English

DTIC ADA288841: Doctrine and Fleet Tactics in the Royal Navy.

History of doctrine and fleet tactics in the Navy of England and Great Britain 1500-1994. Concludes there has been a consistent history of military doctrine in the Royal Navy. Doctrine has existed in formal written format as well as informal unwritten versions. Doctrine has been both centralized as well as decentralized. Navy doctrine has both helped the Royal Navy in combat and been a source of major problems. Emphasis on doctrine has been at the tactical level of warfare and until recently, it has been primarily service-unique. Rather than a single centralized doctrine, more often than not admiralty-issued doctrine was supplemented with additional and local instructions which complemented those from London. There are interesting negative lessons learned from doctrinal development by the Royal Navy as well. These include an over-reliance on the offensive. No study of British Navy doctrine can be considered complete without consideration of Nelson and the role of charismatic combat leader. Author further concludes that the greatest lesson to be learned from the British experience is the difficulty in changing doctrine and especially when that doctrine has not been formally written.

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