Herodotus

Given that the last fleet on fleet engagment was during the Falklands War does anyone foresee the potential for fleets to be used in anyway beyond force projection? With the United States and possibly Britain having the only true blue-water capability on every ocean would the potential for such an engagement actually present itself?

Dreadnought

As far as Blue Water Ops go there are quite a few countries that either posses or want an indiginous CV program. Others such as France and the Brits have learned to combine their efforts so that both may get what they want at a reduced price and plan for the future refits and training as well.
With large surprise though Russia hasnt produced another CV program as of yet that I have seen but that dont mean its not in place already. Info is short on some of these respective countries.

IMO these would be contenders for the next sucessful CV programs.
Not in any kind of order mind you.

India
China
Russia
Japan

The Brits,France and the U.S. already have their plans in place for what they want.

*Just in thought (not that it would happen) by the end of 2008, The US could have two conventional powed CV's on the open market for sale and or deal making incentives. Everybody who wants a CV program has to start somewhere and most dont have the technology yet for building and operating their own nuke powered CV's. Their condition maybe in question but probably not in as bad condition that India accepted the Russian Refit deal.

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-{SpoonmaN}-

Korea is also supposed to be planning to build the ROKN into a blue-water capable force, no doubt due to long-term concerns about the PLA and JSDF's future projects. Brazil is also planning to develop nuclear submarines.

I guess we'll probably see a lot more of this sort of thing as we shift back towards a more multi-polar world.

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mweber24

Navies will be almost exclusively for power projection for those nations large enough to need it (the United States and MAYBE the PRC), leverage in maritime boundery disputes (Russia, Korea), or denial forces to keep nations with power projection capabilities from their shores (Iran). None of these purposes lend themselves to fleet actions. Power projection forces are for supporting land campaigns, maritime boundary forces are skirmishers with conflicts rarely growing into expensive wars whos cost greatly exceed the gains in a maritime boundary, and denial forces generally rely on small, disbursed coastal defense forces. The most likely major conflict is between the power projection forces and the denial forces, where the name of the game is assymetry. By the way, the ability to deploy a small group of ships around the world is only borderline "blue water" capability in my opinion. The true measure of naval power is the ability to conduct a naval campaign, where naval forces are used to gain access for land campaign forces and are able to dominate the sea lines of communication. Lacking a maritime strategy, most navies around the world are means to be involved in larger geopolitical initiatives without a large expense of footprint, or worse, are just expensive examples of national power with little true purpose.

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Gregor

mweber24 is right on the money.