Navy questions

ohok anyone heard anything new about the navy building a brown water navy?

I know what a green water navy is what do you call a blue water navy with brown water capaliblity?

does the US need a brown water navy?

I didn't know what a "brown water navy" was until I did a quick google search. From this 30 second search & scan of links, the US had a brown water navy during the Vietnam conflict.

I assumed that the US still had the capability of fighting on rivers - instead of the gunboats they used in Vietnam, don't they just use hovercraft these days?

sorrey, we don't really have any great capabilities in that area. Which is why projects like the LCS are such high priority.

Blue water Navy=Open Ocean
Brown water Navy=littoral and up river.

I'm surprised the US Marine Corps doesn't have "brown water" capability. I tried googling it, and couldn't find any specialised capability, although I guess they could use LCAC (Landing Craft Air Cushioned) if need be - even if they are for landing marines on a beach.

The Royal Marines do appear to have limited brown water capability. I've seen several documentaries on the BBC showing Royal Marines on board small rivercraft patrolling the Euphrates near Al-Basrah and Umm Qasr, stopping attacks on the oil facilities in the region.

I say limited, because their craft are nothing like the river gunboats used during the Vietnam conflict.

Do we need a brown water navy?

The answer depends on the circumstances.

One of the arguments is we don't have enough/it's not cost effective to have our AEGIS capable DDGs and CGs performing boarding actions against suspected vessels...which happens quite regularly. On the other hand, nobody is saying that there aren't enough small boys around right now to do the job...

The US Marines could do a little brown water fighting with their AAVs/AAAVs, but I wouldn't want to be in one when it's hit by an RPG. But it would seem that there is a need for gunboats .


[edit on 12-1-2006 by replicators]

yeah there was a thread early last year about the use reseaching "brow water navy" designs was wondering what came of it.

FSF-1 Sea Fighter. It's undergoing trials with the Navy now. It's designed for close in operations near shore.

www.strategypage.com...
kuku.sawf.org...
www.navsource.org...