Royal Navy

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Royal Navy is the navy of the United Kingdom. It is the oldest part of the British fighting forces. Because it is the oldest, it is called the "Senior Service". From the 18th century until World War II, it was the biggest and strongest navy in the world. The Royal Navy was very important in making Britain the superpower of that time. The Naval Service is made up of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and reserve forces. The Naval Service had 39,400 people as of April 2006.

The Royal Navy is the second largest navy in the world in terms of gross tonnage (weight and size of all their ships). The Royal Navy has 90 ships including aircraft carriers, submarines, minesweepers and patrol vessels as well as the ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. All ships in the Royal Navy are called "Her Majesty's ships", because by constitution the Queen owns them and has command over them.

[edit] Cold War

During the Cold War, the Royal Navy mainly focused on hunting for Soviet submarines. These submarines were most active in the North Atlantic Ocean, the ocean near Britain. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the Royal Navy focuses of deep sea exploration.

[edit] Purpose

The Royal Navy protects Britain with military, diplomatic and other activities. The Royal Navy also does a lot of work for NATO.

The main jobs of the Royal Navy are:

• Maintenance of the UK Nuclear Deterrent through a policy of constant at-sea deterrence
• Delivery of the UK Commando force
• Supplying of assets to the Joint Harrier Force and the Joint Helicopter Command
• Patrol areas the UK is responsible for:
  • Atlantic Patrol Task (North)
  • Atlantic Patrol Task (South)
  • Persian Gulf patrols
• Removal of mines
• Sea Exploration, weather research and other science projects
• Protection of UK and EU fishing

[edit] Organization

The Royal Navy was formed by direct order of the king. This idea is called "Royal Prerogative" in English Law. Because of this Royal Prerogative, members of the navy don't need to swear loyalty to the king or queen (the army and the air force do). The leader of the Royal Navy is the Lord High Admiral, who happens to be Queen Elizabeth II.

Below her is First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band. He is a member of the Defence Council and the Admiralty Board. The Navy Board is below Admiralty Board and is responsible for running Navy. Their offices are in the Ministry of Defence Main Building in London.

Full command of all deployable Fleet units including the Royal Marines and the Fleet Auxiliary is the job of Commander-in-Chief Fleet (CINCFLEET), Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent. He is the one actually controling the Royal Navy. His command headquarters at HMS Excellent in Portsmouth, His operational headquarters at Northwood, Middlesex. It is located with the Permanent Joint Headquarters and a NATO Regional Command, Allied Maritime Component Command Northwood (AMCCN). CINCFLEET is also the Commander AMCCN.

The purpose of CINCFLEET is to provide ships and submarines and commando forces for military and diplomatic jobs as needed by the UK government.