The Influence of History

The introduction of the cruiser float plane after the Great War vastly improved the scouting efficiency  of navies. So let's take a closer look at this rather underappreciated naval development. While the aircraft are an interesting subject themselves, the cruisers that operated floatplanes have been severely neglected despite being a critical part of interwar naval strategy. Japan Despite the early experiments by the United States and the large number of seaplane tenders and early carriers commissioned by Great Britain, the first navy to put float panes on its cruisers was in fact the Japanese. The Nagara - class light cruisers (lead ship commissioned in 1922) were constructed with flying off platforms above their bow armament and one plane hangers built into their bridges. This unusual arrangement was repeated in the 1924 Sendai - class and the 1926 Furutaka - class heavy cruisers also commissioned with flying off platforms (but mounted on their aft Number 4 turrets rather than...

Naval warfare occurs across vast distances and in many cases merely finding the enemy is a complex and critical task. Over the past century, scouting has been performed by a variety of systems from steam cruisers to UAV's. A look at the changes reveals both the early acceptance of naval airpower as well as yet another example of the gradual shift from platforms to systems. Early Steam Fleet operations in late 19th century differed little from those of the Napoleonic wars. There were no aircraft or radios and even electric lighting was still a novel technology. The most advanced sensor system was a lookout with binoculars and communications were limited to signal flags, lights, and semaphore. In that time, scouting was performed by a screen of 2nd class cruisers operating ahead of the battleline, much like the frigates of Nelson's day. The protected cruiser HMS Retribution These ships were generally capable of around 20 knots, but their triple expansion engines were unr...