragic demise of the RN, for amongst Boats and landing craft HMS Ocean should have been many of the Lateral Transfers joining carried: 4 × LCVPs decommissioned between 2010 and Navy are those who cut their teeth in Capacity: 40 vehicles 2014, based on original designs. Instead HMS Ocean as Royal Navy and Royal Troops: 830 Royal Marines she is being extended at additional marines. These are some of the finest Crew: 285 + 180 FAA/RAF unfunded cost to provide a stop-gap Officers, Marines and Ratings to come Sensors and processing until the QEII class finally achieves from the UK and we (ADF) have an systems: Type 997 Artisan 3D FOC, if ever. The key lesson was that opportunity to build on and develop Radar 1008 Ocean should have been replaced by their skill sets as we build our own 2 x Radar 1007 a fully VMS Design – in numbers – Amphibious Force. But looking beyond Electronic warfare and decoys: UAT based upon Container Ship type hulls Canberra and Adelaide, RAN also Electronic Support Measures / engines and sophisticated, bespoke need to take forward VMS designs and Armament: modularised decks, weapons systems crewing models of its own as it seeks to • 4 × 30mm DS30M Mk2 guns and crews. The designs exist and, what maintain and pacify the vast reaches of • 3 × Phalanx CIWS is more, for the cost of two QEIIs, UK the Pacific. • 4 x Miniguns could have purchased a Fleet of over • 8 × General purpose machine 100 Ships (Flat Tops; Heavy Lift and guns FF/DD/MCM) – crewed under the Aircraft carried: Up to 18 Three Fleets Model; funding raised helicopters: • • Westland Lynx • AgustaWestland AW159 Wildcat • Merlin • Boeing Chinook • Westland Apache Aviation facilities: • Large flight deck • Hangar deck • Helicopter lifts QinetiQ’s VAAC Harrier achieves Vehicle deck world’s first automatic landing on a ship (USN) Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 28 An Ocean for my Kingdom

Further Technical Details its intended target, using a high-gain, (Endnotes) Aircraft support and steerable antenna, to transmit the 1 As part of the old Cold War NATO reinforcement of the carrying of Lynx / Chinook jamming signal into the main beam of Northern Flank, deployment. helicopters and Sea Harriers the threat antenna(s). 2 Mott of the Advanced Research & Assessment Group (ARAG) The ship has full facilities for 12 EH101 Ocean is equipped with eight Sea is on Parliamentary record in Hansard as being one of the few Merlin and six Lynx helicopters, plus Gnat radar reflection/infra-red emitting organisations to have predicted the Global Financial Crisis a number of years beforehand – and subsequently closed down for telling truth landing and refuelling facilities for decoys. Sea Gnat was developed under a to Prime Ministers Blair and Brown. Chinook helicopters. 20 Sea Harriers Nato collaborative project involving USA, 3 Which as records from the Soviet Union would not have been could be carried but not supported. The Germany, Norway, Denmark and the UK possible but for the fact that Mrs Thatcher secured victory in the flight deck is 170m long and 32.6m wide, for protection against anti-ship guided South Atlantic in 1982 and successfully engaged the significantly Soviet-infiltrated National Union of Miners between 1984-1985. with two aircraft lifts. missiles. The electronic support measures 4 ‘For most of 1992-1995, Britain stood aside while an internationally recognised state was attacked by externally- Command systems and system is the Royal Navy’s UAT from sponsored rebels bent on a campaign of territorial aggression and weapons Thales Defence Ltd. UAT is a radar ethnic cleansing. It was her unfinest hour since 1938’, see Simms B. (2001) Unfinest Hour: Britain and the Destruction of Bosnia. Ocean is equipped with the BAE Systems warning receiver and electronic London: Penguin. ADAWS 2000 combat data system, Link surveillance system which provides 5 This came to a head shortly afterwards when the ship had to be 11, 14 and 16 communications, an Astrium targeting data and identification of evacuated on the failure of the Sewage Treatment Plants, which were (formerly Matra Marconi) SATCOM 1D hostile radar threats. exuding Hydrogen Sulphide into bilges and passageways. The then Chief of Defence Procurement (CDP) – an Engineering Admiral satellite communications system and a Also fitted is the Thales Type 675(2) – decided to pay an impromptu visit and swept down like a dark Merlin computer link. ship-borne jammer, which has two gull onto HMS Ocean. He was met at the brow by the Commander and Captain and escorted to the wardroom to meet the Heads of The ADAWS 2000 combat data antenna mounts to provide 360° azimuth Department for ‘coffee and biscuits’. It soon became clear that this system, installed on both HMS Ocean coverage. Maximum elevation is 50° and was not a meeting for coffee and biscuits – rather a tendentious, headmaster-type one-way transmission. and on the Royal Navy’s landing platform the range is 500km. dock LPD assault ship, is compatible with The Commander, one of those wonderful Irish trained Lawyers, was not going to take this nonsense lying down – and rightly the ships of the Royal Navy’s front-line Sensors and propulsion rates remonstrated, only to be told that he (CDP) ‘would have the fleet. Ocean is equipped with the Selex Commander removed if he spoke out again’. Having delivered his delightful homily, the Admiral stormed out of the Wardroom to The weapon systems include four Sensors and Airborne Systems Type be escorted off the ship by the CO and Commander (still veritably Oerlikon/BAE twin 30mm guns together 996 air and surface search radar. This is shaking from the encounter). We humbled few gathered quietly in the wardroom pouring a stiff Plymouth Gin (neat of course) and with three Raytheon/General Dynamics being replaced by the Royal Navy’s new- finishing off the biscuits. The newly joined Commander Marine Phalanx Mk15 close-in weapon systems. generation maritime medium range radar Engineer, having first had to evacuate the ship, was ashen – certain that his glittering career was now over. The Commander returned (MRR). fuming and muttering dark threats about incompetent senior Countermeasures In August 2008, BAE Systems Insyte engineers and their ilk – and gratefully accepting a Plymouth. Father, a seasoned FAA Test Pilot who had stood by the Merlin Helicopter, Ocean is fitted with Outfit DLH, which (with Qinetiq) ARTISAN 3D E/F-band came jauntily into the wardroom (having gained permission from includes the Royal Navy’s active offboard radar was selected for the MRR. The the Commander) and looking towards us all said ‘well I think that all went frightfully well!’ It was what was needed – Father was clearly decoy (export name ‘Siren’) in addition to radar will be retrofitted to HMS Ocean articulating that ‘as far as Royal Navy, he and the First Sea Lord (in standard chaff and IR decoy payloads. this year (2015). Surface search and others words those who counted in the operational food chain) were The Siren decoy, from Selex Sensors aircraft control radar is provided by two concerned, we were doing all right’. The colour began to return to CMDR ME. and Airborne Systems (formerly BAE Kelvin Hughes type 1007 systems. This was not the first and neither was it the last time that HMS Systems), is an expendable radiating Propulsion is provided by two Ocean was to be confronted by managerialist, methodologist, decoy, which provides a soft-kill defence Crossley Pielstick 16 PC2.6 V 200 Gramscian-Marxist, rent-seeking, pen-pushing nay-sayers that now against radar-guided missiles and is medium-speed diesel engines, rated at so sadly dominate in UK politics, the elitist senior civil service (many with Oxford PPE type degrees, like the pollies), MoD, research, effective against single or multiple 23,904hp, with two independent shafts procurement, industry and the RN. threats in the I/J wavebands. and a five-bladed fixed-pitch propeller. A Siren is programmed with a complex 450kW KaMeWa bow thruster is fitted. set of jamming ploys and threat-specific The maximum speed is 18kt and the data immediately before firing and, post range is 8,000 miles. t launch, deploys under a parawing for controlled flight. Siren uses a variety of jamming techniques in order to Global Naval Surface Combatants seduce the anti-ship missile away from & Warfare Systems Market 2011-2021 Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 29 World Naval Developments by Norman Friedman

n February, the destroyer USS Kidd who dispatched the missile did so on the A combination of trackers, at least fired a cruise missile, basis of a tactical picture to which the some of them capable of identifying the Iwhich hit a moving container ship. That F/A-18 contributed. Other aircraft and target, would solve the problem and also might not seem terribly significant, systems could also have contributed, avoid alerting the victim. Distributed except that the missile had no seeker, particularly in a wartime situation in lethality is part of a much larger and the ship was being tracked by an which the target was defended. That has movement towards a distributed style of F/A-18 which had no direct link to the enormous tactical significance. warfare in which every ship and airplane missile. In most warfare, the first warning contributes both to the fleet’s picture of What might otherwise be a routine of an impending attack is enemy what is happening and also to its ability test was actually revolutionary, the reconnaissance dedicated to the to fight. latest development in an evolving particular target about to be hit. If a There are two keys, both within networked capability. It was part of target and its track are revealed by reach. One is that every ship and what the Surface Navy Association ongoing routine reconnaissance, the airplane has to know where it is. called ‘distributed lethality’ at its recent first warning of an attack is the missile Otherwise its reports may confuse meeting, and it parallels the new Naval popping over the horizon. This is not rather than clarify. In combat system Integrated Fires – Counter-Air (NIF- as new as it may seem. During the Cold terms this is the gridlock issue. It be- CA) which is now entering service. War the Soviets maintained an ocean devilled computerized combat systems. Both are attempts to maximize the net surveillance system which was always There are various solutions in which effectiveness of a combination of ships trying to track major missile targets computers keep comparing pictures and aircraft. That is not a new idea, but such as carriers. The US response was until they match up. The simpler the current applications go well beyond a surveillance system which picked up solution is the Global Positioning what we have had in the past. signals from Soviet ships and created Satellite system – but it might become a The Tomahawk followed commands tracks by linking up the positions wartime target. sent via Link 16, which directed it to indicated at different times. The other key is the data links which a series of positions and ultimately In each case surveillance depended tell the weapons where to go (and into the container ship. No one would heavily on emissions from the target which also carry back reconnaissance deny that a short-range seeker would ship, and there was a real fear that a information). For distributed lethality A Raytheon-built Tomahawk Block improve the missile’s hitting capacity target might be operating near other to work, virtually all air and anti-ship IV is launched from against an evasive target, but the test ships. That is, the incoming missile weapons have to be able to receive the USS Stethem shows that the large number of land- or salvo might be soaked up by non- commands, because most of the time (Raytheon) attack Tomahawks currently in the targets, such as lower-priority Navy inventory are also potent anti-ship ships within a formation. The weapons. Soviets took this possibility so What is striking is that an enormous seriously that they sometimes change in US Navy capability, from assigned surface ships no long-range anti-ship capacity (‘tattletales’) to report where (other than from aircraft) before the the high-priority targets were test, has been transformed into a very within a formation. After the considerable capacity. The F/A-18 which Cold War ended, it turned out tracked the container ship could have that at least some Soviet naval tracked several ships simultaneously. bomber units included special It certainly had the ability to transmit reconnaissance aircraft assigned back more than one ship track. For that to fly into carrier formations matter, ship tracks could also have been for the same purpose. They generated and transmitted by a UAV, or practiced this role, which by a combination of different sources. probably explains low-level The combination of disparate passes over US carriers, sources is the most interesting including one which caused the possibility. After all, the commander Soviet bomber to crash. Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 30 World Naval Developments

the firing ship or airplane will not be the capacities the fleet has. guiding one. Guidance will be a function For example, an of the fleet command, which has the F-35 is a fighter- overall tactical picture. That picture bomber with an should be duplicated on board other unusually sophisticated ships and even aircraft, so that the fleet electronic surveillance as a whole is not crippled by the loss of system. In theory the any of its ships. point of the system The issue is how many weapons was to enable the can be handled simultaneously on F-35 to detect and one network. The problem involved bypass enemy air seems to have been solved; at one defenses by forming be even more valuable on board a long- Video still of the missile about to time Tomahawk was advertised as a a comprehensive picture of what it endurance UAV. impact (USNI News) successful application of Link 16, then faced (the system is also well adapted Focusing on the information we it seemed that Link 16 nets were not to jamming those defenses). However, can obtain from the targeting radars sufficiency capacious. Now the problem an F-35 in a Combat Air Patrol would on board enemy bombers suggests that seems to have been overcome. be well placed to detect the radars of we may want to shape our own tactics Pictures are generally imprecise, incoming attackers. It might be able to to force him to use those radars, by so most weapons will need terminal fire several long-range missiles at them denying him the advantages of longer- seekers. The better the picture, the and also to jam their attack radars. In range sensors not directly connected smaller the investment in such seekers. that case its contribution to fleet air with the bombers. That was certainly a In the case of the container ship, no defense would be limited by factors US Navy priority during the Cold War seeker was needed. The higher the such as its own ability to close with the against the Soviets. If we are developing speed of the target, the more frequent attackers before they released their own the systems we need to face other command updates would have to missiles. sophisticated enemies now, the Cold be, and at some point the system The fleet has other airplanes and War tactical experience – properly would break down. That point would also missile-firing ships. Some of them updated – would seem relevant. The determine how good the seeker on the cannot engage the incoming enemy Cold War showed, for example, that the missile would have to be. because it is below their horizon at Soviets depended heavily on passive The faster the missile, incidentally, maximum missile range. The current electronics to detect targets among the the less important constant updates CEC system was conceived as a way of mass of ships at sea. We learned to shut would be. The projected new hypersonic overcoming such limitations by merging down our emissions and also to decoy. anti-ship missile would need less than the air pictures created by several Aegis The fleet can base its response to a subsonic Tomahawk. The picture ships. The current NIF-CA idea extends an incoming threat on the picture all concept, incidentally, would make it that concept. its assets, including that F-35, create. easier to use a single missile to strike We can think of the F-35 mainly as In many cases those assets are not well The Tomahawk IV both land and sea targets, its anti-ship a source of information about what is adapted to the particular threat. Some about to hit the seeker turned off in the land attack case coming. The fleet’s air defense system fighters, for example, may not have the target container on (there may be important differences can use its information to clarify the radars they need to detect the incomers the ship (USNI News) in what sort of warhead is needed, picture of the quickly- however). evolving air situation. In each case the idea is the same. In that case the An individual ship or airplane has finite electronic surveillance capabilities, both in sensing and in system on board attacking. How can we make the most the F-35 becomes of them? Handling each airplane and a valuable fleet air each ship as a separate entity which defense asset. We must detect and engage a target limits might also, incidentally, the number of targets a fleet can fight. It wonder whether the does not make the best use of the overall same system would Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 31

The Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Anzac deployed on NORTHERN TRIDENT in March 2015, representing Australia at Centenary of Anzac commemorations in the Mediterranean and engagements across a number of international ports. The six-month deployment highlights a century of Australian military service, showcasing Australian technology, in time to intercept. However, they may and provides opportunities to interact with foreign Navies with visits to over a dozen countries. HMAS Anzac enters Brindisi harbour. (Courtesy RAN) be in position to launch long-range missiles which can destroy attackers. In an integrated fleet, the airplanes and their missiles would all be subject to commands based on that integrated air picture. Isn’t that exactly how Kidd hit the container ship? She fired on the basis of an integrated surface picture. The F/A-18 was not carrying weapons; it could not have hit the ship in any case. It was carrying a radar which offered the essential input to the surface picture on the basis of which the missile was fired. In this case, incidentally, the F/A-18 could identify the target and thus avoid the main problem of long-range anti- ship missile fire, which is the possibility that a missile will hit the wrong ship. That problem was one reason the US Navy abandoned the anti-ship Tomahawk in the first place. Enemies shoot back. Distributed lethality is about how to keep fighting despite losses, by getting as much as we can out of all our assets. In that case no individual ship or airplane is so crucial that its loss wipes us out. In the past, the US Navy has led the world in its ability to meld its assets together for maximum value. Systems such as CEC and Link 16 are part of that story. The Kidd missile strike is its latest chapter. t

Norman Friedman is the author of The Naval Institute Guide to World Naval Weapon Systems

Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 32 ANZAC Frigate Upgrade sustains WA jobs By Serge DeSilva-Ranasinghe and Mitchell Sutton

key example of the Department cheaper and more efficient to have six frigates or submarines at once. of Defence’s commitment to everything installed and maintained in Additionally, the facility’s floating dock Aharnessing WA’s defence sector is the one place.” is the largest in Australia, and could ANZAC Frigate upgrade. Operating The Henderson Australian Marine potentially be upgraded in the future out of the Australian Marine Complex Complex precinct has been vital to the to take vessels as large as the new at Henderson, the Systems Program ongoing success of the SPO, as has the Amphibious Assault Ships (LHDs). Office for the ANZAC Class Frigate, pool of skilled labour created in WA “There’s a very significant docking referred to as the ‘ANZAC SPO’, is one by the resources boom. The Common capability here that doesn’t necessarily of the most important defence industry User Facility and BAE’s shipyards at exist elsewhere,” says Mr Jackson. programmes in Western Australia. AMC are considered to be a national Skilled labour has also been a large A stable of major defence players asset, ranking in importance with Fleet attraction, with workers qualified in including: BAE Systems, Saab Base East and Newcastle. everything from aluminium welding to Australia, CEA Technologies, Naval “Our Navy is supported by a fibre optics easily sourced thanks to the Ship Management Australia (NSM), world class facility that will deliver for large oil and gas industry. The majority which is a joint venture between decades to come and has the industry of these subcontractors are local SMEs. Babcock and UGL, in conjunction with grunt to turn ideas into war-fighting “From my viewpoint it’s great,” the Department of Defence, provide excellence,” says Captain Wendy said Jackson. “You have all the maintenance and system upgrades Malcolm, Director of the ANZAC SPO subcontractors, the skillsets, sub for the nation’s eight ANZAC Class programme. “I look back at the courage manufacturing here that is all within a frigates, in a contract worth over $350 of the WA State Government to invest stone’s throw of the facility”. million. in the Henderson Common User Captain Malcolm concurred: “The “The core business is run out of Facility and applaud them.” ‘can do’ attitude of the WA workforce ANZAC frigate here in WA,” says the SPO’s Engineer Combined, the CUF and BAE leaves the rest of the nation in its wake. HMNZS Te Kaha Manager Robert Jackson, “It’s actually facility are capable of docking up to They continually step up to the mark to (Navy)

Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 33

deliver award winning capability in our ships being outfitted at a time. Other warships.” related projects worth around $65 The work is complex, with around million are also being undertaken to 70 public servants and military improve communications and data personnel, and between 150 and 250 capability and to increase the ship’s contractors working directly on both weight margin to boost its capacity. the sustainment of existing vessels, and Mr Jackson notes that the upgrades the generation, installation and testing will make the ANZAC “One of the of new capability. They are guided most capable platforms of its size in by a central Capital Projects office the world. It is a compact frigate and in Canberra and assisted by a small the Navy have it jam-packed. They maintenance team in the East, which have maximised the full amount of handles minor work on the other three capability on the platform to deliver a Serge DeSilva-Ranasinghe is a security ANZAC Class frigates home-ported on flexible and powerful warship.” analyst, consultant and a Research the east coast. There is some future potential for Things can easily get complicated, WA to be a destination for additional Fellow at the USAsia Centre, with the teams working on as many as naval industry work, with the University of Western Australia; and 100 individual projects at a single point possibility of more ships being based at non-resident Fellow at the National in time, all of which have to integrate HMAS Stirling astride a solid industrial Security Institute, University of perfectly with the ship’s existing base located at Henderson. Already, Canberra. Mitchell Sutton is a security systems and each other. “They all WA is under strong consideration consume power, they all take up space, to host the upcoming the ANZAC analyst and consultant. and they all interact with various other Class Communications and Platform systems on the platform,” Mr Jackson Systems Remediation programme, said. “The whole ANZAC project is a which will be done as part of the challenge.” ANZAC Block Upgrade Programme to The most significant recent project commence in 2017. for the group has been the Anti-Ship “They’ve really got to determine Missile Defence (ASMD) upgrade, first the size of the Navy they want over the declared in 2003 and commencing years. At the moment that could be work in 2010.1 as extreme as bringing an LHD, or an Over a seven year period every AWD over here, or it could be as minor one of the Navy’s eight ANZAC Class as simply upgrading the facilities to Frigates will be significantly remodelled enable the those things to dock here in in order to improve the vessel’s ability the future,” said Mr Jackson. “The good to thwart anti-ship missiles. Around thing is that it’s creating an industrial 30% of the ship’s compartments are base that can be utilised, which is good, modified, with a complete remodelling because it’s bringing a lot of skilled of the upper deck and the installation labour here.” t of the CEA designed and developed Phased Array Radar, new navigation radar system, combat management system, infrared search and track system, and their attendant support infrastructure. The upgrade takes around 12 months to install, followed by three to four months of testing, with two

1 http://www.naval-technology.com/ projects/ANZAC/ Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 34 DANISH NAVAL GROUP A Danish Naval Task Group of seven (F 362), HDMS Iver Huitfeldt (F 361) ships visited Kiel Naval Base in and HDMS Niels Juel (F 363) as well the Germany recently during the Danish landing ship HDMS Absalon (L 16). naval exercise FLOTEX. Attached to the task group were the The Danish Navy squadron consisted minehunting drones HDMS Saltholm of three new Iver Huitfeldt-class air (MSD 6), HDMS Hirsholm (MSD 5) and All pictures are by Michael Nitz - Naval defence frigates: HDMS Peter Willemoes HDMS Msf1 (MSF1). Press Service.

HDMS Hirsholm (Michael Nitz))

Danish Naval Task Group on visit to Kiel Naval Base (Michael Nitz)

Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 35

HDMS Absalon (Michael Nitz)

HDMS Absalon (Michael Nitz)

Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 36 Fit to be a Frigate? by Steven Wills

ne of the most persistent The new ship was designated first complaints about the USA’s as a “hunter killer” (CL) and later as OLittoral Combatant Ship (LCS) is that it a “frigate” (DL) with missile armed is not fit to replace the retiring Perry class versions classified as DLGs. Destroyers, frigates. LCS has been characterized as such as the Forrest Sherman class under-armed in comparison with the and their missile-armed immediate Perry class, and not capable of assuming successors, the Charles Adams class, the roles and missions of a frigate. remained general purpose combatants In light of these criticisms it’s useful to optimized for a variety of roles, but examine what constitutes a frigate in the generally less capable than frigates. second decade of the 21st century. What Smaller combatants optimized for sort of frigate does the US Navy need antisubmarine warfare remained labeled to meet present requirements? Finally, as destroyer escorts (DE’s). does the LCS, in both its current form, This condition persisted until the and as envisioned in the frigate upgrade mid 1970s. US frigates had approached meet those requirements, particularly in the size and capabilities of World War armament? II cruisers in the California and Virginia The answers may surprise LCS critics class DLGN (nuclear-powered) frigates who continue to call for a Cold War of 10000 tons and nearly 600 feet in frigate as the solution for 21st century length. The traditional antisubmarine naval missions. warfare escort had also grown in size and The definition of the frigate as a capability. Many of these ships, such as combatant in order to better meet the LCS3 on Sea Trial naval combatant has been in constant the FF 1052 Knox class were significantly expanding Soviet threat. It too, like the (Lockheed-Martin) flux since the end of World War II. It larger than the 1940’s-era ships they were LCS, ballooned in cost. According to appeared in that conflict as a British replacing. a 3 January 1979 General Accounting Royal Navy (RN) classification for an These changes compelled the US to Office (GAO) report, the cost per ship independent anti-submarine warfare re-designate a number of its warships increased from $64.8 million dollars a vessel. By 1945, the term “frigate” in 1975 to better reflect the changes in ship in 1973, to $194 million each by generally meant a ship of 1300-2000 the frigate classification since 1945, as 1979. tons; less than 350 feet in length; a speed well as to combat a persistent myth that This general classification system of USS Independence of less than 25 knots, and an armament the US had less cruiser-designated ships US surface combatants persisted through (LCS 2) of the focused on antisubmarine weapons. than the Soviet Union. The frigates were the end of the Cold War and the first General Dynamics The US Navy substantively changed divided into guided missile cruisers and decade of the 2000s. After 1991, however, Independence Class the frigate designation after World War II destroyers based on size and capability. the international definition of the frigate (front right) and USS Freedom (LCS 1) of with its first generation of purpose-built US destroyer escorts were renamed as category again began to change. Falling the Lockheed Martin escorts. The demise of the frigates. defense budgets across the Western Freedom Class Axis surface fleets, the well-established The patrol frigate, later the FFG-7 world in the wake of the Cold War’s littoral combat ships. threat from air attack, and the rise of a Oliver Hazard Perry class, was the zenith end compelled many nations to put (Lockheed-Martin) Soviet Navy based on submarines called of American Cold War escort design. for a new, affordable combatant that The Soviet Union was expected to could meet these challenges. deploy a significant force of subsurface, A ship roughly 6000 tons in surface, and aviation platforms to displacement, a speed comparable to destroy the expected Reforger re- fleet carriers, and capable of mounting supply convoys crossing the Atlantic to significant anti-air (AAW) and support embattled North Atlantic Treaty antisubmarine (ASW) weapons was seen Organization (NATO) forces in Western as an ideal cross between the expensive, Europe. man-power intensive cruiser and the Unlike previous escort classes, the cheaper, but less capable destroyer class. FFG-7 was designed as a multi-mission Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 37

more capabilities into fewer hulls, often designated as frigates, as a cost savings measure. These ships now occupy a place in many European navies analogous to that of the US Arleigh Burke class DDG as the primary surface warships of those nations’ navies. Japan and South Korea have made similar changes, but have retained the destroyer classification for these larger vessels. Russia maintained the Cold War classification structure throughout most of the last 20 years, but its recent frigates are smaller than their late Cold War cousins. The Chinese Navy has followed the Russian Cold War model and gradually increased the size of its frigates as general patrol and escort ships. Although there remain several descriptions of the frigate type warship, the post-Cold War ship now associated the frigate classification has generally grown into a large and capable surface combatant for many nations. Does the US Navy need a frigate as defined by these new standards? At the end of their service lives, the Perry class had lost much of their (AAW) and (ASUW) sensors and weapons. Their MK 92 fire control system, MK 13 single- arm missile launchers, and medium range Standard Missile (SM-1 MR) LCS Major Changes systems were largely out of date matched of past US frigate designs. The cruise threat develops, advances in missile and to 2013 (Defense against the growing anti-ship cruise missile threat is considerable for even torpedo technology will require high Industry Daily) missile threat by the turn of the century. high capability warships such as the capacity escorts like the DDG 51 rather They had become the early 21st century DDG 51. A supporting frigate similar in than a new FFG-7. equivalent of the late 19th century size and capability to current European The frigate needed for the present colonial cruiser, whose chief purpose designs could be built, but would provide Navy is not another Cold War was to show the flag and conduct low- little in the way of additional capability antisubmarine combatant, or an intensity combat operations. beyond present ships. It would also not expensive, but less capable version of The US high capability combatant be a cost effective product for low-end the DDG 51. It should instead be a class is well filled by the CG 47, DDG presence missions. general-purpose warship capable of 51 and DDG 1000 class ships. Such a Unlike during the Cold War, no multiple tasks. It must conduct low mass of AAW capable ships was not potential US opponent yet deploys threat missions such as counter-piracy in service when the Perry-class were a global naval force capable of and presence operations in order to conceived. While the US Navy requires simultaneously effectively threatening US free the DDG force for offensive and a replacement for the Perry-class’s seaborne communications in multiple defensive missions in high intensity “show the flag” role, there appears to be geographic locations. The absence of combat. It should be able to perform no requirement for another medium this threat for now obviates the need for escort missions for amphibious and capability convoy escort in the tradition 21st century version of the FFG-7. If that logistics force ships for limited periods in Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 38 Fit to be a Frigate?

appropriate threat environments. The addition of a surface to surface Steve Wills is a retired surface warfare officer and a PhD student in military history missile armament should allow the at Ohio University. His focus areas are modern US naval and military reorganization frigate to conduct limited ASUW efforts and British naval strategy and policy from 1889-1941. He posts at CIMSEC, under the Navy’s emerging concept of sailorbob.com and at informationdissemination.org under the pen name of “Lazarus”. distributive lethality. LCS endurance is 70% of the FFG-7, but it’s still sufficient for extended operations in comparison Originally published by the Center for International Maritime Security – with smaller corvettes or missile patrol reproduced with permission. craft. The LCS baseline platform with Characteristics, Freedom variant 57mm gun, Rolling Airframe Missile Builder: Lockheed Martin (RAM), electronic warfare gear, boats, Length: 387.6 ft. (118.1 meters) and large flight deck and hangar is an excellent replacement for the FFG-7 in Beam: 57.7 ft. (17.6 meters) low threat, presence missions. The ship Displacement: approximately 3,400 MT full load can accomplish escort and additional Draft: 14.1 ft. (4.3 meters) warfare missions with the weapons and Speed: 40+ knots sensors provided in its warfare modules Ships: and frigate upgrade. The ship’s modular USS Freedom (LCS 1), San Diego, CA design readily accepts additional weapons and associated equipment. The PCU Sioux City (LCS 11) - under construction frigate upgrade to the basic LCS hull has PCU Wichita (LCS 13) - in pre-production phase been derided as insufficient, but only PCU Billings (LCS 15) - in pre-production phase if a 21st century FFG 7 is the desired USS Fort Worth (LCS 3), San Diego, CA product. The modifications envisioned for the LCS-based frigate meet current PCU Milwaukee (LCS 5) - under construction requirements and definitions for the 21st PCU Detroit (LCS 7) - under construction century frigate the Navy requires. PCU Little Rock (LCS 9) - under construction No would deny the LCS program has suffered significant problems over General Characteristics, Independent variant the course of its history. It introduced Builder: General Dynamics (LCS 2 and LCS 4), Austal USA (LCS 6 and follow) multiple new technologies in one Length: 418.6 ft. (127.6 meters) platform in order to replace three classes of ship. Problems associated with this Height: 103.7 ft. (31.6 meters) effort remain and will likely persist for Beam: 103.7 ft. (31.6 meters) some time. In spite of these issues, the Displacement: approximately 3,100 MT full load LCS and its frigate variant represent the Draft: 14.4 ft. (4.4 meters) best choice for replacing the retiring Ships: Perry class frigates in their current role PCU Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) - under construction as presence, patrol, and low intensity combat platforms, as well as emerging PCU Omaha (LCS 12) - under construction surface warfare missions. The Navy PCU Manchester (LCS 14) - in pre-production phase does not need a 21st century Perry class PCU Tulsa (LCS 16) - in pre-production phase frigate. t USS Independence (LCS 2), San Diego, CA USS Coronado (LCS 4), San Diego, CA PCU Jackson (LCS 6) - under construction PCU Montgomery (LCS 8) - under construction

Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 39 Navigating the Black Ditch: Risks in the Taiwan Strait By Scott Cheney-Peters

he author’s sole experience east to south-west, and ranges in width a large impact on the navigability of transiting the Taiwan Strait was from 220 km at its widest to 130 km at the strait. The China Coastal Current Tnot a pleasant one. Like many on his its narrowest, with an average width flows southward in the western part of US Navy destroyer, he had earlier in the of 180 km. It is bounded in the north the strait from a maximum strength in week gone to sleep expecting to awake by the East China Sea and in the south winter months, backed by the northeast anchored in Hong Kong harbour for by the South China Sea, circulating monsoon, to its weakest point in the a few days of liberty to celebrate the waters between the two bodies with an summer. American holiday of Thanksgiving. average depth of 60m. At its deepest in On the eastern side of the strait the Instead, the Chinese government the Penghu Channel the strait reaches northward flowing Kuroshio Branch rescinded permission for the USS 177m and is a mere 25m deep at its Current is turned back by the north- Kitty Hawk Strike Group to enter shallowest near the centre of the strait’s east monsoon in the winter after exiting port, causing the aircraft carrier and southern mouth – the ‘Taiwan Shoal’ or the Penghu Channel, but continues its escorting vessels to chart a course ‘Taiwan Banks’. the rest of the year, while reaching its back to Japan and leave behind many maximum strength in the summer. loved ones who had flown to town to Taiwan Strait Each year from July to September, rendezvous. Typhoon-spawned weather Seasonal environmental variation has an average of six larger (and, thus, heightened the crew’s enjoyment as they headed for the Taiwan Strait to undertake a ‘freedom of navigation’ transit. Seven years later, the relationship between China and the United States has not much improved. But that between China and Taiwan has softened markedly, even as 1,600 Chinese missiles remain arrayed against targets in Taiwan. In fact, this change has resulted in a shift in the geopolitical dangers facing those who ply the strait’s waters. This article examines the outlook of these threats.

Geography of the Taiwan Strait

Until 10,000 years ago, a land bridge connected the Neolithic people of Taiwan with those of mainland China, until rising sea levels from melting glaciers at the start of the Holocene epoch created the strait. As described by the late Harvard professor Kuangh- chih Chang, over the subsequent ten millennia the strait’s width expanded and contracted in a series of six ‘sea invasions’ and six ‘withdrawals’ as the waters rose and fell. Today the strait runs 330 km north- Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 40 Navigating the Black Ditch: Risks in the Taiwan Strait

named) tropical storms and typhoons 36 Matsu islets at the north end of the impact the strait. Year-round, the strait strait, were the scene of fierce artillery is known for strong winds, wave swells, duels between forces of the People’s and fog (156.3 days a year of level 6 Republic of China (PRC) and those of or higher on the Beaufort Scale), but the Republic of China (ROC) in the these effects are amplified during the 1950s during the First and Second winter months. Fang Xu and Pingping Taiwan Strait Crises. Unlike another Chen, writing in “Securing the Safety pair of island groups in the Taiwan of Navigation in East Asia” by Keyuan Strait that the ROC controlled at the Zhou and Shicun Wu, note that these start of these crises, the Tachen and conditions impact “not only challenges Yijiangshan islands, the Kinmen and Chiang Pin-kun to safety at sea but also obstacles for Matsu islands remain under Taiwanese military aircraft from crossing to the (L), chairman of efficient search and rescue.” administration. other’s side of a line roughly bisecting the Taiwan-based The largest group of islands in A unique, informal feature of the the strait. Straits Exchange Foundation shakes the Taiwan Strait – and the group Taiwan Strait helps keep the peace Following remarks by then-Defense hands with Chen most impactful to navigation – is the between ROC and PRC air and naval Minister Lee Jye in 2004 threatening to Yunlin, chairman Penghu Islands, consisting of 64 islets forces and prevent misunderstanding shoot down Chinese aircraft crossing of the mainland’s of volcanic origin, also known as the by encouraging them to remain on the middle line, the Taiwanese Defense Association for Pescadores for the fishing communities ‘their’ side of the strait. Referred to Ministry released co-ordinates for Relations Across the the Portuguese encountered in the variously as the Taiwan Strait ‘middle their conception of the line. Today, Taiwan Straits, at the start of talks in June 17th century. Situated 120 km from line’, ‘centerline’, or ‘Davis Line’, the the midline also functions as the 2008. (Public domain) the Chinese mainland and separated 1950s origins – and exact boundary jurisdictional boundary for a range of by the 45 km-wide Penghu Channel – of this division are murky, but most other regimes including the division from the south-west Taiwan coast, the sources point to its first appearance of responsibility for search and rescue Penghu Islands total 127 km2, with in 1955 as an incidental by-product of services, although increased cross-strait the namesake island accounting for designated American patrol areas. co-ordination and collaboration is roughly half that total area and 70 per Since the 1958 Second Taiwan blurring its importance. cent of the total population of 100,400 Strait Crisis, both sides have in practice inhabitants. mostly followed what remains a tacit Geopolitical Background Another archipelago of note – the understanding between China and While most now know it as the Kinmen Islands – lies just two km Taiwan to prevent their warships and Taiwan Strait, or Strait of Taiwan, the from the south- eastern coast of Fujian Province in mainland China, yet is also controlled by the government in Taipei. Consisting of 13 islets of 151 km2 and 120,713 people, the Kinmen, or ‘Quemoy’, are low and flat except for hilly Kinmen proper. PLAN Marines based These islands, in Zhanjiang along with the (Public domain) Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 41

waterway’s aliases are a reflection of its ditches) from the history. The first, ‘The Formosa Strait’, colour of the currents comes from the former Portuguese crossed during these name for Taiwan, the ilha formosa voyages. or ‘beautiful isle’. The origins of this In fact, there appear name are shrouded in fascinating to have been several tales of doubtful veracity, as depicted regional stretches in Jonathan Manthorpe’s Forbidden of water called the Nation: A History of Taiwan, but the black ditch, including popularisation – of both the name on either side of the and the discovery of the island – by Penghus. One of these Dutch spy Jan Huygen van Linschoten is the Penghu Channel, in the 1596 book Iteneratio marked a which an 1807 text transition. Whereas the 16th century calls “the most A US presence? was filled with Portuguese, Japanese, dangerous place in all the ocean. Its 2008 (and 2012 re-election) of Ma Ying- A Navy FA-18E Chinese, and pirate expeditions and depth is unfathomed, and the water is jeou of the Kuomintang party (KMT). Super Hornet warfare in the strait, the exposure of as black as ink,” – but the term has since In December of 2008, direct assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron Portugal’s secret trade routes brought been applied to the whole of the strait. cross-strait flights and postal services 14 participates Dutch and Spanish traders into that (For an exploration of the origin of the restarted for the first time in 59 years. in an air power mix in the 17th century, as well as their term ‘The Black Ditch’ and its physical More importantly for this paper, the demonstration near attempts at colonisation. basis see Michael Turton’s online article ‘third link’ – direct shipping – also the aircraft carrier The Black Water Ditch and the Chinese resumed and, according to the US USS John C Stennis in Pacific waters Claim to the Senkakus from which this Library of Congress’ Global Legal Siege of Zeelandia (US Navy) quote was taken.) Monitor, now connects 72 mainland The European colonisers were soon In the late 1800s, a punitive Japanese ports with 13 in Taiwan. followed by Chinese forces. Robert military campaign on Taiwan and later In 2010, China and Taiwan Kaplan notes in Asia’s Cauldron: The French blockade of its ports presaged negotiated and signed the Economic South China Sea and the End of a China’s cession of the island and the Cooperation Framework Agreement Stable Pacific that although several Penghus to Japan in 1895 at the end (ECFA) – covering specific tariff Chinese dynasties launched earlier of the Sino-Japanese War. Japan’s reductions and a general understanding expeditions, it wasn’t until the Ming administration of the island ran until that the two sides will work to further dynasty in the 17th century that an the end of World War II, when Taiwan lower trade tariffs and investment “organic connection” between Taiwan was returned to Chinese rule under barriers across a broad swath of the and the mainland was forged. This ROC control, and has served as the economy. In the most recent sign of was achieved first with Cheng Chih- ROC’s seat of government since its 1949 friendlier ties between Beijing and lung’s resettlement of thousands from evacuation from mainland China. Taipei, the director of China’s Taiwan mainland China’s Fujian province and The Third Taiwan Strait Crisis Affairs Office, Zhang Zhijun, met for later with his son Cheng-Kung’s 400- occurred 40 years after the first two, the first time with Taiwan’s Mainland ship, 25,000-troop force to drive out raising the spectre of armed conflict Affairs Minister Wang Yu-Chi. the Dutch, culminating in the 1662 in the strait as PRC military exercises successful siege of Zeelandia. and missile launches were countered by Activity in the Strait The second alias for the Taiwan American naval movements over the The Taiwan Strait is sometimes touted Strait, ‘The Black Ditch’ or ‘Black-water course of 1995-1996. Following a rocky as a vital shipping route, connecting Ditch’, came into use by cross-strait relationship under Taiwanese President Asia with the energy supplies of the traders by at least the late 17th century. Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Middle East. Yet its importance should This period, stretching through the People’s Party (DPP, 2000-2008) and neither be overstated nor viewed in 18th century, was a time of increasing fears that he would precipitate a crisis isolation. Except for cross-strait transits integration and trade with mainland through an unilateral declaration of and vessels calling at a port in the China, and the name derived (along independence, cross-strait ties have immediate vicinity of the strait, the with red, white, and green-water notably warmed with the election in closure of the strait would result in only Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 42 Navigating the Black Ditch: Risks in the Taiwan Strait

minor disruptions to Asian and global Japan’s trade routes, but Taiwan’s de that may be implemented in the next trade as most international traffic could facto independence does keep them few years. be re-routed through the Luzon Strait affordable. to the west. This is not to say traffic in the strait Scope for Increased Activity What determines the severity of is negligible. By 2008 the Taiwanese As busy as the strait is today, there are disruption is whether the Taiwan government counted 400 ships several possible scenarios that would Strait is closed alone or in conjunction transiting the strait every day, along increase congestion further. The South with the Luzon Strait. A paper by with 5.4 million barrels of crude oil China Morning Post reports China may Henry Kenny for the US government- and 0.6 trillion cubic feet of liquid attempt physically to bridge the strait, sponsored think tank CNA (formerly natural gas (LNG) as of 2011 in an having approved in 2013 two such Center for Naval Analyses) describes analysis by the US Energy Information highway projects, although whether what a blockade of Taiwan might Administration (EIA). In comparison, the connections would involve bridges look like, with “exclusion zones for the EIA showed another 5.6 million or tunnels in unclear. It is also unlikely normal commercial shipping, as well barrels of oil and 4.8 trillion cubic feet that this project will come to fruition as harassment of ships that approach of LNG headed to South Korea and until much later stages of political and/ the exclusion zone. Mines are another Japan through the Luzon Strait. or economic integration – according to possibility, as is strafing of ships that Traffic patterns in the strait have independent intelligence firm Stratfor, intentionally or inadvertently approach changed since the 2008 resumption of the near-term prospects for the link the island.” It too notes that “disruption direct shipping. Much of today’s cross- remain “largely illusory”. But if at might be minimized if shipping to and strait traffic used to flow through the some date it does proceed, the project from Northeast Asia steered clear of strait to enter China indirectly via Hong could have an appreciable impact on Taiwan on a wide berth … of the island, Kong. Now, not only has cross-strait strait traffic; on the other hand, once entering/exiting the South China Sea traffic increased by 10% every year since completed it would also divert some of off northern Luzon.” 2008 as annual bilateral trade between the of cross-strait shipping traffic. Other analysts focus not on a the mainland and Taiwan has risen to Far sooner than any such conflict in the strait but its potential nearly $200 billion, the overall traffic infrastructure, two follow-ons to the resolution, arguing that a PRC- density has also reportedly increased, ECFA are likely to increase cross- controlled Taiwan would enable China swelling the risks of collision. To handle strait traffic. The first, the Cross-Strait to extract concessions from Japan by this increase, the Chinese Ministry Services Agreement (CSSA), was Major LNG trade threatening to close the Taiwan Strait of Transport is exploring options for signed last year and awaits ratification flows in the South and neighbouring Luzon Strait and managing vessel traffic in the strait, by Taiwan’s legislature. According to China Sea (2011) - thereby cripple its economy. Writing including traffic separation schemes The New York Times, the CSSA opens trillion cubic feet in Asia’s Cauldron, Robert Kaplan says Taiwan’s “de facto independence is key to the integrity of the Taiwan Strait that guarantees Japan’s trade routes.” While both the likelihood of these contingencies and their effects are debatable, a PRC in possession of Taiwan and in conflict with Japan would indeed cause serious disruption of Japan’s trade routes. Former Japanese diplomat Hisahiko Okazaki stated in 2003: “In case of emergency, the only safe [shipping route] for Japan in Asia will be the passage through the Lombok Strait in Indonesia through the east coast of the Philippines.” Kaplan is wrong that the Taiwan Strait guarantees Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 43

PRC Marines 80 industries to investment in China Kastner remarks that if this pressure and 64 in Taiwan. Although these are For Taiwan, the growth of economic outweighs the countervailing upward primarily service-sector openings, the interdependence and the strength of pressure from economic integration CSSA does include the potential to China’s military have driven the cost of it could have the destabilizing effect boost the cross-strait travel industry. an attempt to alter the status quo to a of tempting future decision-makers to The second ECFA follow-on is the rationally unacceptable level if it would act. This is especially so if coupled with Cross-Strait Goods Agreement knowingly invite an armed response beliefs that work towards a peaceful (CSGA), a trade-in-goods pact still from China (see Scott Kastner’s draft settlement will be an effort in vain. under negotiation that would have an paper A Relationship Transformed? But, as Zachery Keck of The Diplomat even greater impact on vessel traffic. Rethinking the Prospects for Conflict points out, if China is acting rationally it Lastly, the EIA reports that and Peace in the Taiwan Strait for also must include in its calculations the Taiwan is working with China’s state- an excellent analysis of rational likelihood and cost of armed resistance owned China National Offshore Oil calculations and redlines, from which and pacification after the defeat of Corporation (CNOOC) to explore for his prior quote was taken). Taiwan’s armed forces. oil and natural gas in the strait. While A declaration of independence On balance then, short of internal these efforts have yet to make any is highly unlikely in the next decade, domestic upheaval in either polity, substantial discoveries, and have failed yet a future Taiwanese leader may the strait will remain the premier in earlier attempts, any such finds nonetheless face, or believe he/she demonstration of John Mearsheimer’s would complicate the strait’s already faces, what Thomas Christensen “stopping power of water” and locus crowded transit conditions. writing in the journal International of anti-access, area-denial capabilities Security terms as a “closing window – with China’s arrayed to deter the ROC Marines of opportunity” to maximise Taiwan’s US Navy from entering the strait and The current state of reduced tensions position in respect to its freedom of Taiwan’s arrayed to prevent China from between China and Taiwan is action and international status. Analysts crossing it – and this arrangement will likely to continue until at least the have given a range of dates when China remain peaceful. next presidential administration will be able to defeat Taiwan alone or in In its current incarnation, the in 2016, and cross-strait economic conjunction with American assistance, Taiwan Strait is simultaneously a trade integration is unlikely to abate in the with Taiwan itself (and self-interestedly) super-highway and a moat. As such, its foreseeable future. Nonetheless the predicting a lost edge by 2020. All such value is undeniably greatest for Taiwan, risks of a future military conflict in assessments are a moving target and but its criticality can be overstated for the strait remain real. Scott Kastner based on assumptions about military international trade beyond the ports of the University of Maryland notes investments that may not hold true, and economies in the immediate strait that while even a return to power but they might reinforce a perception region, due to the readily available of the DPP would not dampen the that the time for Taiwan to act – even Luzon Strait route as an alternate. t current spirit of co-operation, “the modestly – is sooner rather than later. cross-strait relationship has not been Scott Cheney-Peters is a surface warfare Risks fundamentally transformed.” officer in the US Navy Reserve and Although economic incentives are For China’s part, this shift in the balance the former editor of Surface Warfare increasing for both sides to continue of power in its favour recommends magazine. He is the founder and the peaceful status quo, especially patience. But such patience has its given Taiwan’s pragmatic acceptance limits. Given the recent perceived president of the Center for International of ambiguous sovereignty, this violations of promises regarding Hong Maritime Security (CIMSEC), a graduate does not forestall the potential of a Kong’s governance and electoral future of Georgetown University and the US determined policy shift to resolve by it is unlikely for a Taiwanese ruler to Naval War College, and a member of force or decree what remains a matter agree to an accord along Hong Kong’s the Truman National Security Project’s of uncompromising principle – nor of model of ‘One China, Two Systems’. a domestic contingency resulting in an Further, as the same balance of power Defense Council. attempt to use the flashpoint issue for increases in China’s favour it places political advantage. downward pressure on the cost for Courtesy of Center for International China of settling the matter by force. Maritime Security. Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 44 To Safeguard the Seas By Commander James Feldkamp

he is the building efforts, the most preeminent naval force in pressure to do more Tthe world. Following Alfred Mahan’s with less compels dictum that “a truly powerful nation us to develop must have thriving international trade, a new technologies merchant fleet to carry these goods and to maintain the The Air and Missile Defense Radar enhances ships’ abilities to detect air a strong navy to protect its sea lanes,” advantage if or when confrontations and surface targets as well as ballistic missile threats. (Raytheon) the US Navy has provided stability, occur. tranquility and maintained the global For the last 70 years, radar has clutter – the technological advancement of the AMDR is order since the end of World War II. played a key role in maintaining truly remarkable. Scheduled to begin installation on the However, in this age of austerity, the technological superiority over our Arleigh Burke class destroyers starting in 2016 the AMDR is ability of our aging fleet to secure our adversaries. Over the last decade, the technologically advanced, low-risk, cost-effective radar interests, protect our allies and confront however, our radar capabilities have solution to combat today and tomorrow’s threats. our adversaries is being sorely tested. proved to be increasingly incapable Tasked with the daunting challenge of maintaining As we paused in remembrance of of addressing existing and emerging freedom of the seas, deterring international aggression, and the 73rd anniversary of the surprise threats. This, in turn, directly impacts playing pivotal roles in times of war the US Navy has earned attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, by the the Navy’s ability to assure maritime naval supremacy, not only because of the skill of our sailors, Imperial forces of Japan, we again see a security and freedom of the seas. but also because it has invested great effort and money to rising power in Asia bent on changing Fortunately, the Pentagon has taken provide the finest technology in modern warfare. This trend the status quo, increasing pressure on positive steps to rectify the situation must continue with essential defense programs so that we our allies and challenging America’s by making investments in the next may stay one step ahead of evolving threats. Doing so will preeminence in the Pacific. generation of radars. The Air and protect our national interests and ensure the safety of our China’s assertiveness in the South Missile Defense S-Band Radar (AMDR) sailors and war fighters. John F. Kennedy said it best, “Control China Sea over the past few years is is an excellent example of advanced of the seas means security. Control of the seas means peace. significant as it “directly challenges radar technology that will fill critical Control of the seas can mean victory. The United States must America’s position as the primary capability gaps and ensure our sailors control the sea if it is to protect our security.” t maritime power in Asia and as the can meet the ever-changing demands of guardian of the old regional order,” said today’s global threat environment. Hugh White. As Ronald O’Rouke, Designed to replace the ageing Aegis specialist in Naval Affairs at the combat system currently employed in Congressional Research Service the fleet, the AMDR is constructed as a testified before Congress, he expects self-contained radar that is scalable for China “to continue putting pressure on any platform for any mission, with the its neighbors short of war in the East ability to exponentially increase radar China and South China Seas to get its sensitivity. Not only will the AMDR way in the region.” more accurately detect missile threats, It is clear our Navy is facing ever- but it will also help ships run more increasing operational challenges, efficiently. This new system reduces including not only air and sub-surface space, weight, power, and cooling threats but also supersonic cruise demands of naval vessels, thereby Commander James Feldkamp USN (Rtd.) is a retired Naval missiles and ballistic missiles (both maximizing the service life of the ships Electronic Counter-Measure Officer. He flew combat anti-ship and surface to surface). that incorporate this new technology. missions in Desert Storm off USS Midway and served as the Individually, these threats are difficult These long-term cost savings make enough to combat, however, when AMDR a wise use of limited taxpayer international outreach officer for the National Maritime encountered simultaneously; these dollars in today’s austere budget Intelligence-Integration Office and the Office of Global threats severely challenge the current environment. Maritime Situational Awareness in Washington, DC. He capabilities of our Navy. With a rapidly With the ability to confront multiple currently is an adjunct professor teaching the theories and expanding Chinese Navy, coupled threats simultaneously – even in the politics of terrorism at George Mason University. with the increased pace of Russia’s ship presence of heavy land, sea, and rain Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Sponsorship_Ad_Outlines.indd 1 30/11/2013 10:43:20 PM 46 WWI BOOK REVIEWS

Ullman argues that since the White House in 1914, 1954 and 2014. assassination of Franz Ferdinand His review of these critical years, as we have seen the demise of the faced by the respective US presidents, Westphalian nation state system which is the basis for his criticism of the provided peace, stability and prosperity inability of the US system to adapt as a bulwark against violence, chaos to contemporary threats. That US and disruption. Today’s international presidents come to office largely order is a legacy of the post-World without experience is a major defect in War II era and the Cold War. The the US system, according to Ullman. international organisations which This observation may equally apply to emerged (the UN, IMF, World Bank, other western democracies as there is NATO, etc) have not offset the no apprenticeship or formal training need for a 21st century international program for presidents or prime order and structure. These ministers. Under the Westminster organisations’ limitations and failures system a prime minister could have are sourced to Ullman’s other main served for many years in parliament – A Handful of Bullets tenet; that of the ‘Four Horsemen’ now in opposition and in government as a - How the murder roaming the world causing disruption minister – so when he or she achieves of Archduke Franz and destruction. the leadership the person may be said Using the biblical concept of the to be experienced. Ferdinand still Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, However, leadership imposes menaces the peace Ullman’s four horsemen are failed or its own unique responsibilities and By Harlan K. Ullman failing governments, economic decline, stresses. Unless the prime minister or disparity and dislocation and violent president can thoughtfully assimilate Naval Institute Press ideologies. The major threats have the vast quantities of advice, whether Reviewed by Tim Coyle been shifted from state-centric, nation- prescient or superficial, and have the versus-nation politics and conflicts ability to turn advice into ideology- his book’s title, and the to more discrete dangers. Although free policy, he or she is fated to react Tcontemporary melodramatic state-to-state threats still exist precipitately in response rather than artistic rendition of the assassination (Ukraine, China-Japan, North Korea, plan strategically. of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian India-Pakistan etc), the ubiquitous The US has not won any war it throne on the book jacket, may give extremist ‘non-state actors’ have has been involved in, since 1945, says the initial impression that the book is risen through the diffusion of power Ullman. It has focussed on winning a historical treatise on the centenary of brought by globalisation and failed battles, not wars. Its intervention in the murder that started World War I. In military interventions leading to the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan failed using the assassination as a foundation fragmentation of national boundaries to answer the question ‘what next’ for the book the author builds an including the arbitrary delineation of or, as some would say, led to ‘mission argument by analysing the current Middle East boundaries after World creep’. Today’s Western coalition strategic and security threats facing the War I, particularly Iraq and Syria. counterinsurgency operations use world. He argues that that ‘archdukes’ Ullman claims that 20th century state-of-the-art ground, air and and ‘bullets’ metaphorically abound in concepts are no longer applicable to maritime assets against rag-tag groups today’s security environment. today’s threats; however, the most with no armies or air forces, but Although the book is written difficult challenge is for governments engage in ruthless asymmetric warfare; very much from a critical viewpoint to overcome obsolete thinking and their motivation and origins having focussed on the US, the author’s embrace new strategies to counter emerged from the failures of previous observations and analyses can readily contemporary threats. interventions, arguably going back to be extracted and applied to allied Ullman classes the US as one the archduke’s assassination. governments, particularly those that of the failing governments. He The counter to contemporary have supported the US in wars and illustrates his argument by outlining threats is good strategic analysis and contingencies since World War II. the perspectives that existed in the imaginative preventive measures Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 47

Illustrated with 35 black & white to obviate further four horsemen restrictions on RN training or the lack photographs and 9 maps. deprivations. Ullman offers his of specialised navigational training. solutions but it is up to the reader to Reviewed by David Hobbs Although the ships appear almost decide for him/herself whether to agree modern, most lacked gyro compasses with him or to formulate their own efore Jutland is an extensive and fitted speed logs; command from solutions. and improved revision of James a wind, rain and often sea-swept open Regardless, this is a most useful Goldrick’sB earlier work All The King’s bridge with no form of tactical plot treatise of contemporary threats (it Ships Were At Sea published by the was, therefore, far removed from is current up to late 2014) and the so Naval Institute Press in 1984. In his anything we would be familiar with far unsuccessful efforts to stem the introduction, he explains that this today. assaults of the four horsemen. While new work evolved gradually as he had No wonder there were problems of centred on US policy shortfalls, the opportunities to study a number of co-ordination and with overcast skies book should nevertheless be read by primary source documents and the that prevented sun and star sights, aspiring strategists, diplomats and work of eminent historians. He also ships’ dead-reckoning positions could military thinkers; not necessarily to became aware that the way in which be more than ten nautical miles in error agree with Ullman, but to assess where the ships and fleets of 1914 were soon after losing sight of land. Tactical the archduke’s assassination has taken operated, controlled and fought is communications, including for the first us in the past century and how we can no longer widely understood and we time wireless telegraphy and the use of visualise and articulate a more stable know more about Nelson’s wooden information from the Admiralty’s war and peaceful future. ships than we do about Jellicoe’s room brought their own problems of ‘Dreadnoughts’. integration. The culture indoctrinated Further insight was gained through into each of the combatant navies also experience gained on loan service with affected the way they were commanded the Royal Navy on fishery protection and operated. duties in the North Sea, operating Set against the realistic appraisal in the very waters dominated by of the fleets, their technologically the Grand Fleet and still without innovative and untried ships, the men the benefit of GPS or other aids to who commanded them and their situational awareness. His subsequent untested war plans, the book describes extensive command experience with the naval conflict as it unfolded from the RAN allowed him to comprehend, the outbreak of war to the Battle of after much reflection, just how the Dogger Bank. In its own publicity, difficult were the problems faced by the Naval Institute Press describes admirals and captains in 1914 not this book as a definitive study of this only in knowing where they were but, period and I agree that the use of that critically, where others were in relation adjective is entirely justified. It is a to them. Their solutions were, at best, masterly work that combines a lifetime Before Jutland: The seamanlike estimates which were vital of study with extensive experience of Naval War in Northern in determining operational success or seamanship, command and control European Waters, August failure. written by one of Australia’s pre- The book leads the reader eminent naval officers. 1914 - February 1916 thoughtfully into the outbreak of war James Goldrick ends his remarkable By James Goldrick in August 1914 with descriptions of the book with the observation that Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, British, German and Russian Navies the more one comprehends what 2015 and explains why pre-war plans had, happened at sea in 1914 and early 1915, frequently, been changed to meet rapid the more that the events of Jutland, the ISBN 978-1-59114-349-9 advances of technology. I found the Dardanelles and of 1917-18 become 305 pages plus extensive notes, descriptions of the ‘state of the art’ in understandable, if not inevitable. ANI bibliography and index. chapter 5 particularly interesting and members will be aware that there are had not realised the impact of pre-war a number of books appearing to mark Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 48 WWI BOOK REVIEWS (actually formed in 1947) and the the centenary of the Great War. Be in creator of strategic bombing. funding was a calculated response no doubt that this one is the essential to the perceived overly large naval key to a full understanding of the naval In this book Thomas Wildenberg expenditures of the times and he did in war and I wholeheartedly recommend explains how he was neither, and that effect generate a war with the Navy. it as the outstanding work on the he sees Billy Mitchell’s most important Billy Mitchell ultimately lost his subject. contribution to the US military as his war by over extending himself and leadership in France during World progressively alienating his superiors War I. in the US Army. The US Navy won Mitchell received the DSC and decisively in both delaying the DSM for his achievements as America’s formation of an independent US air senior combat airman 1917-1918. force and by gaining resources for its Subsequent events surrounding the own aircraft carriers, shore bases and future of US air power during the naval aviation. interwar period led him to twist the Defence of the maritime approaches truth and distort reality to achieve his to the US remained largely a US Navy goal to increase the US spending on responsibility and modern battleships – military aviation. He was a showman strengthened and updated in an effort who sought and gained popular to survive air attack – remained an support for his cause at the expense important component of the US Navy of others in the military. His disregard until at least the end of World War II. for the facts presented by others, Of the 25 battleships that served during including his own superiors, led to WWII only two were lost, both during Billy Mitchell’s War with his being court-martialled in 1925 for the Pearl Harbor attack. insubordination. After sinking the ex-German the Navy: The Interwar Billy Mitchell’s War with the Navy is battleship Ostfriesland during an Rivalry Over Air Power not a biography. It is more a case study exercise in 1921 Mitchell and his of how past leaders adopted various disciples believed that bombers had By Thomas Wildenberg methodologies to further their own made the battleship obsolete overnight. Published by the Naval Institute cause with the military establishment. There were many reasons why this was Press, Annapolis MD, 2013 During the 1920s Mitchell’s voice not true but in the public imagination was the loudest in a cavalcade of air facts were irrelevant and, additionally, Reviewed by Dr Gregory P Gilbert power opinions. Wildenberg explains the truth could not be released without how Mitchell gained remarkable disclosing official defence secrets. The more Mitchell crusaded political, media and popular support As Wildenberg points out even in for an independent air service, and was able to stage or manipulate 1942, during the Battle of Midway, land the more radical he became... events to gain publicity, and to be fair, based B-17 Flying Fortress bombers He became impatient with Mitchell’s aim of increasing the amount were unable to cause significant those who disagreed with him of money allocated to military aviation damage on the Japanese Fleet. In what and he believed that Army in America was commendable. was effectively a re-run of the bombing and Navy brass who opposed However the peace meant that exercises of 1921 but this time in him conspired to protect their there were very few funds available for actual combat conditions, the B-17 privileges and authority. military expenditure and aviation was bombers were unable to sink any of the - unnamed source quoted in just one of many defence necessities approaching Japanese armada. It was Billy Mitchell’s War with the desperately needing funds. By the naval aviators operating off the US Navy, p. 186 exaggerating the effects of air power Navy’s carriers that sank the enemy. and ignoring the factual evidence This book makes one think S World War I Army Air Service presented by others, Mitchell was about how to generate change in a general William ‘Billy’ Mitchell unable to substantiate his claims defence environment where funding Uremains a highly controversial figure. despite their popularity. In effect Billy is extremely limited. It also reveals Some biographers have portrayed him Mitchell’s decision to target Navy how significant efforts can be made as the founder of the US Air Force Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 49

to improve survivability instead of volume in hardback, of 469 pages. just accepting the claims of a new Almost every second page has an wonder weapon. The work also makes illustration, and there is a central one think about the contemporary section with colour plates. The text discussion over what resource priorities is up to the same high standard, with Australia needs to allocate to air-sea Stevens’ background of over 20 years operations and whether it resides working in the RAN historical milieu largely within the RAN or the RAAF coming to the fore: he would know by should not matter. name each of the early officers working This is a discussion that has in the force and this shows to effect. not occurred and is long overdue. Accounts of the early midshipmen The relatively low priority for the posted to the RN for experience are an development of an offensive anti- example: some relate how they refused surface warfare missile for Australia’s to work within the British system F-35A aircraft, estimated to be fully where the junior midshipmen served operational by 2025, is just one example their seniors in menial duties. There of how such unresolved intellectual In All Respects Ready - are many direct quotations scattered debates can influence reality. What Australia’s Navy in World through the text, from letters, diaries, priority should be allocated to anti-ship and reports, and these bring a further missiles within Australia’s maritime War I personal touch into the account of what strategy? It is no good saying that it is was a very small navy in those days. Dr David Stevens not my part of ship. The US forces have This is not to say it didn’t make resolved their rivalry over air power Oxford University Press a good account of itself, and the largely with the US Navy’s ability to ISBN: 9780195578584 Hardback chronicles of the force are given sustain itself as the second largest air $59.95 www. oup.com.au/stevens steadily through 24 chapters. For it was service in the world – behind the USAF a conflict like no other, in a changing Reviewed by Tom Lewis which is the largest and most capable. world where technology had made the Such organisations are clearly not the naval forces different from ever before. answer for Australia. rthur Jose, in The Royal The dreadnought had arrived on the Billy Mitchell’s War with the Navy AAustralian Navy 1914-1918, has scene, and so too submarines, from is well worth a read. I suggest it will go in many respects provided the official their grim beginnings in the American well with a glass of wine and a comfy Royal Australian Navy historical record Civil War decades previously, where chair so that one can contemplate the for the Great War. That was written the Hunley sunk the Housatonic. Flight alternative futures of Australian naval following that mighty conflict. Over too was making an entrance to the aviation and air-sea operations. the intervening period there have been scene, and these three new aspects of many other – some workmanlike, some combat alone made for a very different admirable – accounts of the war. Bob time. Naval artillery and engines were Nicholls, sadly now no longer with us, also changing, as too were social provided background material and conventions of the naval forces. All of often many excellent diagrams. There this could be quite bewildering, but have been too several accounts of the Stevens cuts through what could have Sydney-Emden battle. been a morass to give us an incisive Now with In All Respects Ready account. David Stevens, formerly of the Given we have just commemorated Historical section of the Navy, has the 100 years of the arrival in Gallipoli given us a fine account of the battles of Australian forces, it is timely to both large and small of the fledgling see the RAN Bridging Train’s task naval force, so recently hatched from of moving troops across beaches under the skirts of Britain’s Royal Navy,. described. The actions of HMAS The new book is a handsome AE2 – a British commanded but Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 50 WWI BOOK REVIEWS

partly Australian-manned submarine In All Respects Ready - historian, Arthur Jose, writing The also is carefully described, up until Australia’s Navy in World Royal Australian Navy 1914-1918 in her last moments in Turkish waters. War One the post war period, David Stevens has Her sister ship AE1’s loss had been had unrestricted access to intelligence previously discussed, for Stevens takes Dr David Stevens summaries, official records as well as to a geographical approach to his subject, letters and private diaries. These make and so AE1 – never seen again in Oxford University Press this book much more than an historical waters off Rabaul in 1914 – had been ISBN: 9780195578584 Hardback chronicle. The result is a highly covered in that section. $59.95 www. oup.com.au/stevens enjoyable, comprehensive and definitive An interesting approach, which account of what the RAN achieved in Reviewer: Desmond Woods works I thinks, is also to describe a the Great War divided logically into 24 prominent naval figure within each chapters. Each chapter provides a short of these chapters. Des Woods has World War I publishing boom has biography of a key individual featured in previously described in his review of been a feature of the last five years the events described. this volume the battles and general Aas the interest in the catastrophe that It was a busy war for the small events of the War, so it is right to overtook the world in 1914 continues to Navy. In the last six months of 1914 the mention these now in some detail. fascinate and appal present generations RAN deterred an attack on Australia’s Stevens takes as his first character in equal measure. Australians have maritime trade by Admiral Maximillian the renowned Admiral Creswell, and been writing about the Great War von Spee’s East Asia Squadron, escorted rightly renowned he was – and is – for 90 years but the majority of such New Zealand troops to occupy German too. Creswell began his career in the historians have treated the war at sea as Samoa, supported the surrender and RN, but moved to the colonies where incidental to the land campaigns. eviction of the German administration he was a stalwart of the miniature If dealt with at all, the RAN’s role from New Guinea, escorted the first navies which states formed to protect has been seen as a sub-set of that of Anzacs to the Middle East, and defeated themselves before Federation. Creswell the Royal Navy. The concentration SMS Emden in single combat. In advocated for a combined force and on the tragic loss of young Anzac lives April 1915 HMAS AE2 demonstrated also led from the front, taking Protector in land battles has overshadowed the that the heavily defended Dardanelles up to take part in the Boxer Rebellion achievements of the Navy, both the were permeable to bold submariners. in China. He can truly be called the Imperial fleet and the ships of the Lieutenant Commander Henry Stoker father of the RAN. supporting dominions. There is little and his RN and RAN crew launched The author follows him with other understanding of the role of sea power the campaign to cut Turkey’s resupply WWI figures of renown, including the which cleared the seas of German link across the Sea of Marmora. David redoubtable Captain Walter Thring, surface raiders and shut down German Stevens puts this achievement in the the dashing Leighton Bracegirdle, and merchant marine trade by late 1915. By context of what it made possible for fighting men of the lower deck such 1918 the Royal Navy, with support from RN submariners who conducted a as submariner Able Seaman Reuben the Empire, had reduced the German campaign to cut Turkish supply lines. Mitchell. The war in its geographical economy to a state where it was unable Stevens deals with all these RAN range is shown with the adventures to maintain a war front and a home operations in detail. He gives the of John Dumaresq in the North Sea, front and was faced with civilian RAN Bridging Train’s task of getting and aviation fighter James Goble in starvation, military collapse or seeking British troops into and out of Suvla European battlefields. Several other an armistice. Bay the prominence it deserves but figures of renown are also discussed. To balance Australia’s excessively rarely receives. The stoic heroism There are several useful appendices land-centric approach to history, of Australian sailors under accurate which will aid scholars and readers of Dr David Stevens has been writing Turkish fire building pontoons and detail alike. The chapter notes cover 38 about the war at sea, throughout his jetties which were in use – minutes pages, allowing others to follow where 20 years of research and scholarship after completion – by troops should Stevens has forged a lead. Altogether at the Seapower Centre–Australia. rival in public esteem the deeds of their this is at once an absorbing read and This new book is the result of months brothers at nearby Anzac Cove. an essential reference work. Highly of painstaking original research in The book provides a wealth of detail recommended. the UK. Unlike the official naval on the lesser-known RAN support for Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 51

the RN’s small ship operations. The been a lucky escape for the ship’s ceaseless round of convoy escorting. author deals with the significant role company and her homeland. Battle It was an anti-submarine campaign that HMAS Pioneer played in the RN’s cruisers were in Churchill’s later phrase, using early depth charges and when blockade and eventual destruction of “eggshells armed with hammers.” necessary chasing down the bearing the lone raider SMS Konigsberg in the Australia was not an exception to of a torpedo which had been fired and Rufiji river in East Africa. this description. Like all British battle attempting to ram its owner. This was The RAN was a young navy which cruisers she carried the seeds of her a hazardous occupation in which the was engaged with the RN across the own destruction within her and if she Australian destroyer captains excelled. world’s oceans in the never-ending had been hit by an unlucky salvo which David Stevens tells the little known task of patrol and interception, by ignited her magazines she too would story of the Otranto barrage with great which the world’s sea lanes were made have erupted in flame and vanished verve, and reveals how the Admiralty safe for the movement of the Empire’s from sight with all her crew. asked the Australian government to troops and trade, while the blockade of Members of the RAN were at contribute to an over-stretched RN Germany was established, maintained Jutland serving in RN ships. Chaplain which was grateful for the arrival and tightened. The significant role Gibbons on loan from Australia of such useful and efficient modern of the cruisers HMAS Sydney and reflected sadly on the loss of life among destroyers. Melbourne off the American East his friends in the battle cruisers which The book concludes not with end Coast and in the West Indies is little blew up. He wrote: “One moment they of the war and the surrender of the known and yet these cruisers were an were working away at what they had Kaiser’s High Seas Fleet, but continues important part of the RN squadron been practicing all their lives and the to examine the Great War’s legacy for that by ceaseless patrolling prevented next moment they were in eternity.” the RAN. One of the most important ships from then neutral America from The book is full of passages from of these was the decision by many RN providing contraband aid to Germany. diaries, letters and extracts from reports officers and sailors who had served with This was a vital if unspectacular which illustrate the daily details of the RAN to continue their naval careers maritime interdiction role and a naval life. David Stevens does not gild in the RAN or seek further loan service. significant success in the years before the lily and lays out the facts about the They provided was a sorely needed the Americans became an ally of Britain high desertion rate by RAN sailors infusion of naval talent and experience and France in 1917. keen to join the AIF. He deals with the into the inter war RAN which helped to Between 1914 and 1918 the North inevitable high venereal disease rate and prepare it for the next war at sea. Sea was to the maritime campaign the occasional tension between men In All Respects Ready is illustrated as the Western Front was to the land of different classes and nationalities with rare photos and colour plates campaign – the only place where the serving together in confined spaces. drawn from the extensive collections war could be won or lost. In All Respects The months and years after the of the Sea Power Centre. An Ready provides a detailed account of the disappointment at Jutland were ones extensive bibliography is provided operations of the RN’s battle cruisers of frustration for those who sought a which demonstrates the scale of the under David Beatty and the battleships final reckoning in the North Sea with research and scholarship devoted to of the Grand Fleet under John Jellicoe. the High Seas Fleet, which never again this important work. This book will Within this narrative HMAS Australia’s came within the grasp of the Grand become the standard text on the RAN years as flagship of the nd2 Battle Fleet. Enforcing the North Sea distant 1914-1919 for the general reader Cruiser Squadron are described. The blockade through patrolling was not and for naval historians working in disappointment of her crew at missing what those serving in RN or RAN ships the field. It meets, in all respects, the out on being at the Battle of Jutland by wanted to be doing, but that was the high expectations of those who have just three days is understandable. task allotted to Australia, Sydney and been looking forward to reading Stevens tempers this reflection Melbourne. The ships’ companies did David Stevens’ account of the RAN’s by the historical judgement that it well, often in the most challenging of first baptism of fire. It is highly the double collision with HMS New sea states and bitter cold. Lives were lost recommended. Zealand, which prevented Australia to accident and illness. from being in the battle cruiser line By 1916 in the Mediterranean and at Jutland, when three of her sisters Adriatic Seas the war against German blew up under enemy fire, may have and Austrian submarines became a Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 52 WWI BOOK REVIEWS

modern thinking about the Great War. Flanders’ importance and the offensive It is a remarkably insightful book that elements of the MarineKorps was unconsciously challenges many of given some priority. The opportunity the commonly regurgitated historical to implement Admiral Tirpitz’s narratives by use of meticulous Kleinkrieg strategy was recognised at research and solid interpretation. the highest levels throughout 1917. The Naval Flank of the Western However resistance from the naval Front is a significant addition to our command of the High Sea Fleet and the understanding of the Great War at sea. north German bases meant few of the First published in 2003, under German destroyer flotillas were actually the title Wielding the Dagger: The engaged off the Belgium, French and MarineKorps Flandern and the German British coasts. War Effort, 1914-1918, Seaforth The German unrestricted submarine Publishing should be congratulated campaign of 1917 almost brought for releasing this reasonably priced, Britain to its knees and the smaller The Naval Flank of the paperback edition. By doing so they submarines of the MarineKorps Western Front: The have made this work available to a Flandern were remarkably successful wider readership. in sinking many merchant ships during German MarineKorps Karau is right to see the actions this period. Fortunately for the British Flandern 1914-1918 of the German navy in Flanders the full offensive capability of the 1914-1918 as exercising an important German navy’s surface combatants By Mark D. Karau influence on the German war strategy – its destroyers, torpedo boats and Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, 2014 and its inability to help obtain victory in minelayers – was held back by the Reviewed by Dr Gregory P Gilbert the war. As the subtitle suggests, Karau German Admirals throughout this describes the creation of the German critical period. MarineKorps, the establishment of As a result by the end of 1917 Fortunately for the Entente, naval bases and fortifications along Germany’s last throw of the dice to win the German naval leadership the coast, as well as generation of the the war had resulted in the defeat of the took a defensive and essentially Flanders flotillas. submarine threat, and the subsequent passive stance throughout In doing so, Karau identifies the land campaigns of 1918 were part of the the war. ... If, as has been underlying philosophical conflict endgame in a war that Germany could frequently said, Belgium was between the typically defensive not win. From August 1918 any notion the dagger pointed at the throat of Britain, one is forced approach characterised by the German of Germany achieving a negotiated to conclude that the Germans army on the Western Front and the peace, where they retained the Belgium were incapable of wielding offensive approach of the Imperial coast as a potential stepping stone in a that dagger properly. German Navy on the naval flank of the predicted future ‘Second Punic War’, Mark Karau, p. 227 Western Front under the command were crushed under the feet of the of Admiral Ludwig von Schröder. advancing Allied armies. In modern terms the MarineKorps The Northern Flank of the Western he 100th anniversary of the Flandern was a joint maritime force. It Front is a comprehensive and original TGreat War has seen a surge in included military, aviation and naval look at the German maritime forces books written about that conflict. units conducting operations on land, in based in the occupied Belgian ports Unfortunately, in Australia and other the air as well as at sea. during World War I. It offers a new Western nations, there remains a strong For the German naval units in maritime perspective to the all too historical bias in favour of those who Flanders, 1916 was a year of transition familiar works on the Western Front believe in the primacy of the Western where the geographical advantages during that war. For anyone wishing to Front land battles. Mark Karau’s The of its bases in Belgium – the ‘triangle’ better understand strategic manoeuvre Naval Flank of the Western Front is including Bruges, Zeebrugge and and the indirect approach to modern one of the small number of original Ostend – achieved prominence. The war, it is a must read. works which extends the envelope of German military leadership recognised Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 53

his attention to a pictorial study of actually walk on board. Each warship warship models of the Great War. The section also has a representative model resultant book is a real gem with which annotated with the respective type modellers, those who ever wanted to features. be modellers (as was this reviewer) and In addition there are pictorial wider warship enthusiasts will find an features on battleship superstructure, instant rapport. models of underwater weapons such The models are from the collections as mines and torpedoes, guns and gun of the UK National Maritime mountings, capital ship development Museum, the Imperial War Museum, 1914-1918, destroyer development and the Australian War Memorial and boats and boat stowage. the Australian National Maritime My favourite model is HMS Museum. The model photographs were Leviathan, an 1898 armoured provided by the respective institutions’ cruiser. The model was made by the picture libraries and private collections. ship’s builder and the detail is quite Warships of the Great The book covers all Great War breathtaking. There two fine views War Era: A History in Ship warship types, from battleships to river of the model and a further two page Models gunboats and examples of merchant spread of close ups of the ship’s upper ships. Each warship type has a specific deck sections in superb detail. By David Hobbs section which features the ship models This is one of those rare books Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, 2014 together with details of the model’s which can be picked up at any time Reviewed by Tim Coyle construction and features and a brief to lose oneself in the modeller’s art history of the ship itself. of a century ago. Needless to say avid Hobbs, the former Royal The many close ups of Warships of the Great War Era is highly DNavy Fleet Air Arm pilot superstructures show the exquisite recommended. and author of several authoritative detail in many of the models and works on carrier aviation, has turned are so good one feels that one could

General Entry 331, Emms Division on the parade ground during their graduation ceremony held at Recruit School, HMAS Cerberus, Victoria.

Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 54 Book Reviews

First Sea Lord; Chief of the Naval staff 1995-98 and Vice Chief of the British Defence Staff 1992-95. The book has 13 chapters which argue the points for and against what types of conflict the Royal Navy may find itself in, and whether they are suitably equipped for this. Of course, the controversial British pair of supercarriers now completing come in for discussion. For many, this reviewer included, it seems incredibly short-sighted to not have carriers, in the wake of the Falklands crisis, and given the many Britain’s Future Navy and varied solutions carriers have been Gunboat Command; able to provide over many decades; The biography of By Nick Childs bringing their firepower – or even Lieutenant Commander Published by Pen & Sword Maritime, not, as deterrence – to bear in a way Barnsley, 2014 no other naval asset can do. But in a Robert Hitchens DSO* Revised edition, paperback, price £15 Britain, and in an Australia, populated DSC** RNVR by people who don’t discuss world Reviewed by Jack Aubrey affairs as a whole, it is hardly surprising By Antony Hitchens their politicians pander to their short- Published by Pen and Sword here are some interesting term wishes: politicians are survivors Maritime, Barnsley, UK, (Pbk), 2015 thoughts to be had for any by species. T RRP GBP17 Australian reading Britain’s Future There are chapters on the nuclear Navy submarine force (both hunter-killer Reviewed by Tim Coyle Both island nations, Britain and and nuclear attack) that Britain has Australia have tremendously important retained; her surface combatant fleet, ieutenant Commander Robert naval pasts, but both publics seem to and some comparisons with emerging LHitchens was a Coastal Forces know now nothing much about it, or and strengthening naval forces, such as Motor Gun Boat (MGB) officer who even to be much concerned about how India and China. won the Distinguished Service Order we should spend the billions allocated Britain’s Future Navy is a thought- twice, the Distinguished Service to defence. Maybe it was ever thus. provoking and timely book, and Cross three times, was Mentioned And for navies, as opposed to armies heartily recommended from an old in Dispatches three times and was and air forces, it is even more difficult salt who would personally like to recommended for the Victoria Cross. to advocate their cause, as their exploits take copies and distribute them to He was the most highly decorated Royal are necessarily well out of the public politicians who need to read it. Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) officer gaze. (Ed: A version of this review was of World War II and was killed in action This worthy book is by well- published in Headmark last year but in April 1943. qualified author Nick Childs, who has this refers to a 2014 revision.) This biography is largely comprised a most suitable background, not just as of extracts from Robert Hitchens’ diary a BBC world affairs correspondent, but and his unfinished book We Fought as a reporter from many conflict zones Them in Gunboats, which was published and as a frequent writer on defence in 1946 and again in 1956. matters. Robert Hitchens’ son Antony The work gets off to a strong provides family background and an start with an interesting foreword outline of Robert’s early life as well by Admiral Sir Jock Slater, the RN’s as the closing narration following Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 55

Robert’s death. This work comes late to the 4th Minesweeping Flotilla at the lack of organisation of boats from in World War II biographies, having Grimsby. The period September 1939 the beaches (although he recognised been first published in 2007 with to April 1940 is regarded as the ‘phoney that he was there late in the evacuation). this paperback edition in 2015. It war’; however this did not apply to and the ‘quiet, steady ranks of soldiers nevertheless is a worthy memorial to the minesweeping flotillas which were awaiting their turn’. a brave and resourceful officer who constantly engaged in countering For his actions at Dunkirk he was deliberately sought danger, not for his German minefields laid off the British awarded his first DSC. own reputation but as a brilliant leader coast. Hitchens had decided that his future and tactician who fought tenaciously Hitchens’ war diary began on 11 lay in Coastal Forces and accordingly as a British seaman, a role he innately December and all his writings, both he was posted to MGBs. On 6 October felt as his destiny against his country’s from his diary and latterly from his 1940 he was appointed to the Coastal enemies. He believed he would not unfinished book, are poignant for his Forces base HMS Osprey and given his survive the war. separated family, graphically intensive first command of a 70 foot MGB. The Hitchens’ early life provides little in recounting his operational missions MGBs were designed by British Power insight into his formidable service and stirringly descriptive of wartime Boats and the initial variants were future. From an old established upper seagoing. This from his diary of 22 flawed. middle-class Cornish family, he took December 1939: Inhibited by a weak armament (.303 an undergraduate degree at Magdalen A lovely day with a North Sea machine guns) and noisy engines which College Oxford where tradition sunrise, dull grey mist dispersed by could be heard up to 20 miles away, attracted a higher priority than hard a red sun. A hard west wind. The Hitchens soon learned that he and his study. He ‘messed about in boats’; flotilla looked very fine behind us RNVR compatriots had to challenge the initially as a keen rower then in racing like miniature battleships with their Admiralty’s poor opinion of these craft sailing dinghies. As a country solicitor high bows. We were the leaders which were returning unsatisfactory in the late 1930s he raced cars, including today. The th5 Minesweeping action results and plagued by at Le Mans, earning a reputation as a Flotilla looked lovely astern with the mechanical and seakeeping shortfalls. fearless competitor. red rags of the sun lighting up their RNVR officers could be instantly With war looming we see an aspect grey hulls. There is beauty in a grim recognised by their wavy uniform of his innovation and determination. sort of way in warships at sea. stripes and at that early period of the Seeking to join the RNVR, he was The minesweeping narration is as good war were classed as pesky amateurs by advised his nearest unit was at Bristol, a description of this understated activity many permanent RN officers. a six hour round trip from his home for as any of the period but it is Hitchens’ The remainder of the book covers a weekly parade. Dissatisfied with this involvement in Operation Dynamo, the all of his actions and his determination response he petitioned the Admiralty, Dunkirk evacuation, which shows his to make the MGB a formidable stating that there would be hundreds emerging initiative and courage. On 31 fighting unit against the German of qualified young men eager to serve May Hitchens’ ship, now HMS Niger, E-boats that preyed against British and that they should be enrolled in an was ordered to the beach at La Panne, coastal convoys. Progressing through emergency reserve to be called up as eight miles from Dunkirk. Here they the MTB appointments from CO to required. found utter chaos. Expecting an influx Flotilla Senior Officer, Hitchens drove The Admiralty acquiesced and of troops, after they dropped anchor improvements in engine silencing, formed the RN (Supplementary) nothing happened. Taking charge tactics – such as ‘sprint and listen’ VR consisting of a list of yachtsmen ashore, Hitchens could not establish an using hydrophones to pick up E-boats, sufficiently knowledgeable about the sea orderly boarding of the ship’s boats. In improved armaments – upgunning to be considered for a commission in deteriorating conditions he organised a from .303 to .05 machine guns and the event of hostilities. roping arrangement to pull boats from 20mm cannon and many other Called up in late October 1939, the jetty to intermediate small boats for innovations. Despite these he came to Hitchens underwent rudimentary on-carriage to Niger. realise that while the improved MGBs training at the newly established RNVR His views of his experiences at could deal with E-boats, larger German officers’ training establishment HMS the evacuation were his incredulous vessels could only be attacked with King Alfred and was posted to the observation of the lack of German torpedoes. minesweeper HMS Halcyon attached aircraft during the time he was there, Hitchens sought the fitting of 18 Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 56 Book Reviews inch torpedoes in place of the two depth months before 77 (Hitchens’ boat) charges carried by MGBs for attacks had carried out a successful depth on larger ships. The depth charge charge attack. We were the most attack required the MGB to lay the suitable, the most experienced. depth charge virtually under the enemy But the limelight had consequently vessel and escape within five seconds fallen all too brightly upon us and lest it be caught in the explosion. The me in particular. The depth charge Admiralty and their naval architects attack of Alderney and the battle staunchly refused to approve torpedoes off Ostend, both had been solo for MGBs as they considered Motor affairs; the resultant acclamations Torpedo Boats (with heavier torpedo embarrassing so far as I was armament and a weak gun outfit) had to concerned. I desperately wanted be escorted by MGBs. It was only weeks my other officers to share to the after Hitchens’ death the Admiralty full in the Flotilla’s success. George relented and ordered the fitting of two Duncan I knew had been pining for 18 inch torpedoes to MGBs such an opportunity. ‘Would you Fire on the Water: China, After 70 years, Hitchens’ fine writing like to carry out the attack George?’ skills has the reader enthralled by the I shouted . I knew the question America and the Future brutal, intensive MGB on E-boat clashes would be superfluous. Nothing of the Pacific occupying a few minutes in missions would hold George back. ’Yes, I lasting 12 or more hours after which would’ came the unhesitating reply. By Robert Haddick the badly damaged boats returned with A very brave man was started on the dead and wounded. There are also the short run to a swift death. Naval Institute Press - £22.39 thrilling descriptions of MGBs transiting Hitchens’ three boats created a diversion ISBN 9781 6125 1795 7 at 40 knots into action and the qualities while Duncan in 78 circled around to of the RNVR officers and Hostilities the disengaged side; however 78 was Reviewed by Geoffrey Till Only ratings who endured extreme mortally damaged by enemy gunfire discomforts in the flimsy boats. which killed Duncan. The subsequent must admit that when I opened the A typical operation, in which Board of Enquiry did not hold Hitchens Ipacket that plopped through my letter Hitchens lost a close friend for which he responsible but he was personally box and read the note that our Editor had blamed himself, took place on 2 October distraught and blamed himself for inserted, I thought like him that this was 1942. The operation was to escort Duncan’s death. yet another American book about the rise minelaying Motor Launches. After the This event ended Hitchens’ original of the Chinese Navy and what it all meant. minelaying had concluded and the MLs book and Antony continues the Nor were we entirely wrong, since the turned for home, Hitchens’ four MGBs narrative with descriptions of his father’s expansion of China’s capacity to secure were released to search and attack the final actions, the VC recommendation its interests in the Western Pacific is very enemy at their discretion. Sighting four (which was not successful – Hitchens much a major assumption of the book. armed trawlers (too big to be sunk by in his final weeks considered himself to But there’s much more to this seriously MGBs without torpedoes) Hitchens be unworthy), and recollections of those good and seriously thought-provoking decided to mount a depth charge attack. who knew him. A 20mm cannon shell book than that increasingly banal As Senior Officer he could have carried killed Hitchens on 13-14 April 1943 on conclusion. out the attack but offered it to his junior the bridge of his MGB. The author’s main preoccupation is CO George Duncan. The following This is a great story demonstrating to explore what America and its allies summarises Hitchens’ selflessness and the highest values of initiative, and partners should do about China. command discretion. determination, loyalty and courage. The Robert Haddick argues that increased The enemy was drawing steadily passage of 70 years does not detract competition between China and America nearer. Time was short. Who should from its impact. is inevitable, that the risk of war is rising, make the attack? Thoughts raced and posits four possible alternative through my mind. My first reaction futures for the region, which depend was to do it myself. A bare two fundamentally on the nature of the Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 57

American response to the situation. that America’s current level of strategic he right? That’s for the reader to decide. The first possible future is a engagement depends on? Personally I thought his representation continuation of America’s forward Firstly, says Haddick, America should of China’s hegemonic aspirations presence and stabilising role in the take the threat much more seriously overdrawn (not least because there is region. This will be increasingly hard for than it has until very recently and should some considerable diversity of view and Washington to sustain, unless it radically redress the decay in the conventional and interest in that perplexing country about changes the way it goes about things. nuclear maritime power of the United what should be the way forward) and, The second assumes that America States that has resulted from it. paradoxically, his portrayal of the way in withdraws from the area, which then Secondly, the US Navy and Air Force which a China-centric solution could be degenerates into what he calls a grim should wean themselves away from the opposed seems over optimistic from the ‘Hobbesian’ situation of escalating conflict outmoded operational assumptions US point of view. between China and its neighbours. that have been in play since the end of These days, there are a instead a The third sees a process of growing World War II. These are characterised growing number of analysts, who think economic inter–dependence, absorbing by a reliance on forward bases (in the the China-centric solution in the South China into a cooperative rules-based shape of a few aircraft carriers and fixed and East China Seas is now pretty Pacific community rather like the airbases along the Euarasian rimland), unstoppable (for evidence of that look European Union writ large, but still with a concentrated nodes of military force, and at the string of defeats the Philippines stabilising US presence to some degree. strike forces that are overwhelmingly has suffered over the past 10 years) but The fourth possible future assumes short-range. Chinese anti-access that outside the first island chain, China’s a US withdrawal to its own side of the capabilities make all this far too vulnerable policy would in any case be no more Pacific ocean and the emergence of a and so a poor guarantee of the ‘forward hegemonic than anyone else’s. Sinocentric hierarchical system that is, engagement’ that the US has relied on for That being so, small countries will in effect, a 21st Century replay of the so long. need to do what Thucydides and quite a tributary system of the ‘Middle Kingdom’ Instead the US should move its few Chinese commentators recommend that until the last couple of centuries bases out-of-range, diffuse rather than – accept the inevitable. Their reward characterised the region, give or take, for concentrate its military force and develop will be unimpeded access to the Chinese 2000 years. its capability for long range strike (in the market and regional stability – just as it The second of these would be the shape, particularly, of missiles and long- was in the old days. And from the US worst of all possible worlds since it would range bombers). This places the author point of view, in practical and realistic lead to the nuclearisation of the region firmly in the camp of America’s military terms, what would be so bad about that? and every prospect of catastrophic global radicals with their emphasis on off-setting Sufficiently accommodating but still conflict. The third, European ‘model’ technology, reconnaissance and long- powerful medium-power buffer states – future is dismissed as being completely range precision strike complexes and Japan, Korea, India, Indonesia – could still impractical given the high level of networked and defended decentralisation. hold the deterrent line against an over- nationalist competition in the area. The The role of the Marines should be to mighty China when supported by a long- last option of a return to a traditional massage the area before things turn nasty. range US Navy and Air Force. China centred system is what Robert The Navy likewise should do its bit to I am not for one moment suggesting Haddick thinks Beijing wants; would be rally America’s allies and partners in the that this view is right and Haddick’s unacceptable to China’s neighbours, and region and deter Chinese adventurism wrong – merely that some of these would imply an accretion in Chinese by withdrawing from the East and South less apocalyptic future outcomes, both strategic weight that would endanger China Seas when conflict threatens but political and military, deserve more long-term American interests in much turning it into a strategic no-mans land treatment than they get. Nonetheless with the same way as Soviet dominance of while holding the Second Island Chain for this quite slight caveat, Fire on the Water is western Europe would have done. as long as it takes. strongly recommended. It is, quite simply, So the first option is the only even Robert Haddick makes his case one of the most interesting and clearly remotely palatable one for Washington, cogently and well. His style is clear, argued books on the subject I have read but how to make it sustainable given the business-like and very easy to follow – a for a very long time. These are views that dramatic increase in China’s economic model of clarity in fact, the author’s need to be thought about seriously even if potential and its rising military capacity military-analytical background showing not, in the end, fully accepted. to deny the ‘forwards military presence’ at every stage of the argument. But is Journal of the Australian Naval Institute

Issue 154 59

The Britsh Fleet in Sydney 1945

hen the British Pacific Fleet occupation’ since 1942 and many after the end of the war. This included Warrived at its main base in Australians were delighted to see the an emergency docking of Illustrious in Sydney on the 11th and 12th February British fleet. The people of Sydney raised the newly constructed Captain Cook 1945, its ranks were full of confidence £A200,000 by public subscription to Graving Dock at Garden Island Sydney, for the future. The war against Germany build the British Centre staffed by over three weeks before the official opening was proceeding apace, and the war 4,000 volunteers, and provided 1,200 ceremony. against Japan was pressing the Empire beds and at times 6,000 meals each day. Not only did many Australian sailors hard. Three hundred young Australian women serve in RN ships of the BPF, but by Admiral Fraser, as Commander- attended dances each night as hostesses, early March 1945 the Australian Navy in-Chief, established his headquarters while some 12,500 homes in New South had allocated all its ‘N’ and ‘Q’ class ashore in Grenville House, William St, Wales offered hospitality to British destroyers and 18 of its Australian Sydney, while his second-in-command, sailors. corvettes (minesweepers) to that fleet.t Vice-Admiral Sir Bernard Rawlings, Australia managed to perform a host commanded the fleet at sea. of refit and repair facilities in support of Australia had been under ‘American the BPF from February 1945 until well

Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 60 ANI On-line: A guide to the new website.

Our new website is now on-line! In addition to the features available on the Changing your details previous site, the new site also features a library of past journals, a discussion When your account is created, only your member ID and password are stored in the system for privacy reasons. However, you may provide forum, a news section and member list. This short guide is designed to help other details that are visible to other ANI members. In order to change you take full advantage of the new features. your details, login and click the “Change Your Details” menu item (figure 5). Then select the “change” link (figure 6) next to either your personal details or password. Change the text appropriately and click the “save” button (figure 7). Figure 1 The personal information that you provide will be visible to other Obtaining an account members of the ANI but will be hidden from members of the general In order to access the new features of the site you must have a user public. You may provide as much or as little detail as you wish but account for the website. If you have a current subscription to the ANI, none of the fields are compulsory. However, you may not change your navigate to the website www.navalinstitute.com.au using your web member ID as it is the link between the on-line database and our off- browser (figure 1), click the “Members Login” menu item (figure 2), line records. then click the link to download an application form. Fill in the form, then fax or post it to the ANI Business Manager. Once your account has been created, you will receive an email that outlines your member

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Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Issue 154 61 Thinking of Making a Contribution? Style Notes for Headmark (still required for website articles)

In general, please present your work So: the end of the article, please supply full honours - Lieutenant with the minimum of formatting. Adkin, Mark. Goose Green. London: Commander Bill Crabbe, CSC, RAN - unless you would prefer Paragraphs: Leo Cooper, 1992. not to use them. Then please supply a paragraph on yourself, Don’t indent, and leave left justified. Adler, Bill (Ed.) Letters from Vietnam. to a maximum of 50 words, including any qualifications you Separate paragraphs by one line. Single New York: EP Dutton and Co., 1967. would like listed, and any interesting biographical aspects. spacing only. Use one space only after Articles use quotation marks around If possible please supply a colour or greyscale head and stops and colons. their title, which is not in italics. shoulders e-photo of yourself for use alongside the article Conventions: If citing web sites please use the title. Use numbers for 10 and above, words convention: Illustrations: below. Ship names use italics in title Australian Associated Press. “Army Do not embed graphs or figures in your text without sending a case; prefixes such as HMAS in capitals admits mistakes in SAS investigation”. separate file as well. If supplying photographs use a minimum and italics. Book and Journal titles use 17 February, 2004. Forwarding your article: Citations: So, web site name. Article title. Full Please send to the Editor on [email protected] Endnotes rather than footnotes. Use date of accessing the site. Full URL. Editorial considerations: footnotes to explain any points you want Bylines: The Editor reserves the right to amend articles where the reader to notice immediately. Book Supply your everyday title for use at the necessary for the purposes of grammar correction, and to titles follow Author surname, first name, beginning of the title, so: Lieutenant delete tables or figures for space considerations. title if any. Title. Place of publication: Commander Bill Crabbe, or Jack publisher, year of that edition. Aubrey, or Reverend James Moodie. At

Journal of the Australian Naval Institute 62 Australian Naval Institute

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Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Able Seaman Boatswains Mate Kane Rowe prepares to fire during a Ceremonial Sunset onboard hMaS Anzac in Istanbul.