By Rowan Moffitt*
People are getting carried away with the virtues of small warship crews. We need to remember the great vice of having few people to run a ship: they’ll quickly tire.
Yes, the navy is struggling to recruit and retain enough people, so needing fewer on each ship is superficially attractive. The wages bill will be lower, too. But the experience of Royal Australian Navy people, including me, tells us that a ship’s endurance is measured in the size of its crew more than almost any other data point. (The Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The Strategist.)
