Naval warfare

Naval warfare is combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other battlespace involving a major body of water such as a large lake or wide river.

"Naval history" and "Sea battle" redirect here. For the periodical, see Naval History. For the 1980 video game, see Sea Battle.

The armed forces branch designated for naval warfare is a navy. Naval operations can be broadly divided into riverine/littoral applications (brown-water navy), open-ocean applications (blue-water navy), between riverine/littoral and open-ocean applications (green-water navy), although these distinctions are more about strategic scope than tactical or operational division. The strategic offensive purpose of naval warfare is projection of force by water, and its strategic defensive purpose is to challenge the similar projection of force by enemies.

Shen, Fuwei (1996). Cultural Flow Between China and the Outside World. China Books & Periodicals. 978-7-119-00431-0

ISBN

Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China. Volume 4, Part 3. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.

Holmes, Richard, et al., eds. The Oxford companion to military history (Oxford University Press, 2001), global.

British Sea Power: How Britain Became Sovereign of the Seas (2003), 320 pp. from 1066 to present

Howarth, David

Padfield, Peter. Maritime Dominion and the Triumph of the Free World: Naval Campaigns That Shaped the Modern World 1852-2001 (2009)

Potter, E. B. Sea Power: A Naval History (1982), world history

Rodger, Nicholas A.M. The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649–1815. Vol. 2. (WW Norton & Company, 2005).

Rönnby, J. 2019. On War On Board: Archaeological and Historical Perspectives on Early Modern Maritime Violence and Warfare. Södertörn Archaeological Studies 15. Södertörn Högskola.

Sondhaus, Lawrence. Naval Warfare, 1815–1914 (2001).

Starr, Chester. The Influence of Sea Power on Ancient History (1989)

Tucker, Spencer, ed. Naval Warfare: An International Encyclopedia (3 vol. Cambridge UP, 2002); 1231 pp; 1500 articles by many experts cover 2500 years of world naval history, esp. battles, commanders, technology, strategies and tactics,

Tucker, Spencer. Handbook of 19th century naval warfare (Naval Inst Press, 2000).

Willmott, H. P. The Last Century of Sea Power, Volume 1: From Port Arthur to Chanak, 1894–1922 (2009), 568 pp. online in ebrary

Willmott, H. P. The Last Century of Sea Power, vol. 2: From Washington to Tokyo, 1922–1945. (Indiana University Press, 2010). xxii, 679 pp. 978-0-253-35359-7 online in ebrary