Winning at Sea in the 21st Century: Tactics in the Fifth Age of Naval Combat

After decades of apparent calm, the prospect of naval combat is once again plausible. While the 20th century ended with the unchallenged dominance of Western naval power, the 21st century opens with a challenge to the established order, particularly in the "global commons" of which the sea is a part. The rivalry between naval forces, which might have seemed a thing of the past, is therefore making a comeback, raising in its wake numerous questions about how to prevail at sea.

This book fills a gap: there is no historical and forward-looking synthesis on naval forces in combat. Yet the need for reflection in this field has never been more pressing, more vital.

It is to this task that two naval officers apply themselves in Winning at Sea in the 21st Century. Drawing on numerous episodes often fallen into obscurity, they unravel the constants and inflections of war at sea, analyse the conditions for victory, and make naval history compelling. They also identify a fifth age of naval conflict — more lethal, faster and more technological — in which willpower, courage and human intelligence will be more than ever the key to success. An age that follows, without entirely erasing, the ages of sail, cannon, aircraft and missile.

This work of general naval tactics, written for a broad readership, is a spray-filled immersion into the naval battles that await us, illuminated by historical confrontations whose lessons prove surprisingly relevant today.

Thibault Lavernhe has notably commanded a patrol vessel and a stealth frigate. He is currently executive officer of the nuclear aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle. He has published numerous analytical articles on naval subjects in several journals, as well as the work Le Groupe aéronaval depuis la fin de la guerre froide (1990-2016). He is a member of the editorial board of the Revue Défense nationale.

A former commander of a training vessel and an aviso, François-Olivier Corman is currently aide-de-camp to the President of the Republic. He is notably the author of Innovation et stratégie navale (Military History Prize 2021, Prix Daveluy 2022, Medal of the Académie de Marine) and regularly writes articles on naval affairs.