Kelly: Sea Basing Presents ‘Infinite Number of Problems’ for the Enemy

Rear Adm. John M. Kelly, head of the Navy Warfare Development Command (NWDC), is one of the service’s top strategists developing the concept of sea basing. “Looking out 15-20 years,” Kelly said, “how do we develop an engine at sea that can flow the right mix of forces for the mission at hand; that can assemble and distribute power; that can sustain power; that can redeploy, refurbish, and reposition or redirect that power very rapidly?”

A surface warfare officer, Kelly holds a master’s degree in weapon systems technology. Early in his career, he served in combat systems and weapons officer billets aboard USS Thorn and USS Leahy. Later, he was executive officer aboard USS Yorktown and commanded USS Gettysburg and USS John Paul Jones. Kelly also commanded Cruiser-Destroyer Group Three and the USS Abraham Lincoln Battle Group — which were deployed for 10 months during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Southern Watch — and Combined Task Force 50 during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Ashore, he has served on the staff of the commander of Second Fleet and Striking Fleet Atlantic. On the Navy staff, Kelly has been deputy director for theater ballistic-missile defense programs, director for theater air warfare programs and deputy director for all surface warfare programs. He took charge at NWDC in September 2003.

Kelly spoke recently with Sea Power Associate Editor Hunter C. Keeter about his command’s role in shaping the sea basing concept and how this idea, once a Navy and Marine Corps innovation, has increasingly become a joint-service issue.

What does investing in the sea base really buy?

Kelly: It takes away the point solutions that an enemy used to have — to attack a port or to take out a runway, to destroy a command and control node, or to disrupt a road junction. The sea base presents an enemy with an infinite number of problems. That is the real benefit of the sea base, the real insurmountable problem it poses for the enemy. A potential foe [has to] look at, “Where will I put my defenses? Where will the United States come at me? How can I stop them? How can I develop an effective anti-access strategy if they can come at me across this very broad range of options, using the maneuver room that the sea provides and … where the sea base allows them to control the timing of the operation?”

How does the sea base concept fit into other joint-force capabilities initiatives?

Kelly: There are many initiatives ongoing today, from the Air Force’s global force projection concept, to the redesign of the Army and how it will deploy in the future, to naval sea basing, which is now being further developed as joint sea basing. This is about developing capability and flexibility and preserving as many options as we can.

I believe that this sea base initiative by the chief of naval operations [Adm. Vern Clark] will have an enduring and very broad impact on our future warfighting capability. This will enhance the warfighting capabilities of all our armed forces because it will enable us to employ those forces in more flexible ways than we have heretofore been able to do. As we face an uncertain future, that is a good strength to have.

Has the fleet asked you to examine the impact of accelerating some future capabilities?

Kelly: Because we have tremendous relationship with the U.S. Fleet Forces Command — Adm. William J. Fallon, commander of Fleet Forces Command, and Rear Adm. James A. Winnefeld Jr., director of warfare programs and readiness for U.S. Atlantic Fleet — [they] have turned my organization loose to figure out how we can move some of the far-term capabilities forward. One of the things they have asked us to look at is, ‘How do we take some of the potential future ship capabilities in moving expeditionary maneuver warfare forces to much faster platforms — potentially up to 40 knots?’ That is faster than any commercial craft out there, other than a handful of ferries that are running today.

Two elements of the sea base are faster sealift and prepositioned shipping. What kinds of questions are you asking as you assess the potential impact on effectiveness of the military forces?

Kelly: This could cut our deployment times in half or by a third. We are talking about moving major force structure this way. So how would we do that? What kinds of hull or hulls would be involved there? What would be some of the unique factors that would come to light as a result of trying to do that kind of revolutionary movement of forces? We have an intensive concept development effort ongoing to look at the capacity to shift to that kind of high-speed, large-bulk transport capability as an option.

How has the sea base concept evolved from its origins as a Navy and Marine Corps idea?

Kelly: We will be able to use the Navy’s and Marine Corps’ capabilities very rapidly to apply power in a very responsive way. But the enhanced networked sea basing concept is much more than that. Now we are talking about flowing forces through the sea base and being able to sustain those forces through the sea base. Those forces can be comprised of whatever joint elements are necessary to the joint force commander to apply that capability needed to achieve the best effects at that particular time, at that particular location, in that particular tactical scenario.

Is the sea base meant to replace or to augment the other services’ new operational concepts?

Kelly: We are not talking about replacing other skill sets or capabilities that the joint forces of the United States have. We are talking about fielding better options, more flexible capabilities. For example, the Air Force’s global force projection capability is very important and we need to have that. The ability to continue to use overseas bases, and to be prepared to flow through potentially friendly nations’ ground facilities, is an important set of capabilities to maintain. In light of the increasing challenges that we have faced in trying to get access, during times of crisis, to air bases and ports … we want to make sure that we have options and the sea base is a tremendously flexible option.

What challenges lie ahead as NWDC and others develop sea-based operations?

Kelly: One challenge is the relationship between capacity — which means that we can apply capability in multiple places at the same time — and endurance, which is the ability to sustain that for whatever length of time is necessary to accomplish the mission. The sea base is tailor-made to support that relationship.

Another challenge is posed by compression and concurrency. We have demonstrated that we can apply overwhelming force in a very short period of time and we can defeat rapidly an enemy’s potential to come at us or to stop us from accomplishing the mission. That means that what we were going to accomplish over a 40-60-day period [in the past], now we can do it over a four-to-six day period, maybe 48 hours.

Why does shortening the timeline of an operation create a challenge?

Kelly: I have taken all of the decision-making that I was going to do over that longer period of time and I am now doing it in a very compressed timeline. We still have to make all of those decisions, but we have to do them now in a much-compressed period of time and I have to do them concurrently. I have to employ my forces concurrently. I have to accomplish facets of this mission at the same time, where heretofore I could have done them sequentially. This is a chaotic environment that we are creating.

Have recent events illustrated this chaotic concurrency?

Kelly: We saw this with crystal clarity in Operation Iraqi Freedom as we proceeded from Kuwait to Baghdad. We took advantage of our capabilities and maneuvered quickly. We presented the enemy with an overwhelming number of potential pressure points and exploited his weaknesses, wherever we encountered them, and we kept moving. Naval air forces provided tactical aviation coverage and we were able to sustain that. Concurrency of operations was very high. That will only increase in the future because that is one of our asymmetric advantages; we can fight in that environment. The sea base is a huge contributor to this.

What role does logistics discipline and supply management play in the sea base concept?

Kelly: Logistics is a very big piece of this planning process. One of the assumptions that we had to challenge here was our conventional, comfortable way of doing underway replenishment and of moving forces at sea from location to location — every aspect of the logistics operation. The ability to apply power without sustainment is of very limited utility. So, how do I take advantage of this concept and put the pieces in place that can enable us to take advantage of the potential speed in the ability to employ our forces? There are a host of efforts ongoing to do that.

Can you give an example of an aspect of logistics capability that has your attention?

Kelly: We are looking at selective offload. Prepositioned ships today often require that we pull them up alongside a pier and offload the entire ship in order to get at something that may be three decks down and behind other things. We don’t want to have to do that. We want to be able to go and get the particular pallet that we want.

We want to be able to bundle like-capabilities together in intelligent groupings that will enable us to pull them if a particular kind of mission comes up. This is moving in the direction of just-in-time stocking; it is the same kind of concept. It is the ability to pull what we need and not have to build an iron mountain.

What else are you doing in the logistics arena?

Kelly: We have to look at weight and mass. We have supported massive forces ashore by unloading almost an endless number of black hulls to the beach and building iron mountains. Now, I am talking about totally changing that footprint. I am talking about sending those folks forward, light, mobile, agile, but carrying substantially less capability on their backs and with them. We are going to provide what they need real time or near-real time from the sea base.