Contents
Royal Navy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Naval Ensign
Active 16th century - present
Country United Kingdom
Type Navy
Size 42,600 active personnel
38,510 reserve personel
115 ships including RFA
240 aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm
Part of Ministry of Defence
Garrison/HQ List of Royal Navy shore establishments
Motto Si vis pacem, para bellum (If you desire peace, prepare for war)
Colours Red and White
March Heart of Oak
Commanders
First Sea Lord Adm. Sir Mark Stanhope
Aircraft flown
Attack Harrier, Lynx
Patrol Merlin, Lynx, Sea King ASaC.7
Trainer Tutor, Hawk, Jetstream, Firefly
Transport Sea King
Components
Fleet Air Arm
Submarine Service
Royal Naval Reserve
Nursing Service (QARNNS)
Royal Fleet Auxiliary
Royal Marines Reserve
History and future
History of the Royal Navy
History of the Royal Marines
Customs and traditions
Future of the Royal Navy
Ships
Current fleet
Current deployments
Historic ships
Personnel
The Admiralty
Senior officers
Uniforms
Officer rank insignia
Ratings rank insignia
Related civilian agencies of
the Ministry of Defence
Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service
The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces (and is therefore known as the Senior Service). From the beginning of the 19th century until well into the 20th century it was the most powerful navy in the world,[1] playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early 1940s. In World War II the Royal Navy operated almost 900 ships. During the Cold War it was transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, its role for the 21st century has returned to focus on global expeditionary operations.
The Royal Navy is a blue water navy and the second-largest navy of the NATO alliance, in terms of the combined displacement approx. 450,000 long tons (460,000 t) (950,000 long tons (970,000 t) including RFA) after the United States Navy.[2] As of 2010[update] there were 88 commissioned ships in the Royal Navy, including aircraft carriers, a helicopter carrier, landing platform docks, ballistic missile submarines, nuclear fleet submarines, guided missile destroyers, frigates, mine counter-measures and patrol vessels. Twenty-two vessels of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) also contribute to the Royal Navy's order-of-battle. The Royal Navy's ability to project power globally is considered second only to the U.S. Navy.[3][4] The Royal Navy maintains the United Kingdom's nuclear weapons.
The Royal Navy is a constituent component of the Naval Service, which also comprises the Royal Marines, Royal Naval Reserve and Royal Marines Reserve. As of April 2009 the Royal Navy numbered approximately 39,100 Regular personnel of whom 7,500 were in the Royal Marines; in addition, there were 3,600 Volunteer Reserve personnel, giving a total of 42,700 personnel.[5][6] This makes the Royal Navy the largest navy in the European Union given the combined total of ships, aircraft and personnel.[citation needed]
The Royal Navy is also supported by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, a civilian logistical support fleet which is owned and operated by the Ministry of Defence as part of the British Merchant Navy.[7] The RFA primarily serves to replenish Royal Navy warships at sea, but also augments the Royal Navy's amphibious warfare capabilities through its four Bay-class LSDs (Landing Ship Dock).
History
900–1500
While the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms certainly engaged in naval warfare and occasional specific instances of troops being transported by sea are known,[8] the earliest surviving references to them fighting at sea come from the period of Viking raids in the 9th century.
Under Aethelwulf of Wessex and his son Alfred the Great, who instituted a programme of building large warships on a new design, battles were fought at sea against marauding Danes.[9] The basis of naval organisation at this time is unclear, but the strength of its fleets, perhaps supported by levies on landholding, was an important element in the power of the united Kingdom of England which emerged in the 10th century.[10] At one point Aethelred II had an especially large fleet built by a national levy of one ship for every 310 hides of land, but it is uncertain whether this was a standard or exceptional model for raising fleets.[11] During the period of Danish rule in the 11th century a standing fleet was maintained by taxation, and this continued for a time under the restored English regime of Edward the Confessor, who frequently commanded fleets in person.[12] When the Norman invasion was imminent, King Harold assembled a large fleet to prevent Duke William from crossing the Channel, but he was forced to dismiss his ships when their supplies ran out and the Normans were able to cross unopposed and defeat Harold at the Battle of Hastings.[13]
English naval power seems to have declined as a result of the Norman conquest.[14] Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into naval service in time of war. From time to time a few 'king's ships' owned by the monarch were built for specifically warlike purposes, but unlike some European states England did not maintain a small permanent core of warships in peacetime. England's naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow.[15]
With the Viking era at an end, and conflict with France largely confined to the French lands of the English monarchy, England faced little threat from the sea during the 12th and 13th centuries, but in the 14th century the outbreak of the Hundred Years War dramatically increased the French menace. Early in the war French plans for an invasion of England were thwarted when their fleet was destroyed by Edward III in the Battle of Sluys in 1340.[16] Major fighting was thereafter confined to French soil and England's naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. However, while subsequent French invasion schemes came to nothing, England's naval forces were unable to prevent frequent raids on the south coast ports by the French and their Genoese and Castilian allies, which were finally halted only by the occupation of northern France by Henry V.[17]
1500–1707
The standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, was created in the 16th century during the reign of Henry VIII.[18] A detailed and largely accurate contemporary document, The Anthony Roll, was written in 1540, giving us a very much complete account of the English navy, containing roughly 50 ships, including Carracks, Galleys and pinnaces. Including famous ones such as the Mary Rose and the Henry Grace à Dieu. By the time of Henry's death in 1547 his fleet had grown to 58 vessels, although armed merchantmen owned by private individuals still comprised a large proportion of war-fleets. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, which saw privately-owned ships combining with the Navy Royal in highly profitable raids against Spanish commerce and colonies.[19] In 1588 Philip II of Spain sent the Spanish Armada against England in order to end English support for Dutch rebels, to stop English corsair activity and to depose the Protestant Elizabeth I. The Spaniards sailed from Lisbon, planning to escort an invasion force from the Spanish Netherlands but the plan failed due to maladministration, logistical errors, English harrying, blocking actions by the Dutch, and bad weather.[20]