Navy Abbreviations

Navy has the following meanings:

1. naval military, naval military; in a broader sense also the merchant shipping of a country: history of the Netherlands. navy; the department of navy;
2. naval forces, naval fleet: the losses of the navy;
3. (painting) sea piece, seascape. In common parlance, navy is usually understood to mean the military naval force. Most navies are made up of a fleet, an aviation division and marines. For the required operational readiness, a navy has many services and facilities for conservation and maintenance. On the one hand, a navy performs national tasks and, on the other hand, it may have to defend maritime interests in an international context as a result of agreements entered into. The naval task is looked after in the Netherlands by the Royal Netherlands Navy, in Belgium by the Naval Forces.

Military operations in which the navy can be involved are:

1. locating, attacking and eliminating the naval combat assets of the adversary;
2. waging a trade war against enemy merchant shipping and sea fishing;
3. the establishment of a blockade of enemy coasts and ports to weaken the military, political and economic resistance of the enemy civilian population;
4. enabling and conducting landing operations on the enemy coast;
5. helping to defend all own maritime-vulnerable objects;
6. conducting direct actions against the enemy’s hinterland using nuclear-powered missiles carried by submarines.

From the formation of modern naval organizations in the 18th and 19th centuries well into the 20th century, the former has been given the most emphasis in the naval circles of most countries. Through the experiences of the so successful British navy and the glorification of these experiences by the influential American historian Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914), the principle of naval control of the battle fleet became the dogma of maritime strategic thinking. . Only after this control had been assured by eliminating the main enemy force could the other tasks be started. In particular, the actions against the enemy merchant fleet, using fast ships and submarines, were regarded as non-decisive and thus dismissed as minor. This dogma of the decisive importance of the battle fleet led to maritime conservatism in the 20th century. As a result, insufficient consideration could be given to the enormous capabilities of the modern submarine and of the aircraft carrier.

The practice of the Second World War has clearly shown the dangers of this conservatism. In NATO context, more and more attention is therefore being demanded for anti-submarine warfare, and thus securing its own overseas connections.

Commercial Navy

This term is used for merchant fleet. It is understood by the collective ships which are in service of the transport of goods and passengers, and in particular the seagoing vessels.

Usually the word m. is used to indicate the naval power of a state, in contrast to the merchant navy called war navy. This one was originally born from the merchant navy. In times of danger, merchant ships, which at that time were always armed to some extent, were requisitioned and parts of the army embarked upon them.

Gradually, specialization led to a split and separate war navies arose. The introduction of steam locomotion and the transition to iron shipbuilding (allowing for armour), as well as the carrying guns, which required special emplacements, have completed the split. Merchant and fishing vessels are still used for emergency services, however, not in battle.

With the expansion of the fleets, the maintenance of authority at sea is reserved only for the great powers; the smaller ones have gradually had to abandon this and focus on coastal defense. In principle, this can be done in two ways, namely: a) with ships specifically intended for this purpose; b) With equipment equivalent to similar ships of major naval powers. The second method has the great advantage that in an Allied war the small fleet is a welcome addition to the large one.

An integral part of any fleet is its bases, where it must be able to rest and recover safely from the adversary and then return to the high seas when ready.

The Dutch navy is part of the Department of Defense , and it includes a lot more than just the warships, the sailors and the marines, because our navy has an extensive task.

This includes not only the protection of our coasts in the event of war against enemy warships, but also the security of the colonies in the East and West Indies, the police supervision of sea fishing, pilotage , the buoyancy service, the hydrographic service, which engaged in the exploration of the lakes, rivers , springs and canals and the mapping of the waterways, in addition to the military water-flying service and the radio service, the military coastguard, the medical service and the training or instructional service institutions, such as the Kon. Institute of the Navy in Den Helder, the High Naval Military School in The Hague, the instruction ships in Willemsoord and Vlissingen, etc.

List of Acronyms Related to Navy