Fleet Tactics and Naval Operations

The revised edition of this indispensable work still covers battle tactics at sea from the age of fighting sail to the present, with emphasis on trends (factors that have changed throughout history), constants (things that have not changed), and variables (things pertinent to each individual battle). Fleet Tactics and Naval Operations continues to emphasize combat data, including how hitting and damage rates and maneuvering have been conducted to achieve an advantage over the centuries. The third edition highlights the current swift advances in unmanned vehicles, artificial intelligence, cyber warfare in peace and war, and other effects of information warfare, and how they are changing the ways battles at sea will be fought and won. It also describes how the interaction between naval operations, wartime campaigns, and coalition tactics have affected war at sea, with special emphasis on the U.S. Navy. It also points out the growing connection between land and sea in littoral combat.

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

"Machiavelli declared that keeping up with changing times is the foremost challenge for any commander or sovereign. Captain Hughes is the Navy's Machiavelli in that sense--helping us adapt our tactics for the age of cyber and robot warfare. The go-to work on the subject-now as for three decades."
—James Holmes, J. C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the Naval War College and coauthor of Red Star over the Pacific

“Updated for modern combat in the information age, this edition is a must for any naval officer and strategist and is part of the Blue & Gold Professional Library, which includes classics such as the Watch Officer's Guide and The Bluejacket's Manual.”
—Navy Reads, 2018

Capt. Wayne P. Hughes Jr., USN (Ret.) served thirty years on active duty, commanding a minesweeper, a destroyer, and a large training command. In retirement he served more than thirty years at the Naval Postgraduate School in many teaching, research, and administrative capacities and is now Dean Emeritus.

Rear Adm. Robert Girrier, USN (Ret.) is founder and managing member of Strategic Navigation LLC, a consulting company. Serving over thirty-three years in the Navy, he stood-up and led the Navy staff's first-ever office for unmanned warfare systems. While on active duty he served as Deputy Commander U.S. Pacific Fleet, commanded two carrier strike groups, served as the Navy's global mine warfare commander, commanded a forward-deployed destroyer squadron, guided missile destroyer, and a mine countermeasures ship.

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