Abstract
Potential readers should be aware that ‘the navy of the twenty-first century’ in the title of this book is the US Navy. This is the sixth volume in the US Navy Warship Series, all authored by Paul Silverstone. 1 In this volume, Silverstone chronicles the operational histories, acquisitions and dispositions of all US Navy warships, by ship type, plus the civilian-crewed ships of the Military Sealift Command, the US Coast Guard, the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, and the US Army from 2001 to 2022.
Silverstone begins his book with introductory sections on the chronology of international maritime-related events since 2000; an overview of US Navy weapons; US Navy ship-naming policy; the type designations of US Navy warships (for example, FFG (guided missile frigate)), an essential guide to the vast, and often bewildering, abbreviations and acronyms used by the US Navy; and the names of operations and exercises during this period. The chapters cover aircraft carriers, submarines, cruisers, guided missile destroyers, frigates, mine vessels, patrol vessels, amphibious ships and auxiliary ships. There is also one chapter each on the Military Sealift Command, US Coast Guard, National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, and US Army.
Each chapter begins with an overview of the ship type and then includes a detailed chronological list of the operational history for each ship within that type. The appendices list all transfers of US Navy ships to foreign powers, museum ships, the numbers assigned to all Military Sealift Command ships, shipbuilders and a selected bibliography. Also included are errata for Volumes 1–5 in the US Navy Warship Series.
Silverstone has produced an exhaustive, encyclopaedic list of the ships of all the US maritime services that were operational during the first two decades of this century. Since this book basically functions as an encyclopaedia, synthesis and analysis is largely left to the reader. That is not meant as a criticism. This is exactly the exhaustive type of book naval historians and analysts access to find the factual basis upon which their work is constructed.
Silverstone has done a masterful job, using myriad sources, in bringing US maritime assets and operations between 2001 and 2022 together in one volume. Those desirous to learn the minute variations among ships of the same class, as well as those interested in an overview of the composition and operations of America's sea services during the first two decades of this century, need look no farther than this book.