The Influence of History

While the United States Navy has never fully embraced the concept of the dedicated antiship missile, adopting and then abandoning a number of systems, that does not mean that its missile ships have even been defenseless against surface attack. In fact, even its earliest converted missile cruisers possessed greater antiship firepower than a World War II battleship. Surface to Air Missiles in Surface to Surface Mode The secret behind this is the use of surface to air missiles in surface to surface mode. Until the introduction of the infrared homing Rolling Airframe Missile in the early 1990's, all of the Navy's surface launched antiaircraft missiles have been semiactive radar homing. This means that as long as the ship mounted illumination radars can get a clear reflection off the target, the target can be engaged - even if it's a ship instead of an airplane (while this means that ships cannot be engaged from over the horizon, there has never actually been a successful over...

The December 1961 Indian invasion of the Portuguese colony of Goa resulted in one of the few surface actions of the post-WWII period. Although not well documented and little known outside of Portugal and India, the Battle of Mormugao Harbor and the larger naval operations surrounding it are interesting and worth examining. After Britain granted India independence in 1947, Portugal continued to maintain its three coastal enclaves of Goa, Diu, and Daman. Although they were arguably more symbolic than economically important, Portugal resisted turning the colonies over to India and, in 1961, India resolved to take them by force. Operation Vijay (the name was later reused for a 1999 operation in Kargil) was a corps level joint offensive involving tens of thousands of soldiers, dozens of aircraft, and most of the Indian Navy. When India gained independence, her navy consisted of a small force of sloops and frigates crewed by ex-Royal Navy sailors. Understanding the importance of a s...