DEVELOPMENT OF THE THREE-PLANE NAVY, WITH OR WITHOUT 



BATTLESHIPS. 



By Mason S. Chace, Esq., Life Member. 



[Read at the twenty-ninth general meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, held 



in New York, November 17 and 18, 1921.] 



During the World War, following predictions made by those best informed as to mili- 

 tary and naval matters, many means of attack and defense were used and developed, both 

 for fighting on land and at sea ; also, there were other important developments in means and 

 methods of fighting which were unforeseen, unpredicted and even not to be expected, judg- 

 ing by the experiences of previous wars. 



The difficulties and liabilities of error in making predictions as to what shall be the 

 most efficient methods of attack and defense to be used in the next war are as great, or 

 greater, than they have ever been, owing to the number of new arms and methods produced 

 during the World War. The next war may take place under conditions so different that pre- 

 dictions based on experiences of this last war will be seriously in error. 



Today, probably the most important questions which can be asked as to the future devel- 

 opment of naval means of offense and defense are : Has the present type of battleship sur- 

 vived the test, and does it remain as before, the backbone of navies, with all other types of 

 fighting ships composing a naval offensive and defensive force existing only as essential 

 aids or auxiliaries to battleship operations, but with the battleship supreme as the most power- 

 ful sea fighter yet devised by man and still indomitable? Does the development of means 

 of attack from the air jeopardize the existence of the battleship in such a new way that this 

 additional menace cannot be overcome ? Can the battleship be so modified that its powers 

 of resistance, combined with those of the various types of auxiliaries, including additional 

 ones, permit it to remain supreme and to decide the question of naval victoi-y or defeat ? In 

 other words, in the new three-plane navies, with means of fighting in the air and attacking 

 ships from above, which three-plane navies will certainly be rapidly developed by all the 

 great powers, will the battleship be able to maintain its supreme position or must it be aban- 

 doned as obsolete; and, if abandoned, what new type of fighting machine will replace it? 



It would seem to be most important to discuss now, without delay, and to answer these 

 difficult questions and then to shape our naval policy and program of construction to meet 

 not only the situation of today but what is to be expected years hence. I believe that such 

 investigation and discussion as has already taken place in connection with bombing tests of 

 surrendered German ships both in this country and in Europe is only preliminary to much 

 more important investigations and discussions which will have to follow before all the facts 

 and elements in the situation can be correctly presented and analyzed and before the lines of 

 development to be followed can be decided upon. Complete and expensive tests made on the 

 latest and most powerful new ships would be cheap in actual cost, in comparison with the final 

 cost, which might be the result of being satisfied with what we have, or of watchfully wait- 

 ing for somebody else to do something, or the attitude that we should jump into something 

 quite new without full investigation. The res'ults of tests made on old imits are open to the 



