The U.S. Navy’s failure to understand sea control and sea denial is more than mere semantics—it could negatively impact the development of future operational concepts.
Although it is one of the most critical objectives in a war at sea, the U.S. Navy has difficulty properly understanding the true meaning of sea control and that of its counterpart, sea denial. Often sea control is confused with naval capabilities, and for the most part the service’s current doctrine and posture statements do more to obfuscate than clarify the purpose, attributes, and primary methods for obtaining, maintaining, and exercising sea control. Additionally, the Navy does not seriously consider sea denial as a possibility in a case of war with a strong opponent at sea.
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