Fighting the Fleet: Operational Art and Modern Fleet Combat - Paperback

by Jeffrey R. Cares (Author), Anthony Cowden (Author), Scott H. Swift (Foreword by)

Fighting the Fleet recognizes that fleets conduct four distinct but interlocking tasks at the operational level of war--striking, screening, scouting, and basing--and that successful operational art is achieved when they are brought to bear in a cohesive, competitive scheme. In explaining these elements and how they are conjoined for advantage, a central theme emerges: despite the utility and importance of jointness among the armed forces, the effective employment of naval power requires a specialized language and understanding of naval concepts that is often diluted or completely lost when too much jointness is introduced.

Woven into the fabric of the book are the fundamental principles of three of the most important naval theorists of the twentieth century: Rear Admiral Bradley Fiske, Rear Admiral J.C. Wylie, and Captain Wayne Hughes. While Cares and Cowden advocate the reinvigoration of combat theory and the appropriate use of operations research, they avoid over-theorizing and have produced a practical guide that empowers fleet planners to wield naval power appropriately and effectively in meeting today's operational and tactical challenges.

Author Biography

Jeffrey R. Cares is the CEO of Alidade Incorporated and a retired navy captain. As a thought-leader in Information Age military innovation, he consults at the most senior levels of the international defense industry and lectures internationally and at service colleges on the future of combat. He is the author of Distributed Networked Operations: The Foundations of Network Centric Warfare and Operations Research for Unmanned Systems, in addition to pioneering work in the application of complex systems research to military problems.

Anthony Cowden is the Managing Director of Stari Consulting Services and a retired Navy captain. He attended the University of Michigan under the NROTC and received his BA in history. He also has an MS in computer science and an MA in national security and strategic studies.