The Classification of Coastal Defense Navies

Abstract

The first step in this study was to determine an appropriate study group of coastal defense navies. To facilitate this, it was necessary to assign all of the world’s navies to one of the five naval type categories which were discussed in Chapter 2. By doing this, it was possible to identify those navies which, in broad terms, could be considered to be coastal defense navies and thus be included in this study. The selection of the world’s navies was confined to those naval forces which are officially listed in the major naval references as navies and not simply as coast guards or maritime police forces. Thus, for example, naval forces such as the Icelandic, Jordanian and Jamaican Coast Guards were not included nor were the Marine Police Divisions of The Bahamas or Hong Kong. In addition, the naval forces of several other states were excluded from consideration owing to the current (1996) political upheavals occurring in these places which has resulted either in a total breakdown in operations of their naval organizations or has made assessment of the current conditions of such forces impossible or incomplete at best. Constituents of this group include Cambodia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Kuwait, Liberia, Mozambique, Somalia, Sudan and all of the former Soviet and Yugoslav Republics.