Methodological Foundations of the Navy's Organizational Development

Rear Admiral (Res.) I.Ya. PETRENKO ... Candidate of Military Sciences ... Igor Ya. PETRENKO was born in Port Arthur, China, in 1949. He graduated from the Higher Naval Submarine School in 1971, the Grechko Naval Academy in 1984, and the General Staff Military Academy of the Russian Federation's Armed Forces in 1993. ... Igor Petrenko spent his naval career on nuclear submarines in the Northern Fleet, in positions beginning with a section commander and ending his military service as a submarine division commander. He has been an instructor at the General Staff Military Academy since 1993. ... Today, he is a professor of the naval operations art chair. Awarded the Order for Valor, the Red Banner Order, and the Red Star. A veteran of high-risk units. ... The recent changes in geopolitics and the nature and methods of armed straggle, the growing role of the World Ocean in the economy of the world community, and the new tasks posed before the Navy call for the need to develop new views on the role and place of the Navy in maintaining Russia's military security and protecting its national interests at sea and in the ocean. In turn, this requires a scientific justification for new approaches to the Navy's organization and development in the 21st century. ... A historical analysis of this country's experience in building up its navy in the 20th century shows that this was done, without proper scientific justification, by an administrative and directive method aimed at expanding and, above all, developing various types of naval forces and naval weapons, rather than setting up operational strategic, operational, and operational tactical groups of diverse naval forces capable to attaining theater and operational tactical objectives in naval warfare. This approach resulted in imbalances in the Navy's structure, fragmentation of forces and weapons, and inefficient expenditure of funds and materials. ... Justification for the Navy's buildup in last century was based on isolated methods, methodologies, and models unconnected by a common methodology. ... Moreover, little account was given to the comprehensive nature of the manner in which diverse naval forces were used or their role in addressing tasks facing them in operations. The results of calculations made by isolated methodologies did not, in our view, fully reflect the realities of naval warfare. For this reason, total requirements in forces and weapons needed to accomplish operational objectives and campaigns by naval formations as a whole were inflated. ... The existing discrepancy between the need for theory and practice to have a scientific justification for an organizational structure of a future-oriented Navy and the absence of a modern science-based methodological mechanism has prompted us to write this article. ... Navy organization is a complex array of interrelated and interdependent sociopolitical, economic, military technological, and other measures aimed at building and training a navy to protect the national interests of the Russian Federation and its allies in the World Ocean, not least by armed force, maintain military and political stability in the seas washing Russia's shores, and give it military security at sea and in the oceans. Moreover, navy organization is closely linked to the development of the Russian Federation's Armed Forces, of which the navy is a component. ... A key role in navy development is given to organizational development (OD) in which justification for an optimal composition of the Navy's optimal fighting force and rational structure that are linked dialectically is the principal objective. ... In recent years, many directives and regulations have introduced a new concept, Navy organizational development, that is not, however, defined in academic studies published these days. In the context of issues raised in this article, the following definition of the new concept is suggested: organizational development of the Navy is an important component of Navy development that is a combination of scientifically substantiated interrelated measures to set up and develop groups of fleet forces and the Navy as a whole in keeping with tasks assigned to them and the country's development conditions; decide on their optimal composition and structure; the ratio of combat and support units; optimal ratios of their types of forces, equipment, weapons, and personnel. ... As a subject of study, organizational development possesses integrity, a specific internal structure, a multiplicity of link types, and ways of interacting with the environment. As an element of the Armed Forces' organizational development system, organizational development of the Navy is a complex system serving to offer solution to three basic tasks: justifying an optimal combat composition of the Navy, justifying its rational structure, and justifying an optimal ratio of combat, control, support, and maintenance subsystems (subunits).