USN General Board Hearings

USN General Board Hearings

The United States Navy’s General Board was established to provide the Secretary of the Navy with coordinated professional advice on naval policy. It brought together senior serving and retired officers to consider strategy, fleet composition, ship design, construction programmes, overseas bases and war planning.

Although the General Board possessed no executive authority, its recommendations exerted considerable influence over the development of the US Navy, particularly during the expansion of the battle fleet before the First World War and throughout the interwar period. It provided an important forum in which strategic requirements could be translated into the characteristics of proposed warships.

Transcripts for the hearings held by the United States Navy Operational Archives, Naval Historical Centre, Washington DC, have been microfilmed by Scholarly Resources, and are available from a number of major libraries (including the National Library of Australia).

The table below documents the subjects of selected hearings conducted during the period 1917-1950.