A Vision of Continuing Excellence

Today's Navy, and Tomorrow's: Solid Accomplishments, Daunting Challenges and a Host of Institutional Obstacles

By JAMES D. HESSMAN
Editor in Chief

For the U.S. Navy, the first full year of the U.S.-led global war on terrorism was marked by significant advances in virtually all areas of combat readiness, by increased funding not only for readiness but also for procurement and RDT&E (research, development, test, and evaluation), by the huge and often heroic accomplishments of the fleet's forward-deployed aircraft carrier battle groups (CVBGs) and amphibious ready groups (ARGs), and by milestone achievements in recruiting, retention, training, and other personnel areas.

The year ahead should be even better, according to Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Vern Clark--thanks to several programs initiated last year, he said, and a number of new programs now ready to be launched.

Many of those programs will require additional funding, though--and, although a new round of defense spending increases seems likely to be approved by the new Congress, the specific totals allocated to each of the nation's armed services will, as always, probably not be enough even to fund all of the "highest priority" items on the individual-service budget requests--which have to be approved first by OSD (the Office of the Secretary of Defense) and then by the White House budget office before being submitted to Congress.

The Navy's biggest line-item deficiency, again, will be the SCN (shipbuilding and conversion, Navy) account. Obtaining the funding needed for aircraft procurement also is a major concern. More problematical are the numerous difficulties likely to be encountered if the United States has to deal with two even "medium-scale" international crises or conflicts at the same time--involving Iraq and North Korea, for example.

Following--from Clark's Sea Power 21 vision paper, articles in Sea Power and the Naval Institute Proceedings, and the CNO's "Guidance for 2003" (disseminated in the first week of January)--are status reports, in the subject areas indicated, and in Clark's words, on some of the Navy's more significant achievements during the past year as well as, in some areas, the additional programs and initiatives now in the planning stages:

Manpower and Personnel: Navy recruiters "made goal" for 16 consecutive months. Quality also has improved: "Last year, we accessed 92 percent high-school graduates--up from [the previous] 90 percent, and nearly 6 percent of recruits had some college education."

Retention also has improved, and is now "at record levels." At-sea manning shortfalls were reduced last year by more than 36 percent. "Superb retention also allowed us to lower recruiting goals by over 7,500, saving millions of dollars"--which were applied to improve fleet readiness and support quality-of-life initiatives.

There also was lower attrition. Losses caused by drug problems were down 8 percent overall, and by a spectacular 37 percent at the Navy's Recruit Training Center in Great Lakes (Ill.). The improvement in retention is translating into "a more senior force to lead and manage the increasingly technical 21st-century Navy." The personnel distribution system has been overhauled and improved through such innovations as Project SAIL (Sailor Advocacy through Interactive Leadership), which is designed to "fundamentally change" the relationship "between Sailors and detailers" and to put more choice in the system. Among other new and/or pending initiatives are geographic incentive pay, an "Optimal Manning" program (to reduce ship's manning requirements by, among other innovations, reforming shipboard watchstanding practices), and the Sea Swap program--which changes crews during a ship's overseas deployment, keeping the ship on-station overseas for a longer period and reducing transit time significantly.

Current Readiness: Navy combat readiness is now at the highest level ever, thanks primarily to prior-year investments in training, spare parts, ordnance, and the fuel accounts. The major ship depot maintenance backlog has been reduced by 27 percent, and aircraft depot-level repair back orders were trimmed by 17 percent last year. The production of ordnance and of spare parts has been "ramped up" to a higher (but unspecified) level.

The most visible improvement is in forward deployment--in Clark's words, "We are taking the fight to the enemy." Eight CVBGs, six ARGs, "and nearly 100,000 Sailors and Marines deployed around the world in support of the global war on terrorism." To reduce the overseas transit times for SSNs (nuclear-powered attack submarines), where the fleet level is below the requirements postulated by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and the unified commanders, two SSNs have been forward-homeported in Guam, and a third is "on the way."

The Navy also has moved out smartly in the still relatively new mission areas of force protection (FP) and homeland security. "We invested over $1.7 billion to improve security across our fleet, improved information-sharing between agencies, assigned over 10,000 Sailors to antiterrorism and force-protection duties, and grew the MAA [master at arms] rating from 1,900 to 4,600 Sailors."

Future Readiness: Several "potent new platforms" were added to the fleet last year, the existing force has been incrementally upgraded through the fielding of additional high-tech systems and subsystems, and an "integrated Navy-wide experimentation plan" has been developed (and is currently being implemented). The most significant achievement in this area, though, was doctrinal: the development, refinement, and dissemination of the Sea Power 21 vision paper, which: (1) "prescribes a strategy-to-concepts-to-capabilities continuum that will result in greatly enhanced power, protection, and operational freedom"; and (2) will provide "the framework for how we will organize, align, integrate, and transform our Navy to meet the challenges that lie ahead."

To provide the major increases in procurement funding needed to build "the Navy after next," fleet commanders, program managers, and OPNAV (Office of the Chief of Naval Operations) sponsors worked in close cooperation last year to reduce not only the initial acquisition cost of new systems and platforms, but life-cycle costs as well. The result was "a projected cost avoidance of $43 billion over the future-years plan by improving business and infrastructure processes, the divesting of legacy force structure and programs, and ... [the use of] multiyear procurement contracts."

Among the new-construction ships joining the fleet last year were three Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided-missile destroyers (DDGs): USS McCampbell, USS Shoup, and USS Preble. In addition: the keel of the nuclear-powered attack submarine Texas was laid, and the conversion--to an SSGN (nuclear-powered guided-missile submarine) configuration--of two Ohio-class Trident ballistic missile submarines started. After their conversions are completed, the new SSGNs (four are planned) will be capable not only of launching Tomahawk missiles of various configurations but also delivering special operations forces on covert missions overseas.

The new Navy-wide experimentation plan puts the fleet "in charge of experimentation." Joint wargames and a broad spectrum of experiments and exercises are planned to develop and test "new operational concepts and technologies, such as the Joint Fires Network and High-Speed Vessels." In addition, an Undersea Experimentation Working Group has been created "to more fully integrate submarines into joint experimentation programs."

Quality of Service: The major investments allocated over the past several years in "our most valuable asset--our people" led to "continued improvements in compensation, operating facilities, information technology, and educational initiatives." The end result was a much-improved environment for mission accomplishment.

More specifically: (a) "Everyone earned at least a 5.0 percent pay increase in 2002," and will receive an additional 4.1 percent increase in 2003; (b) Medical care--for military families and military retirees as well as active-duty personnel--has improved in several ways; (c) additional family housing is being built; and (d) several innovative training projects have been initiated, in cooperation with industry and academia, to improve "individual training and education ... and to develop pilot projects that leverage civilian training programs."

In addition to the preceding, Clark said that numerous other projects are underway to improve and streamline the Navy's own organizational structure, eliminate redundancies, reduce costs, and, in general, "put the fleet at the center of all we do." A Naval Network Warfare Command has been established, for example, to serve as "the fleet's coordinator for information technology, information operations, and space activities." The Navy Recruiting Command and Naval Reserve Recruiting Command have been consolidated "to achieve total-force recruiting." And the Navy Warfare Development Command and the Navy's "warfare centers of excellence" are now working in closer cooperation "to stimulate concept development and technology insertion for the fleet."

In the joint warfighting arena, Clark: (1) issued both a Naval Transformation Roadmap and Navy Strategic Planning Guidance "outlining the capabilities [needed] to enhance joint warfighting effectiveness through Sea Strike, Sea Shield, and Sea Basing [the three conceptual 'pillars'of the Sea Power 21 vision paper]";

(2) Signed--as did outgoing Marine Commandant Gen. James L. Jones--a Navy/Marine Corps tactical aviation integration plan "to enhance interoperability, more fully integrate our people, and save billions of dollars for both services"; and

(3) Provided support for the Coast Guard's Deepwater Integrated Systems Program, worked with the Air Force in the development of a number of new munitions programs, carried out joint experiments with the Army to help determine the peacetime and combat capabilities of high-speed vessels, and participated in a continuing series of "warfighter talks" with the leaders of all of the nation's other armed services.

Rocks, Shoals, and Transformation

As Clark has pointed out many times--in speeches, in interviews, and in articles in various Navy and Navy-oriented publications, including Sea Power and the Proceedings--the creation and explication of the Sea Power 21 vision represents only a start on the much-needed transformation of the Navy to meet the new and exceedingly complex challenges of the 21st century. Implementation of that vision will be exponentially more difficult.

Obtaining and sustaining a major increase in the Navy's shipbuilding budget will be the key to achieving most if not quite all of the goals spelled out in the vision paper. "My best estimate today," Clark said in an interview in the October 2002 issue of Sea Power, "is that we need a fleet numbering approximately 375 ships. We will continue to refine the number as we ... build the force profile and force packages for the future ... so that we can distribute combat power over a wider number of places around the world where it is necessary for the Navy to represent the vital interests of this nation. We ... need to have more ships to do that. ...

"Credible combat capability" is the "real" requirement, Clark conceded--but he immediately reverted to the inescapable rule known to all Navy contingency planners: "You can only be in one place at one time with one ship, and so numbers do matter. Numbers ... have a quality all their own."

Unfortunately, the Navy has not been doing too well in its ship-numbers battles in recent years, and the outlook for the future suggests the situation will get worse, perhaps much worse, before (if ever) it gets better. Clark and other Navy officials have told Congress that the Navy needs a minimum of $12 billion annually, for the foreseeable future, to build the fleet needed to meet its current mission requirements; the assumption (perhaps optimistic) is that that funding will be sufficient to acquire 10 new-construction ships per year.

Last year, though, the president's budget plan requested only $8.6 billion for Navy shipbuilding--approximately $1.6 billion less than had been appropriated the previous year--and included funding for only five new-construction ships (one less than in fiscal year 2002). Exacerbating the problem were the "outyear" projections in the administration's future-years defense plan (FYDP): funding for only five more new-construction ships in FY 2004 and only seven ships in FY 2005 and FY 2006. Under the FYDP submitted last year, in fact, it would not be until fiscal year 2007 that the Navy would reach the 10-ship-per-year requirement postulated as the minimum SCN goal.

The shipbuilding problem is also a matter of considerable concern to Congress, particularly to members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees and their Seapower Subcommittees. Last year, Rep. Jo Ann S. Davis (R-Va.) introduced legislation--the National Naval Force Structure Act--specifically stating that it would be U.S. policy "to rebuild, as soon as possible, the size of the Navy's fleet to no fewer than 375 ships in active service."

Included in that bigger fleet of the future, Davis said, should be enough ships for 15 CVBGs and 15 ARGs. [Note: Under Sea Power 21, additional ships--surface combatants and SSNs, primarily--would be assigned to the ARGs to upgrade them to Expeditionary Strike Groups (ESGs) that would have substantially more combat flexibility and power-projection capabilities than the ARGs they would be replacing.]

The Navy League of the United States and the American Shipbuilding Association both endorsed the Davis bill as "a matter of national urgency," setting the stage for what may well be a major controversy in the FY 2004 defense posture hearings.

The Navy faces a number of other rocks and shoals on its way to realization of the Sea Power 21 vision--inadequate funding for naval aviation, for example. Clark told Sea Power last year that large numbers of the aircraft now in the inventory are nearing the end of their useful lives and becoming increasingly difficult, and costly, to maintain. He said the Navy needs to be spending "$8 billion to $10 billion a year for new aircraft procurement," and that to replenish the current inventory will require a sustained procurement rate of 210 aircraft per year. The administration requested funding for only 83 new aircraft in the Navy's FY 2003 budget.

The ship numbers deficit and naval aviation problems are perhaps most jointly visible in the Navy's fleet of 12 active-force carriers, which includes eight nuclear-powered Nimitz-class carriers (CVNs). All members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have been telling Congress for many years that the Navy needs 15 active carriers to carry out all of its assigned missions--in peacetime. Republican and Democratic administrations alike, though, have been content to maintain a fleet of only 12 carriers--describing the three-carrier deficit as a "prudent risk."

In sum, the Navy needs a "steady investment stream" in the area of $35 billion per year for all its procurements so that economics of scale will enable the Navy to procure the numbers of ships and aircraft that it needs.

The additional overseas deployments required to pursue the global war on terrorism might change some minds in the upper echelons of the Pentagon's civilian hierarchy. The eight CVBGs deployed throughout the world last year all were operating at an extremely high tempo--and in some exceptionally innovative ways. Carrier-based Navy aircraft were routinely flying combat missions reaching out 700 to 1,000 miles, and stayed on station for two to four hours. This was a "phenomenal" achievement, Clark said, that not only validated the Navy's previous investments in sustainability but also demonstrated the extended combat reach of today's naval forces.

The conventionally powered carrier USS Kitty Hawk displayed the new flexibility also required in today's joint arena by serving as an afloat forward-staging base for U.S. Special Operations Forces. Unintentionally, perhaps, the Kitty Hawk's achievement also validated to some extent the Sea Basing pillar of the Sea Power 21 vision paper.

The Sea Basing concept, perhaps the most revolutionary and most forward-looking of the numerous transformational ideas articulated in SP 21, anticipates the possibility--probability, according to many experts in the field of counterterrorism--that the time will soon come when terrorist groups will be able to build or buy weapons of mass destruction. The inevitable result may well be that U.S. forces will be denied access to air and ground bases overseas. Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) Dov S. Zakheim conceded as much last year in a Pentagon press briefing on the president's FY 2003 budget request--during which he also agreed with the need for more ships: "I think the secretary [Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld] has made it very, very clear," Zakheim said, we have to keep our fleet up in excess of 300 ships. ... What Afghanistan made clear in spades was what the Navy has been saying over and over again: that sometimes bases will not be available."

As of year's end all of the nation's armed forces were preparing for a possible new war with Iraq--a war that could require four or more CVBGs to be on station in the Persian Gulf for an extended period of time. Meanwhile, the disclosure that the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea--i.e., North Korea) now possesses at least a few nuclear weapons had created another difficult situation for U.S. decisionmakers to deal with. Officially, the U.S. government was downplaying the possibility of a "two-war" situation--but the media was escalating the situation from a concern to a confrontation to a crisis. If, in fact, there is a new U.S./coalition war with Iraq, there will be few if any U.S. Navy carriers available to deal with international crises anywhere else in the world and, if nothing else, thoroughly refute the "prudent risk" fallacy. *

"Sailing Directions" From the CNO

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark concluded his Guidance for 2003 message with what he described as "Sailing Directions for the 21st Century." Following are selected excerpts from those sailing directions.

"Winning the Global War on Terrorism is our number one priority. This will not be quick or easy, but victory is our goal and it will be achieved. Our Navy will play a leading role in this historic struggle by contributing precise, persistent, and responsive striking power to the joint force, strengthening deterrence with advanced defensive technologies, and increasing independence through sea basing. This is the Sea Power 21 vision.

"We will innovate operationally by distributing striking power to the furthest corners of the earth and [by] sustaining fleet readiness to surge additional warfighting power on short notice. The [Navy's] Global Concept of Operations [CONOPS], in concert with the United States Marine Corps, packages our forces to meet 21st-century challenges ... [and] requires a fleet of approximately 375 ships and procurement of 11 ships per year. ...

"I want [all Navy leaders] to understand that mission accomplishment means both warfighting effectiveness and resourcefulness. It has been said that great leaders do the right thing, and great managers do things right--we must do both.

"We have a big budget. We must ensure we are spending the taxpayers' dollars on the right thing. Sea Enterprise [another of the several tenets that make up the Sea Power 21 vision] will coordinate a Navy-wide effort to align and optimize use of these funds. It will allow us to harvest efficiencies throughout our organization to be reinvested in warfighting capabilities. I am convinced we must make Sea Enterprise a success or we will not have the Navy our Nation needs. ...

"People remain at the heart of all we do; they are capital assets in our Navy. We have invested heavily to do what is right for our people. As we look to the future, we will build on the impressive progress we have made in recruiting, assigning, and retaining our military and civilian professionals. ... I expect [all leaders] to be deeply involved in developing their shipmates. ...

"Our Navy is the finest it has ever been, and getting better every day. I am counting on you to continue our superb record of accomplishment and shape the Navy of tomorrow. Working together, we will achieve the vision!"