Thanks for clearing that up Randy. How does "Authority" work- I am assuming the Captain of the ship has the final say on things with his ship but the admirals manuerver the fleets??
"Randy" where the heck did that come from, well maybe I am a bit "Randy" once and a while, but I am Michael.
And you are correct; the Captain is ultimately responsible for everything that involves his vessel. Good or bad. If the ship runs aground (charted or not) and he is in his cabin sleeping, he's responsible and normally would be relieved of his command very quickly. The CO is not the person "driving" the ship. That is usually a jr. officer team consisting of an Officer-of-the-Deck (OD) and Jr. Officer-of-the-Deck (JOD). The CO is usually always on the bridge in his Captains Chair on either side of the bridge when the ship is at sea.
Being relieved of command for grounding a vessel is just one example of "CO's responsibility." In the USN, CO's responsibility is one of the traditions from the royal navy and it is an example of how seriously the responsibility of command is taken.
The admiral types are usually on a separate bridge (a bridge that has no ship control devices) located just under the navigating bridge. This second bridge is called the "Flag Bridge." It has more communications capability than the navigating bridge and has staff officers on watch that support the Admiral in his decision making. He may or may not be on the flag bridge.
CIC, where the ship is fought from, is located deep in the hull. During General Quarters, a Tactical Action Officer (TAO) is in charge of fighting the ship, under the command of the CO who often moves from the bridge to CIC once the ship goes to General Quarters. The bridge team (OD and JOD) then answers to the TAO for maneuvering decisions unless they see a situation different than what he sees. The TAO is the officer responsible for deciding what weapons, when they are fired, how the ship is maneuvered to fight, and the use of all electronic warfare devices.
Fighting a modern naval vessel is very computer and electronic intense. Most of what a ship’s TAO officer can see in the CIC of an individual ship can be “shared” with other ships, “linked” with other ship’s CIC’, linked with unit commander operation centers, and even viewed in the White House. When those Iranian speedboats were maneuvering in between the three US warships, everybody in the chain of command knew about it as it was happening. Those creeps are lucky to be alive today. The automatic gun that was trained on them would have shreaded them into little tiny bits of flesh and bone.
