Aflotilla (fromSpanish, meaning a smallflota (fleet) of ships), ornaval flotilla, is aformation of small ships that may be part of a larger fleet.
A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the sameclass of warship, such asfrigates,destroyers,torpedo boats,submarines,gunboats, orminesweepers. Groups of larger warships are usually calledsquadrons, but similar units of non-capital ships may be called squadrons in some instances, and flotillas in others. Formations including more than onecapital ship, e.g.men-of-war,battleships, andaircraft carriers, typically alongside smaller ships and support craft, are typically calledfleets, each portion led by a capital ship being a squadron ortask force.
A flotilla is usually commanded by arear admiral, acommodore or acaptain, depending on the importance of the command (avice admiral would normally command a squadron). A flotilla is often divided into two or moredivisions, each of which might be commanded by the most seniorcommander, nearly always alieutenant 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 severalsquadrons.[1] 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 abrigade orregiment.
In theUnited 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.[2] 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 acommander orcaptain) who is called the "director of the auxiliary".[3]
In theImperial Russian Navy,Soviet Navy, andRussian Federation Navy, the wordflotilla (флотилия,flotilliya) has tended to be used for "brown-water" naval units – those operating not on the oceans and real seas, but on inland seas or rivers. Among the former are the present-dayCaspian Flotilla, the early-20th-centurySatakundskaya Flotilla, or theAral Flotilla of the 1850s;[4] among the latter, theDon Military Flotilla (which was created several times over more than 200 years), theDnieper Flotilla (also extant in the 18th and 20th centuries), the RedVolga Flotilla, which participated in theKazan Operation during theRussian Civil War, and theDanube 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. theOkhotsk Flotilla.
The word flotilla has also been used at times to refer to a small fleet of vessels, commercial or otherwise.[5] 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, theCenter for International Maritime Security, an open-membership Naval Strategythink tank based in theUnited 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.[6]
