Strategic Naval Initiative Act

The Strategic Naval Initiative Act, alternately referred to as SNIA or the Settas Navy Program, is a series of Acts of Senate starting in the early 1980s in Belhavia that reformed the process of modern strategic analysis and appropriation of funding for the Imperial Belhavian Navy. It has led to what both proponents and critics have called the "perpetual Navy expansion" for the past 34 years.

The SNIA has been described as the "20th century admiral's gift" by one critic at the Imperial Navy's Tel Nafesh Academy, with a renewed emphasis on force projection with large and heavier capital ship classes. The continued use of battleships and battlecruisers have been questioned by some up-and-coming naval strategists and by foreign naval analysts, especially from Arthurista and Emmeria, over whether such large ships are needed in the post-Cold War world. Supporters of the naval program among traditionalists in naval strategy circles have fiercely defended SNIA, pointing to the co-option of such weapon systems for modern uses and pointing out the deficiencies in post-Cold War light, smaller, and generalist warship designs, oft-promoted by Arthurista, Rodarion, and other major navies.

The SNIA was initiated by President Julian Settas in early 1981, then again in 1983 and 1987. His successor, Naftali Katz, enacted the SNIA in 1990 with proposed major cuts and streamlining of Belhavia's force-projection capabilities. This was continued under Garret Holleran in early 1995, but the Tothian-Holleran cuts were partially reversed by the Senate, led by a bipartisan war hawk coalition in late 1995. Another SNIA re-authorization occurred in 1998, when President Yehuda Fiedler appropriated funds for a large expansion to match the Navy's height in 1987. This level was sustained in 2002 by Holleran (serving his second, non-consecutive term), added to in 2007, and further expanded in 2009 and 2013 under President Eli Goldman.

Origins

1960s and 1970s Naval Cuts and Reforms

In the aftermath of the Galarian era, the Imperial Navy boasted a force in excess of 425 ships. The Provisional Government of Belhavia in the 1946 Reforms substantially cut, scrapped, and retired over one hundred ships between 1945 and 1952, with some ships dating as old as the 1880s.

In the 1950s, the Cold War heated up across the world. In response, the Imperial Government sought to rebuild the Navy, adopting post-1945 designs emerging in the culmination of 1940s-era conflicts such as the Arthuristan Civil War and the Ulthrannic Civil War. The Navy shifted from larger, "gunship"-centric warships to smaller, guided missile- and aircraft-centric vessels.

Within 15 years, however, this "Cold War" military buildup's political consensus had begun to fracture as the New Left arose politically. Under President Vern Callan's administration (1969 - 1977), the Navy faced cuts of up to 34% as well as major reforms to ship naming conventions, naval strategy and tactics, and other substantial changes. These moves were largely controversial, upsetting military traditionalists and condemned as not radical enough by military critics and the antiwar left.

Naval Traditionalists' Backlash

The Navy shrunk from a post-1952 high of 342 vessels in 1969 to a low of 196 in 1980, during Callan's successor President Berel Levine's administration (1977 - 1981). All Galarian-era battleships had been decommissioned, the aircraft carrier force had been reduced to a mere 5 vessels, and the fleet included less than 35 submarines and 7 cruisers. Naval proponents vocally protested what they called the "neglect" of the Navy, as Cold War adversaries such as the DSRA and other regimes were rapidly building up their military forces, including then-new and modern navies.

This was all happening in the broader context of a early-1970s "détente" by Callan towards the world's Communist and socialist bloc. The traditionalists found an ally in Senator Julian Settas (C-Provisa), a one-term senator and failed 1976 Conservative presidential candidate. In his second (and successful) run for the presidency, Settas pounded away at the "callous and continued neglect of our proud Navy," using it to hit the Liberal Democratic incumbent Berel Levine, as weak on containing the Communist bloc.

Settas Revolution

Following his decisive 1980 election, Settas and his Tories routed the ruling Lib Dems, winning a strong majority in the Senate. This political victory was termed by pundits as the "Settas Revolution."

In his honeymoon period in early 1981, President Settas and his chief military advisors devised a program of rebuilding the decimated Imperial Fleet, modeled after analyst and academic Yehuda Mezvinsky's 1971 proposal to have a regularly re-authorized strategy-and-appropriations process for the Navy.

1981 SNIA

In the first SNIA, Settas laid out his ambitious "450-ship Navy" plan by 1990, essentially doubling the Navy's ship within a decade. The plan was lauded by the military establishment and in conservative circles, but was bittered mocked and opposed by the dovish left and by center-left fiscal disciplinarians.

The SNIA called for recommissioning the then-5 Majesty-class battleships, refurbishing 5 mothballed cruisers, 2 aircraft carriers, and 14 submarines, and extending and modifying the lifetime service of ships slated for retirement or scrapping. Starting in June 1981, continuing until February 1990, the Navy had no less than 2 aircraft carriers, 1 cruiser, 8 submarines, 6 destroyers, 3 frigates, and 4 auxiliary support ships under construction at any given year.

The Act was accompanied by the simultaneously passage of the Military Modernization and Reform Act of 1981, which augmented the SNIA's mandate and goals.

This would be upped at a frenzied pace by the mid-1980s as threats from the DSRA, Communist movements in South Ashizwe, and elsewhere were becoming more threatening towards Belhavia and Free Pardes.

Contemporary Expansion Unabated

2002

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