A navy is the branch of the military that operates primarily on water.

Most (but not all) armed forces make considerable distinction between the land-based warfare of an Army, the sea-based warfare of a Navy, and the air-based warfare of an Air Force – often splitting the three components into mostly independent forces. A modern navy typically uses a combination of ships, boats, submarines, and aircraft launched from aircraft carriers.

Many navies include ground forces (marines) to fight on land and defend sea craft. In many countries, the navy is the oldest branch of the armed services. Hence, for example, the British term "the Senior Service."

See also naval history, Modern Naval tactics, sea power , list of navies.

Merchant navy is a British and Commonwealth term for the civilian seafaring industry, recognizing both the shared hazards of seafaring activity during wartime, as well as the expectation that civilian vessels may be put under various kinds of control by military authorities. In the USA the equivalent term is merchant marine.

Types of Naval Vessel

• Aircraft carrier
• Amphibious assault ship
• Battlecruiser
• Battleship
• Bireme
• Bomb ketch
• Corvette
• Cruiser
• Destroyer
• Dromon
• Escort aircraft carrier
• Frigate
• Gunboat
• Hospital ship
• Ironclad
• Liburnian
• PT Boat
• Quinquireme
• Seaplane tender
• Ship of the line
• Sloop
• Submarine (also U-boat)
• Trireme
• Xebec (Chebek/Shebec/Zebec)

For a list of the prefixes used with ship names (HMS, USS, &c.) see ship prefix.

External Links

• NOSI (Naval Open Source Intelligence) - a digital library of world naval operational news, curated from open source intelligence, and intended to serve as a source of continuing education on naval and military affairs
• Naval & Maritime page of the World Wide Web Virtual Library