BR1806, Joint Doctrine and Beyond

Abstract

At the end of 1995 in a ceremony at the Royal United Services Institute in Whitehall the Royal Navy launched BR1806, The Fundamentals of British Maritime Doctrine (referred to henceforth as 1806).¹ This was the third of the single-service doctrine publications. The Army had led the way with British Military Doctrine first published in 1989 (with a Royal Navy assault ship on the cover) and reissued in 1996 (now with a Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicle on the cover) as a capstone document to a number of Army doctrine publications.² The Royal Air Force produced their AP3000 in 1991. This was rapidly revised to take account the lessons of the Gulf War and re-emerged in its second edition form in 1993.³ The Royal Navy was being left behind. This was not because the Navy had never had doctrine, as the First Sea Lord put it in his foreword:

There has always been a doctrine, an evolving set of principles, practices and procedures that has provided the basis for our actions. This doctrine has been laid out somewhat piecemeal in various publications and there has never been a single official unclassified book describing why and how we do our business…4