By OTTO KREISHER, Special Correspondent

After a hard-edged speech to a 2006 Sea-Air-Space (SAS) Secretary of the Navy Luncheon  audience during which he urged the defense industry, particularly the shipbuilders, to think less of short-term profits and more of the nation’s need in a time of war, Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter told reporters he was not advocating further contraction in the shipyards.

“I would focus less on the numbers and more on the capabilities,” he said.

The secretary said the Navy had laid out its 30-year shipbuilding plan to produce a 313-ship fleet, which should help the industry plan for the future.

“What the industry has to do is to dig into that plan” and decide what facilities it needs to produce those ships, he said. In some cases, that could mean more facilities, in some cases less.

Responding to a question about the possibility of closing some of the commercial yards, Winter said: “I do not want to specify the solution.”

The Navy has stated its expectations and there are “multiple solutions” possible, he said. “I want industry to come to me with proposed solutions. How do you adjust” to match those expectations?

But, Winter noted, “we are not going to be building a 600-ship Navy.”

And, “there are questions about affordability.” If the cost of the planned ships goes up, the Navy will be able to buy fewer, he added.

Winter said he was moved to lecture the defense industry on the need to rise above its concerns about quarterly income statements by his recent visit to sailors and Marines in Iraq and the Persian Gulf. And he said he goes home every weekend with a stack of condolence letters to the families of sailors and Marines who have died in combat or in accidents.

After that, the secretary said, “it is disappointing to go out and see that people don’t recognize that we’re a nation at war.”

Instead of worrying only about “the bottom line,” Winter said, the defense industry must remember “there are sailors and Marines out there depending on them.”

Challenge: Achieving A New ‘Over Match’

The No. 2 officials of the three naval services stressed the different challenges the nation faces in the global fight against terrorism during a seminar on “Supremacy in the Maritime Domain” at SAS.

Navy Adm. Robert Willard, the vice chief of naval operations, said the Quadrennial Defense Review pointed out the U.S. military’s “over match” in conventional warfighting capabilities against any conceivable enemy. In response, adversaries will resort to “irregular warfare” tactics to undermine that superiority.

That presents the armed services the challenge to adjust their tactics and technology to achieve superiority in the new form of warfare, Willard said.

That will require the joint forces to evolve into inter-agency forces using all forms of national power and an intellectual adjustment by military personnel to obtain greater agility and speed, he said.

Gen. Robert Magnus, assistant Marine Corps commandant, said the nation is facing the unique historical condition of fighting a prolonged war with an all-volunteer force. That required leadership to take care of those volunteers and their families, “our most treasured resources,” he said.

It also required the nation to provide “these fine men and women the best technology available.”

Vice Adm. Terry Cross, vice commandant of the Coast Guard, emphasized securing the maritime transportation system, which carries most of the country’s imports and exports. To meet that challenge, Cross said, President Bush has signed a National Strategy for Maritime Security, which will allow a “holistic approach” to the problems, and the Navy and Coast Guard leaders have signed the National Fleet Plan to better unify their assets to face the new threats.

R&D: Flexible and Focused

Rear Adm. William Landay, chief of Naval Research, and Brig. Gen. Randolph Alles, commander of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, reported on the naval services’ priorities in science and technology investments during the SAS research and development seminar.

While they “fundamentally focus on the future,” they have to be “flexible enough to respond to today’s critical needs,” Landay said. And the key, he said, is developing technologies and capabilities that support the warfighters.

“It doesn’t matter what we develop if it doesn’t end up in the operation forces,” Landay said.

So much of their attention is on 18 core areas and 99 core programs aimed at filling gaps in capabilities identified by the operating forces. Some of the programs he cited included an electro-magnetic rail gun, advanced sea basing capabilities, more responsive space assets and persistent undersea sensors for littoral operations.

Alles said the lab’s focus is “mainly solving immediate problems” identified by the deployed Marine Expeditionary Forces. As a result, instead of developing a lot of new technologies, the lab mainly takes existing technologies and applies them to operational requirements, he said.

And much of their effort is directed at improving training to help the Marines adapt to the changing threats, Alles said.

Both men stressed the extensive work being done by the services and a joint center to find answers to the improvised explosive devices that are inflicting a majority of the casualties in Iraq.

Osprey Mishap Downplayed

Marine Col. William Taylor, program manager for the MV-22 Osprey, gave an optimistic briefing on the previously troubled program and downplayed the significance of a recent accident at Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C.

Although no one was injured in the accident, Taylor conceded that the $75 million tiltrotor aircraft might be a total loss because a wing broke off.

A Boeing official characterized the break-off of the wing as an intentional design feature to avoid total disintegration of the airframe.

The accident occurred during a required ground test of a replaced engine when a computerized fuel control device unexpectedly accelerated one engine and a software provision intended to protect the aircraft in flight caused the Osprey to become airborne unintentionally. The system then attempted to correct itself and the aircraft fell hard to the ground.

Taylor said a fix to the software is being studied and, meanwhile, pilots are being instructed on a change in procedures to avoid the situation. Training is continuing for the first operational squadron, which is expected to deploy by September 2007.