Seaforth World Naval Review 2023

“ I am more afraid of our own mistakes than of our enemies designs” – this is indeed an appropriate quote (Pericles) Conrad Waters uses in the introduction to this new book that looks at the latest developments in warship design. In a year dominated by the war in Ukraine, one predominant feature has been the poor operational performance of the Russian Forces. The chapter on the naval aspects of the war in Ukraine points out that, while it has demonstrated the Russian Navy’s modernisation with the use of the Kalibr long-range missile, it has also shown up systemic weaknesses of a Navy still rooted in the Soviet Era, both in ships and manpower, epitomised by the loss of the Moskva. Geoffrey Till has commented that it will take the Russians years to “recover, both politically and militarily”. Currently comprising 298 ships (June 2022), it would be easy to think that the USN had no problems, but this is not the case. Budgetary issues associated with the planned reconfiguration for high intensity operations are a cause for concern, as are procurement and personnel issues, not least the large number of commanding officers relieved of their command. On the plus side, the Ford CVN has made her first overseas deployment, 70 Arleigh Burke-destroyers are in service and another 29 under construction, and 21 Virginia SSN are in service with another 17 under construction. Addressing the European Navies – the RN “jam tomorrow but never jam today” build programme also applies to the Netherlands – a key concern is whether the European shipbuilders can meet the growing requirement. A regional look at the Asia Pacific highlights the implications of Australia’s decision to go for SSNs, examines the Chinese navy, now the largest in the world as its strives to qualitatively improve, and reveals the aspirations of Indonesia to build a modern fleet. There are more in depth looks at the Vietnamese Navy “rapidly modernising to meet a complex and challenging maritime security environment”, and New Zealand’s new AOR Aotearoa, although New Zealand has major personnel problems and is currently unable to man a third of its fleet. The “Significant Ships” articles look at 50 years of the Nimitz Class, remarking that the 2 final ships of the Class will not be retired until nearly 100 years after initial design, a “notable achievement “ when looking at other more recent USN ships; somewhat tongue in cheek the Gibraltar Squadron Cutlass Class is also considered under the heading “Significant Ships”. An article on Naval Aviation includes coverage of the RN CSG 21 deployment and unmanned aircraft. Two further articles look to the future with a comprehensive and educational introduction into hypersonic missile technology and a thought provoking piece on how new technology will transform the RN. Conrad Waters is to be congratulated on this latest edition in this series of annual naval reviews that never fails to deliver a consistently high standard of authoritative articles from authors such as David Hobbs, Norman Friedman and Dr. James Bosbotinis. For anyone interested in current naval issues who can only afford one book – this has to be the book. Highly readable and informative, I cannot recommend it highly enough. Peter Wykeham-Martin