A flotilla (from Spanish language, meaning a small flota (Naval fleet) of ships), or naval flotilla, is a formation of small that may be part of a larger fleet.
Composition
A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same
ship class of warship, such as
frigates,
destroyers,
torpedo boats,
submarines,
gunboats, or minesweepers. Groups of larger warships are usually called squadrons, but similar units of non-capital ships may be called squadrons in some instances, and flotillas in others. Formations including more than one
capital ship, e.g.
man-of-war,
, and
, typically alongside smaller ships and support craft, are typically called
naval fleet, each portion led by a capital ship being a squadron or
task force.
A flotilla is usually commanded by a rear admiral, a commodore or a captain, depending on the importance of the command (a vice admiral would normally command a squadron). A flotilla is often divided into two or more divisions, each of which might be commanded by the most senior commander, nearly always a lieutenant at the very least. A flotilla is often, but not necessarily, a permanent formation.
In modern navies, flotillas have tended to become administrative units containing several squadrons.["military unit." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 16 Oct. 2010 : " Administratively, several ships of the same type (e.g., destroyers) are organized into a squadron. Several squadrons in turn form a flotilla, several of which in turn form a fleet. For operations, however, many navies organize their vessels into task units (3–5 ships), task or battle groups (4–10 ships), task forces (2–5 task groups), and fleets (several task forces)."] As warships have grown larger, the term squadron has gradually replaced the term flotilla for formations of destroyers, frigates and submarines in many navies.
A naval flotilla has no direct equivalent on land, but is, perhaps, the rough equivalent in tactical value of a brigade or regiment.
Specific usage
United States Coast Guard Auxiliary
In the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, a flotilla is the basic organizational unit and consists of members at a local level where the majority of the work of the auxiliary is done. A flotilla is led by an elected flotilla commander assisted by an elected vice flotilla commander, who is in turn assisted by appointed flotilla staff officers.
[As described at the Flotilla Organization page of the U.S. Coast Guard.] A Coast Guard Auxiliary division consists of multiple flotillas and a district consists of multiple divisions. Auxiliary districts are organized along Coast Guard district lines and are administered by a Coast Guard officer (usually a commander or captain) who is called the "director of the auxiliary".
Russian and Soviet navies
In the Imperial Russian Navy,
Soviet Navy, and Russian Federation Navy, the word
flotilla (флотилия,
flotilliya) has tended to be used for "
Brown-water navy" naval units – those operating not on the oceans and real seas, but on inland seas or rivers. Among the former are the present-day
Caspian Flotilla, the early-20th-century Satakundskaya Flotilla, or the
Aral Flotilla of the 1850s;
[Ram Rahul. "March of Central Asia". Published 2000. Indus Publishing. . p.160. On Google Books] among the latter, the Don Military Flotilla (which was created several times over more than 200 years), the
Dnieper Flotilla (also extant in the 18th and 20th centuries), the Red
Volga Flotilla, which participated in the
Kazan Operation during the Russian Civil War, and the Danube Flotilla. In the 18th century, the term also applied to the comparatively small fleets operating on those seas where Russia did not have much naval presence yet, e.g. the
Okhotsk Flotilla.
Non-military usage
The word flotilla has also been used at times to refer to a small fleet of vessels, commercial or otherwise.
There is also such a thing as a "flotilla holiday", which is a group of chartered yachts that set sail together on the same route. Also outside of a military context, the Center for International Maritime Security, an open-membership Naval Strategy
think tank based in the
United States, maintains a similar use of the word Flotilla to that of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. In this context, Flotilla refers to a specialized sub-group of individuals within the broader organization, such as the Center's Warfighting Flotilla.
See also
-
10th Assault Vehicle Flotilla
-
Chesapeake Bay Flotilla of U.S. Navy (War of 1812)
-
Tactical formation
-
Flotilla admiral
