Admiral Tony Radakin
Royal Navy, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff
In 1918, the U.K. began constructing HMS Hermes, the world’s first purpose-built aircraft carrier. The United States was quick to recognize the effectiveness of these carriers and soon developed a carrier fleet of its own. Today, the U.S. Navy is the world’s leading carrier strike Navy, and I am proud that the Royal Navy and U.S. Navy continue to share carrier expertise.
John Snyder
USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25) 1966–70
The Whitehead torpedo, perfected in 1866 by British engineer Robert Whitehead from a design by Giovanni Luppis of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Later acquired by the U.S. Navy, it was the first self-propelled torpedo and revolutionized naval warfare.
Rear Admiral David J. Hahn
U.S. Navy, Chief of Naval Research
The shell gun, invented by Frenchman Henri-Joseph Paixhans in 1823, brought useful explosive power to naval weapons with a fuze that allowed a shell to detonate at the target. Wooden-hulled ships were now far more vulnerable, leading to iron hulls. This in turn set off a series of groundbreaking naval technology advancements in the 20th century that contributed to today’s U.S. naval dominance.
Ensign Artem Sherbinin
U.S. Navy
The antiship cruise missile (ASCM). The first ASCMs were created by Nazi Germany during World War II. By the 1970s, Soviet forces could overwhelm U.S. carrier battle groups with hundreds of ASCMs. A foundation of today’s fleet is the Aegis Combat System, developed to defeat swarms of Soviet ASCMs and restore maneuver to naval warfare.
Marc Light
U.S. Navy veteran
The maritime chronometer, by Great Britain’s John Harrison. By the 17th century, European countries sought to control world trade by maritime dominance. Latitude was easily determined with a sextant. However, mariners were unable to accurately determine longitude without knowing the exact time. In 1714, Parliament passed the Longitude Act, but progress on a maritime chronometer was very gradual. John Harrison began work at age 21 and received payment when he was 80.
Randy Shetter
Former Marine Corps officer
In 1937 then-First Lieutenant Victor Krulak observed Japanese troops coming ashore from a ramped, bow-shaped landing boat capable of landing vehicles onto the beach. Krulak suggested “the Japanese were light years ahead of us in landing craft design.”
Commander Joel Holwitt
U.S. Navy
The cavity magnetron, which the British Tizard mission brought to the United States in 1940, directly led to small and compact centimeter-band radars carried in surface warships, submarines, and aircraft, providing a tremendous advantage in detection and targeting during World War II. And even if radars are more complex today, almost everyone still uses another descendant of the cavity magnetron—the microwave oven.
Steve Alonso
USNI Life Member
The magnetron developed by Britain and provided to the United States in September 1940 provided an incredible leap in radar technology. U.S. surface forces, submarines, and aircraft deployed advanced radars during World War II that were a decisive advantage for the Navy, particularly in the Pacific war.
George C. Velbeck
U.S. Navy veteran
Japan’s development of the aircraft carrier, the Hosho, laid down after HMS Hermes, but completed first, in December 1922. It obviously turned out to be much more significant to Japan and the U.S. Navy than anyone could have imagined in 1922.
Commander Charles H. Hill
U.S. Coast Guard (Retired)
The torpedo, invented in 1866 by British engineer Robert Whitehead, was probably the most influential invention after the airplane. It led to the invention of the destroyer. It was used to sink more ships in World War II than either bombs or guns. It continues as the weapon of choice for submarines and as the best weapon for defeating submarines.
Master Chief Zachary Pryor
U.S. Navy, Command Master Chief, 1st Marine Logistics Group
The Israeli bandage, invented by Bernard Bar-Natan in the 1980s. My corpsmen and I used many on deployments to Iraq and treated nearly every battlefield injury with one.
Scott Jones
Former captain, U.S. Marine Corps
Austrian physician Karl Landsteiner discovered the ABO blood types in 1901, winning the Nobel Prize and allowing safe and routine transfusions, which have saved the lives of countless sailors and Marines. When was the last time you saw a Marine who did not have his blood type on his body armor?
Rear Admiral Richard F. Pittenger
U.S. Navy (Retired)
The Soviet nuclear-powered submarine. The U.S. Navy had created an organization, ships, aircraft, antisubmarine warfare (ASW) systems, and tactics to counter diesel submarines. With the nuclear submarine threat, many ships and aircraft suited for countering diesel submarines were retired and the Navy started a massive effort to counter the new threat.
Lieutenant Commander Sankey L. Blanton III
U.S. Naval Reserve (Retired)
The Viking longship, which allowed amphibious attack, reigned supreme for 200 years. Pulled ashore, Vikings could seek pleasure and fortune in any locale. In response, other European kingdoms built navies of keeled vessels with fighting castles fore and aft. The start of the Royal Navy is an example.
Captain Don Donegan
U.S. Navy (Retired)
The conversion of the USS Merrimack to the ironclad CSS Virginia had an enormous impact on the Union Navy, resulting in a breakneck program to construct the USS Monitor in less than 100 days and sail it south to prevent Virginia from escaping Hampton Roads and destroying the rest of the wooden-hulled Union Navy. Without the threat of a Confederate ironclad, there is no telling how long it would have taken the Union Navy to embrace the ironclad design.
Larry Violette
The screw propeller developed by Sauvage in France and put to use by John Ericsson on the Monitor for the U.S. Navy.
Quartermaster First Class James H. Todd
U.S. Navy (Retired)
The torpedo most influenced three branches of the Navy—surface, subsurface, and aviation. It was invented in 1866 by Robert Whitehead in Fiume, a city in the Austro-Hungarian empire. It was originally to be used against battleships and cruisers and launched by torpedo boats. Later, torpedos became the primary weapon of submarines and were also launched by aircraft.
Chip Biernbaum
Retired Professor of Biology, College of Charleston
The most significant invention by a foreign power that impacted U.S. naval forces was the radar, which was largely accomplished by Britain in the late 1930s.
Dillon Reed
The British invention of the angled flight deck carrier that was later incorporated in all U.S. Navy carrier designs is the most influential foreign innovation.
Duncan Halliburton
President, Cross-Wing Technologies Holding, LLC
Radar was the most influential foreign innovation for the U.S. Navy, as it allowed safe navigation of ships and the detection of location, direction, and speed of enemy vessels. It helped the United States go on the offensive in World War II and enabled the all-weather day/night retrieval of aircraft, enhancing carrier operability.
Lieutenant Commander Joe Lybrand
U.S. Navy (Retired)
The British invention of the angled flight deck carrier that was later incorporated in all U.S. Navy carrier designs is the most influential foreign innovation.
Captain Scott M. Sundt
U.S. Navy (Retired)
Trick question—radar, sonar, and the radio all were developed by foreign nations, but the United States was developing the same technology at the same time. Other options: Gun barrel rifling by Germany around 1500, gun powder by China in the 9th century, or the propeller screw invented in 1826 by Czech-Austrian inventor Josef Ressel.
Ken Hampshire
Until the German Luftwaffe developed and operationalized close air support, first in the Spanish Civil War and later in World War II, many early airpower advocates were critical or downright skeptical of its value. Eighty years later, the Marine Corps’ preeminence in CAS has enabled victory from Peleliu to Afghanistan.
John White
Retired Newfoundland & Labrador civil servant
The combination of the British invented angled deck, optical landing system, and steam catapult allowed U.S. carriers to safely operate the faster, heavier jets of the 1950s.
Narayan Sengupta
Historian and Technologist
Ironclads! Perennial naval underdog France pioneered them in 1854 with Devastation gun batteries and the 1859 warship Gloire. The Royal Navy joined the game in 1860. In the U.S. Civil War, the Confederacy built ironclads from 1861. Starting 1862, the Union built ironclads in droves and soon abandoned building wooden warships.
Art Light
The aircraft carrier, including the steam catapult and the angle deck.
Willis King
The modern submarine built by John Phillip Holland, a citizen of the Irish Republic.
Major Bob Liebman
U.S. Air Force (Retired)
The World War II German U-Boat campaign, employed as a strategic weapon, most significantly influenced the U.S. Navy, sister services, U.S. national and allied strategy and technology development.
Jack Steward
The British development of the angled aircraft carrier flight deck to allow for simultaneous take-offs and landings. The development of the German submarine snorkel and advanced submarine hull design for faster submerged speeds was also an important foreign innovation.
Kenneth Wilson
There are three British inventions for the aircraft carrier: The steam catapult, the angled deck, and the mirror landing system. These firmly established the carrier as the centerpiece of U.S. might and power projection in terms of foreign policy.
Dave Kisor
During World War II, Germany produced three combat jets and a rocket plane that influenced aerial warfare and aviation logistical support. Once the Navy got jets, squadrons moved from Alameda to Lemoore, California, a cultural sensory deprivation tank, unless you are a big country western fan.
Kyle Pate
The Dong Feng 21 (DF-21) antiship ballistic missile has recently influenced the U.S. Navy more than any other foreign innovation. Its capabilities dictate and direct our presence and focus in the South China Sea, the Navy's primary operating area.
Marc Light
The modern bulbous bow developed by Takao Inui at the University of Tokyo beginning in the 1950s. The bulbous bow lifts a wave far enough in front of a vessel that it subsides as it contacts the ship’s bow at cruising speed. Before the bulbous bow, the ship’s hull lifted the initial wave creating substantial pressure and drag. The initial concept and application is credited to David W. Taylor, a U.S. naval architect fitting the USS Delaware with a rudimentary bow.
John Doss
Principal Research Scientist, Georgia Tech Research Institute
I would guess that it was the invention of radio by Italian Guglielmo Marconi. It had a huge impact on coordination of fleet operations.
Jon Yuengling
Former U.S. Navy torpedoman’s mate second class
The automotive torpedo. Based initially on Austrian work, British engineer Robert Whitehead invented the weapon system we know today. Whitehead’s work was exported, licensed, and copied by the US Navy and the rest of the world. Found on aircraft to battleships and used to the present.
Lieutenant Commander Joseph Schwartzstein
U.S. Navy Reserve, Strategic Sealift Officer Force
The marine steam engine. The steam engine freed naval ships from the wind and currents. It fundamentally changed how the Navy navigated, fought, and operated. Without the steam engine the Navy would not be able to perform the missions of the 21st century.
Chief Warrant Officer Robert W. Dickie
U.S. Navy (Retired)
Guglielmo Marconi’s 1895 invention of wireless telegraphy. His 1901 demonstration of a wireless transmission across the Atlantic Ocean had an immediate impact on safety at sea and led to wireless telephony (radio) and all the long-haul telecommunications in fleet today.
Dennis Morehouse
The frequency-hopping signal that could not be tracked or jammed, invented by Hedy Lamarr in 1942, but not really implemented until the early 60s. Ms. Lamarr was an Austrian-born actress who had fled her home and eventually came to the United States. She became a U.S. citizen, but not until 1953.
John Boyes
The angled flight deck invented by Royal Navy Captain Dennis Campbell. It solved many of the problems of handling the first generation of naval jet fighters. First incorporated from the start in HMS Ark Royal, it was retrofitted to Essex- and Midway-class aircraft carriers.
Commander Robert Chevrette
U.S Navy (Retired)
The invention of the torpedo exerted great influence over naval warfare and ship design. The torpedo became the dominant weapon at sea for more than a half century. The torpedo was used by the Navy to sink the majority of Imperial Japan’s warships and the virtually all her merchant fleet during World War II. The torpedo remains a menace to merchant ships and Naval Forces to this day.
Captain Marc Liebman
U.S. Navy Reserve (Retired)
The practical steam engine developed by the Brits Savery, Newcomen, and Watt in the early 1700s. It was followed by the chronometer developed by another Brit, John Harrison. Together, they made it possible to accurate determine longitude and sail the ocean without having to depend on the wind.
Captain Peter Daspit
U.S. Navy (Retired)
When measured by both impact and duration, the U.S. Navy’s 1954 adaptation of the British aircraft carrier angle deck certainly qualifies as influential. To this day, 65 years later, the angle deck shapes all carrier flight deck operations, enabling deck cycle times and flexibility that would be impossible otherwise.
Colonel Mark A. Olinger
U.S. Army (Retired)
The angled flight deck. Early in the jet era of the 1950s, higher speeds presented a challenge in aircraft carrier landings. The angled deck conceived by the Royal Navy made fast-jet operations both possible and safe. In addition, the angled flight deck allows for simultaneous launch and recovery.
Lieutenant Colonel Laurence D. Bradley
U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)
The diesel engine, invented by Rudolf Diesel, which is an efficient, compression ignition, internal combustion engine. This made navy ships faster, safer, and more efficient. They are still used today.
Lieutenant Commander Tim Stipp
U.S Navy Reserve (Retired)
I think the most obvious answer to the question is the screw propeller, which can claim two fathers. English inventor Joseph Bramah patented the screw propeller in 1785. In 1836, Swedish-born inventor John Ericsson patented a screw propeller. Ericsson installed the propeller on the USS Princeton in 1844.
