Brown-water navy

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U.S. Navy riverboat deploying napalm during the Vietnam War.

Brown-water navy is a term that originated in the United States Navy, referring to the small gunboats and patrol boats used in rivers. A broader meaning is any naval force that has the capacity to carry out military operations in river or littoral environments.

The term is used in contrast to the terms "green-water navy" and "blue-water navy".^{[citation needed]} At one time, it was common to refer to all non blue-water navies as "brown-water navy". Today blue-water navies are generally defined as being capable of sustained oversea deployment, preferably with aircraft carriers,^{[citation needed]} while green-water navies are defined as those with frigates or better, operating in coastal and regional area.

The brown-water navy is generally defined as one with patrol boats operating in rivers, lakes, and littoral regions.^{[citation needed]} Being a brown-water navy does not imply that it lacks offensive capability, as many small littoral-combat ships today are armed with powerful anti-ship missiles.

1 History
- 1.1 American Civil War
- 1.2 Later wars
2 See also
3 Links

[edit] History

[edit] American Civil War

The term brown-water navy originated in the American Civil War. As a blueprint for the "strangulation" of the Confederate States of America, Winfield Scott's Anaconda plan called for a two-pronged approach by first blocking the south's harbors and then pushing along the Mississippi River, effectively cutting the Confederate territory in two while also robbing the South of its main artery of transport. The U.S. Navy was assigned the blockade of the seaports, while a new force of gunboats and river ironclads, together with regular army units, would take, or at least lay siege on, the Confederate forts and cities along the Mississippi. In the early days of the war, these boats were built and crewed by the U.S. Army, with the naval officers commanding them being the only direct connection to the U.S. Navy. By the autumn of 1862, the boats and their mission were transferred to the Department of the Navy. Because of the river's murky brown water, the ships that participated in these Mississippi campaigns were quickly referred to as the brown-water navy, as opposed to the regular U.S. Navy (which was henceforth referred to as the deep-water or blue-water navy).

[edit] Later wars

Save for an occasional river patrol boat, the river ironclad navy was all but abolished at the end of the Civil War. Yet the concept of a river defense force lived on in countries, colonies, or regions where rivers where large river tracts needed some kind of on-the-water police presence. The concept evolved further with the advance of river gunboats in the interwar period and PT boats during World War II. The littoral combat ship may have been brown-water capable, and Naval War College wargames showed the effectiveness of the idea.

The brown-water navy patrolled inland waterways and close coastal waters during the Vietnam War. The brown-water navy was a joint venture between the Navy and Army modeled after the earlier French Riverine and coastal patrols in the First Indochina War. In Vietnam, control of the waterways was essential to controlling the country because of the nation's many rivers and lengthy coastline. The largest of these waterways was the Mekong Delta. Brown-water navy units included PBRs (patrol boats, rigid), PACVs (Patrol Air Cushion Vehicles) the Mobile Riverine Force, the Yard Repair Berthing and Messings, advance bases, LSTs, helicopter and seawolf units, and Naval Support Activity.

The brown-water navy was largely successful in its tactics to combat infiltration and weapons smuggling during its existence between 1966 and 1970. The units were formalized in January of 1967 with the 2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division arriving under the command of Major General William Fulton. Later that same year, in combination with the Navy Task Force 117 they formed the Mobile Riverine Force. In 1970, the last of the brown-water navy units were turned over to the South Vietnamese as part of the overall Vietnamization process.