In the 1960s, as the British Empire came to an end, one of the great challenges faced by London was Rhodesia. It was ruled by white settlers, like several of Britain's African colonies, but uniquely, maneuvering by the colony's founder and namesake, Cecil Rhodes, had left it almost entirely self-governing. This greatly limited Britain's ability to bring Africans into the government, and any attempt to do so would push Rhodesia into declaring independence or possibly joining South Africa, already deep in the grip of apartheid. Negotiations dragged on through the early 60s, but no solution could be reached, and in 1965, Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence, although they completely failed to gain international recognition.

HMS Plymouth intercepts a tanker during the patrol

This left Britain with a problem. Most of the former colonies were now independent and had joined the Commonwealth, which London saw as a useful means of exerting soft power. But such organizations work both ways, and the presence of a white-dominated regime on territory that legally belonged to Britain was something that the former colonies were not prepared to tolerate, and they demanded that Britain do something. Rhodesia was landlocked, and the main connections to the outside world ran through either South Africa, which was increasingly hostile to Britain and friendly to the regime and had promised to be the second country to recognize them, or through Mozambique, still a Portuguese colony that Lisbon was trying desperately to hold on to. That meant direct intervention was out, and the British instead announced comprehensive sanctions, less because they expected them to work, particularly with Portugal and South Africa flatly refusing to cooperate, than because it was the only thing they could do at a reasonable cost. Read more...

Prussian military theorist Carl von Clauzwitz famously said "War is the continuation of policy by other means." In this, he was pointing out the link between conventional diplomacy and warfare, both of which are intended to achieve the state's objectives. What he didn't say is that foreign policy, and even war, is often an extension of domestic politics by other means, too. Stirring up anger against foreigners is a great way to distract from issues at home, and if popular support really is wavering, a "short, victorious war" may even be necessary. Of course, then you're in a war and the enemy gets a vote on when it stops, which rarely turns out well for the people who initiate it.

Probably the purest example of this is the Falklands War, driven almost entirely by the need for a repressive military junta to distract the population from an increasingly bad economic situation. It did not end well for them. This is an unusually clear example of domestic policy/politics driving a war, given the lack of any concrete economic or military benefit from possessing the Falklands, but we have seen the same thing happen repeatedly over the last few centuries. Read more...

This week has seen the announcement by the Trump Administration that they are going to be building "battleships", a subject that is well within my beat, so I figured I would take the time to start by saying that these are nothing of the sort. Defining the battleship is slightly tricky, but the best version I have is that it is a large, gun-armed armored warship. This proposal is certainly large, but it doesn't really classify as gun-armed, in that the guns are clearly secondary weapons, and there's been no discussion of armor at all. So whatever these are, they aren't battleships. Their closest cousin is the Soviet Kirov class, which likewise are somewhat hard to classify, but in the finest tradition of the USN, I'm going to go with "Large Missile Cruiser" for these. But the fact that they're being called by the wrong name, while personally extremely annoying, is just the tip of the iceberg.

First, a look at the announced specs, as given above. The dimensions are somewhat large given the displacement, as they're a pretty close match for Iowa, which is 50%+ heavier at full load, although they're also not too far from the Alaskas, of roughly the same displacement. The length might make sense if they were going for nuclear power, because a very long hull would minimize power requirements, but it seems that it's IEP instead. But then we get to armament, and things get weird. It starts with the new ship-launched nuclear cruise missile that Trump has been pushing since his first term. This is basically a replacement for the nuclear Tomahawk, and whatever the logic for or against such a program might be, there's the problem that I'm pretty sure there's no need to have this new "battleship" to use the missile. Details on the missile are very sketchy, but given that the base program is targeted at submarines, it probably can just go in the VLS with everything else. If it can't that's a requirements problem, and we should change those instead of spending money on this thing. I'm sure the crews will love it, too, given the need to guard the VLS all the time to avoid letting anyone know if there are actually nukes aboard. Read more...

The jet engine represents one of the most significant paradigm shifts in the history of aviation, but the jet age did not spring fully formed from the brow of Frank Whittle. Over the last 80 years, the push and pull of technology and response has seen the emergence of 5 distinct generations of jet fighter, with a 6th currently in development. These generations are more than a simple catalog of models; each represents fundamental shifts in operational capability and design philosophy. Understanding what makes each generation unique and how it came about makes it easier to understand the evolution of air power, the process of technological change, and how the simple interceptor of the 1940s became the complex, networked weapons system of the 21st century.

Gen 1

An Me 262, a bad fighter jet

Gen 0: Meteor, Me 262, P-80, F2H

Gen 1: F-86, MiG-15, Tunnan

Our story begins with the jet fighters that emerged during the Second World War. Of these, the Messerschmitt Me 262 is by far the most famous, but the Gloster Meteor and Lockheed P-80 also saw limited service in the war. These early jets are sometimes referred to as 0th generation fighters to distinguish them from the proper jet designs that emerged a few years later, but they are grouped here because of the short period of time Gen0 would cover and because Gen0 and Gen1 have more in common than not. Read more...

It's time once again for our regular Open Thread. Talk about whatever you want, so long as it isn't Culture War.

A reminder that I am currently taking signups for the 2026 meetup in Dayton, and they're filling up fast. The AirBnB is already full, and at some point soon, I'm going to have to cut things off to keep the size of the tour manageable.

Overhauls are Mine Warfare Part 1, INCW Part 4, Excitement in the Bab-el-Mandeb, and for 2024 US Military Aircraft Parts One, Two, Three and Four.

Five and a half years ago, I covered the announcement that the Italian FREMM class frigates would be adapted into the USN's new frigate, which was named the Constellation class after one of the original frigates a few months later. The idea was that by buying an existing design, it would reduce the risk of major cost overruns and help get the USN out of the shipbuilding doldrums it had been in ever since it was saddled with the LCS.

Unfortunately, none of this seems to have worked out. The program is currently 36 months behind schedule and well over budget, and the originally-planned 85% commonality has dropped to 15%, while the Navy and the shipbuilder, Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FMM), have pushed ahead with construction well before the design is even completed. Things have gotten so bad that Secretary of the Navy John Phelan that four of the six ships currently on order are being cancelled, and that the Navy will look elsewhere for a small surface combatant. Read more...

I recently ran across a reference to Mikasa as the fourth unit of the Shikishima class. This was interesting, because every reference I've seen to Mikasa has her as the sole unit of her class. But then I started looking, and in the process, ended up wondering about why we draw the lines where we do.

Shikishima

In the years after the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese government spent a lot of the indemnity they'd extorted from the Chinese on battleships, buying four from British yards. In most sources I'm aware of, the first two, Shikishima and Hatsuse, are treated as being sisters, while Asahi and Mikasa are singletons. But all four ships have the same basic specifications, a displacement of around 15,000 tons, speed of 18 kts, armament of 4x12"/40 guns and 14 6", and a 9" belt. There are some minor differences in their exact dimensions, but on that front, Shikishima is more like Asahi than Hatsuse. Read more...

I've just announced the 2026 Naval Gazing meetup at the Air Force museum in Dayton, Ohio. As part of that, I am preparing an introduction to aviation tour, and figured I should give a sneak peak of that for anyone who is on the fence about going.

A fuselage

I should start this tour by explaining the basic parts of an airplane, so you understand what I'm talking about as we go along. We'll start with the fuselage. This is the tube in the center, and it's the most important part for two reasons. First, it serves as the backbone to hold all of the other pieces together, and if you take it away, you just have a pile of parts. Second, all planes exist for a reason, and that reason is usually found in the fuselage.¹ Now, for military aircraft, there are four basic roles, and all operational military aircraft fulfill one or more of these. First, handling information, which covers everything from flying over to see what's going on down below to carrying a big radar to detect and direct other planes to trying to jam enemy radar. Second, attacking things on the ground, be it factories or ships or tanks or whatever. Third, moving people and stuff around, because you would really rather it be somewhere else quickly. And fourth, attacking planes that are doing something you don't like. I put this one last because it ultimately exists only to support the doing of the other three things, or to stop the other guy doing them to you. No matter how much the Air Force might try to deny it, aviation ultimately exists to produce effects on the surface. Now, note that this only applies to operational aircraft, and there are two types of planes that militaries do operate which don't fit into this schema: trainers, which you use to teach pilots how to fly, and experimental planes that push forward the science of aeronautics. Read more...

Continuing our annual tradition, the 2026 Naval Gazing meetup will be held in Dayton, Ohio, on May 14th-17th. While an inland town in a (mostly) landlocked state may seem like an odd choice, Dayton is both the birthplace of aviation and home to probably the world's greatest air museum. And as per usual, we're getting an AirBnB, so there's stuff to do even if you don't want to spend every possible minute communing with planes.

Read more...

It's time once again for our regular Open Thread. Talk about whatever you want, so long as it isn't Culture War.

Overhauls are my review of the 45th Infantry Division Museum, Commercial Aviation Part 1 and for 2024 Navy Day 2024, Quanticle's review of Party on the Bridge and the 2024 USNI Sale.