By MICHAEL A. LILLY
Capt. Michael A. Lilly, USNR (Ret.),
president of the Navy League's Pacific Region, interviewed Adm. Archie R. Clemins,
commander in chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet, for this issue of Sea Power.
As commander in chief of the U.S. Navy's
largest fleet--a force composed of more than 190 surface ships and submarines, 1,500
aircraft, and 193,500 Sailors and Marines--Adm. Archie R. Clemins is responsible for an
area of operations encompassing more than 50 percent of the earth's surface--some 102
million square miles. For this reason, it is not surprising that he sees his command's top
priorities as being exactly the same as they are for the U.S. Navy overall. Clemins, the
commander in chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet, rates those priorities as "having good
people, the right number of ships to do your mission, and recruiting the number of people
you need."
Major Challenges In
Recruiting and Retention
Across the U.S. Navy, personnel issues
remain the service's top priority and greatest challenge. According to Clemins, the
origins for today's difficulties in military recruiting and retention may be traced to the
U.S. decision to replace the draft with an all-volunteer force after the Vietnam War. At
that time, no one envisioned that the United States would have a full-employment economy
in which the Navy would have to compete vigorously with private industry for the same
people and resources. Aggravating the problem, Clemins maintains, are current U.S.
demographics--the number of young people approaching the desired recruiting window of 18
to 21 years of age is declining. Increasingly, high school guidance counselors say that
the military's combination of hard work, strict discipline, lengthy deployments, and low
pay all serve to deter today's so-called "Y generation" from seeking careers in
the military.
As a result of these and other factors,
the Navy is facing critical personnel shortages--primarily at sea, but also ashore. The
actual personnel shortfall Navy-wide has recently surged as high as 22,000, of which a
startling 18,000 were vacancies in seagoing billets. These shortages hurt readiness--and
force those at sea to work even harder. Clemins acknowledges that the current OPTEMPO--the
operational tempo and workload--for the forward-deployed Sailor is high. "It is
running 60 to 75 percent. In the Persian Gulf, it is in the 75 percent range," he
said. In the civilian workplace, that would be comparable to increasing the normal 40-hour
workweek to 126 hours--with no overtime pay.
"So when people are deployed, they
are working hard. ... That tells us that we are not recruiting and not retaining enough
people to do the job," Clemins said. However, in Clemins's view, the outlook for the
Navy and the U.S. Pacific Fleet is not entirely bleak. The Navy has launched a number of
efforts to retain and recruit quality people, beginning with a Department of Defense (DOD)
fiscal year 2000 budget request to Congress that would substantially increase pay and
improve the current military retirement system.
"It is a three-pronged
package," Clemins explained. "It is a pay increase, it is a pay-table reform,
and it is going back to a 50 percent retirement system after 20 years. When you say you
want people to get promoted, you want to keep your best people, you want them to be
advanced--all of those areas have to be addressed as one package," he said.
A Memorial Day Target
The Clinton administration's FY 2000
budget proposal asks Congress to increase military base pay by at least 4.4 percent next
January, with some critical enlisted ratings receiving a one-time additional 1.0 to 5.5
percent bonus. Retirement benefits would return to 50 percent of base pay after 20 years
of service. The "pay-table reform" element in the budget proposal would reward
performance, promotion, and responsibility with higher pay. Currently, a second class
petty officer with 20 years of service might make more than a first class petty officer
with only 10 years of service. The "reform" proposal would give higher pay to
the first class petty officer, who has de-monstrated the initiative to advance and has
accepted greater responsibility.
Clemins personally believes that the
proposed revisions to the pay tables are well-founded. "The responsibility goes with
the job. The person who has the responsibility gets paid more than the person who does
not," he said.
Noting that the personnel package has the
backing of the nation's top military leadership and the president, Clemins said he is
optimistic that Congress will pass the new pay and retirement proposal this year. In late
February, the full Senate voted 91 to 8 to approve a more costly pay-and-retirement
package than the administration proposed, with authority for a 4.8 percent pay hike
beginning 1 January 2000--the largest increase in military compensation in nearly 20
years. The House of Representatives is scheduled to consider similar legislation later
this spring. Some political analysts believe that the pay package could be delivered to
President Clinton as stand-alone legislation by Memorial Day.
Another aspect of today's Navy that will
help to attract and retain quality people (especially young recruits), Clemins said, is
the service's embrace of high technology. "If I told you that I wanted you to go into
my company--that was backwards in information technology--would you go to work for
me?" he asked rhetorically. "Not today. If you want to recruit the best and the
brightest for the Navy, you have to lead the effort on technology. Sometimes we lose sight
of that. But if we are not a high-tech organization, people are not going to come to work
for us. It is that simple."
Home is the Sailor
What is being done to lessen the workload
for sea-going Sailors--upon whom the brunt of the impact of low recruiting and retention
numbers and high OPTEMPO falls most heavily? The Navy recently instituted several new
initiatives to reduce the number and range of inspections and training requirements during
the "Interdeployment Training Cycle"--the period at home between overseas
deployments. The idea is simply to give Sailors more time with their families when they
return home from overseas.
In a recent Navy-wide message, Chief of
Naval Operations Adm. Jay L. Johnson announced a new series of actions designed to return
additional discretionary time to commanding officers. The initiatives include the
elimination of the Propulsion Examining Board, a reduction in inport watch-standing
requirements, improvements in the Navy retention program, a reduction in the paperwork
required for personnel reporting procedures, and making the Maintenance Training
Improvement Program optional. Johnson's specific objective is to improve the quality of
life between deployments for Sailors serving in afloat billets, while maintaining the
Navy's peak operational readiness.
Clemins also believes that the
traditional appeals of Navy life are still relevant with young people. "Like the kid
from the Midwest who never saw the sea before, people still join the Navy to see the
world."
To address recruiting shortfalls, the
Navy is reaching out to a broader community--to enlist more non-high school graduates who
score well on entrance exams. Although some might claim that this change lowers Navy
standards, it really is nothing new. It "puts us back with the same force structure
with which we won 'Desert Storm' because that was what we were recruiting at that
time," Clemins remarked. He also pointed out that many of the best and brightest in
the naval service today were not high school graduates when they started on active duty.
Smart Salesmanship
The Navy also is looking at ways to
reduce the requirement for large crews. The size of a current ship's company has been
driven by many factors, including certain redundant and/or labor-intensive functions, such
as damage control. Some manning requirements can be eliminated or diminished by
work-saving and inexpensive technologies, such as those employed in the proposed high-tech
"Smart Ship."
According to Clemins, "Over the next
six years, all of our cruisers and 28 of our 32 Arleigh Burke-class [guided-missile]
destroyers will be equipped with Smart Ship improvements. This frees 44 enlisted people
and four officers on [each of] our cruisers, by substituting technology for labor. I am
directing that the saved manpower be retained and reallocated to other shipboard jobs
where other Sailors are overworked. The result would be smaller [but] highly skilled
crews."
There also is an eminently practical
reason to move the Navy forward at a faster pace into the high-tech world. "If we
don't change and use information technology we will be a walking 'dead man' in a very few
years," Clemins warned.
The Navy also can do a better job of
selling itself to potential recruits, Clemins said. The Navy regularly takes business and
civilian leaders to sea through such programs as "Leaders to Sea,"
"Business Executives For National Security," and "Joint Civilian
Orientation Conference."
So why not young people? Last year,
Clemins flew a group of high school students from Illinois to San Diego on a routine Navy
training flight. The students had the "time of their lives," Clemins said--and
learned a great deal about a career in the Navy. "The simple things turn out to be
the selling point: sleeping on the top bunk on the [amphibious assault ship USS] Essex
was a status symbol. Eating aboard a ship was a big deal. Flying a helicopter simulator
was a big deal--almost as big as flying out to an aircraft carrier and back. It does not
have to be this enormous effort. You use a C-9 or C-130 and fly them out to wherever [the
ship or command is located]."
The QDR's Absolute
Minimum
Next to retention and recruiting,
Clemins's other top concern is to see that the Navy's force structure is built around
"the right number" of modern ships to carry out all currently assigned global
missions. "Just a few years ago," he recalled, "we had a 600-ship Navy.
Then we had a 475-ship Navy, and then a 375-ship Navy. The CNO has appropriately drawn the
line. A 300-ship Navy is what it will take to do our job in the future."
Clemins pointed out that the total of 305
ships postulated by the 1997 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR)--30 fewer ships than today's
force level--is the absolute minimum the Navy can have and still be able to execute a
forward-deployed national strategy without incurring unacceptable risk. The notional QDR
force level would be composed of 12 aircraft carrier battle groups (including one training
carrier), 11 airwings, 12 amphibious ready groups, 116 surface combatants, 14
nuclear-powered strategic ballistic missile submarines, and 50 nuclear-powered attack
submarines.
However, just as important as the number
of ships is the need to modernize and replace aging platforms with new ones. "The
pressure will continue to be on us to maintain what we have at the same time that we are
trying to spend money to recapitalize and build new ships," Clemins said. To maintain
a fleet of 305 ships, the Navy must build at least 810 ships a year. But current budgets
permit the construction of only about 67 ships a year, leaving a significant gap. The
Clinton administration's long-term shipbuilding program, even if fully funded by Congress,
probably would not sustain even a 300-ship Navy. Clemins sees a major challenge ahead in
obtaining the funding needed for the increase in shipbuilding required.
The Bottom-Line Answer
But that raises a relevant question: Why
does the United States need a modern Navy of at least 300 ships when potential adversaries
lag so far behind in terms of operational capabilities, technology, and seafaring skill?
The Clemins answer is that the United States needs to modernize its Navy for many reasons,
not the least of which is the growing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
"After the Cold War everyone was looking for the peace dividend--and the peace
dividend has been paid. Nobody predicted the world would be the unsafe place it is today,
and [that] you would have the rogue nations we have today," he said.
Those rogue nations--North Korea, Iraq,
and Iran come immediately to mind--and international terrorists can purchase emerging
technologies in the marketplace. Clemins asserts that it is extremely difficult to prevent
the transfer of technology in today's global economy. "No matter what technology you
have, it will eventually fall in the hands of other people. So ... a missile [is made] in
North Korea that will reach the United States. It does not have to be high technology--it
can be pretty low technology. It may take high technology to shoot it down and to defend
yourself. So you have to stay ahead of that technology."
The bottom line, Clemins said, is that
the United States must have a strong defense program to protect its national
interests--and the utility of the Navy's global presence has been illustrated repeatedly
during the height of the Cold War and in its aftermath.
A Forceful Facilitator
"What if I gave you the way you want
things to work out in the Pacific?" Clemins asked. "Whether you want North Korea
and South Korea to reach reconciliation. Whether you want China not to impinge on its
neighbors. If you want the economic crisis in Southeast Asia to be resolved. If you want
Northeast Asia to be more harmonious. Now pull out the United States Navy from Asia. Will
any of that occur? The answer is 'No.' We turn out to be the facilitator, the stabilizing
influence."
Clemins also maintains that today's
forward-deployed Navy-Marine Corps team must be well-trained and ready to fight to its
peak capabilities if it is to effectively carry out all of its forward-presence and
deterrence missions. In his view, it is "why our forward-deployed people are the most
ready all of the time." Potential adversaries also must recognize that the U.S. Navy
will be fully combat-ready at a moment's notice. "Ready on arrival" is the
phrase that characterized the U.S. Navy's deployments to Europe following the U.S. entry
into World War I. That same maxim is just as applicable in today's fast-paced world.
"So we are going to have to continue
to demonstrate our capability to help shape and invest in future stability throughout the
world. And that is going to take all of those 300 ships," Clemins argued.
Missile Defenses
Emphasized
The Pentagon's FY 2000 defense budget
plan reflects a growing commitment by the Clinton administration to the building of a
national (ballistic) missile defense (NMD) system as fast as is technologically feasible.
The NMD funding increases are tied to a broader U.S. strategy against weapons of mass
destruction and ballistic-missile threats. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) recently
called for a robust sea-based missile-defense system to combat a potential
intercontinental missile threat from North Korea and China.
According to Clemins, "Strategic
missiles with the range to reach the United States in the hands of rogue nations are
always a threat. The question is: How do you combat that threat? Certainly not with the
same START [Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty] agreements we had with the Soviets during the
Cold War. You have to realize that they [rogue nations] are not going to follow a preset
rule. So you have to build a national missile-defense capability. I would hope it is never
needed, but I think the chance of it being needed in the future is greater now than it has
ever been [before]. And it is going to take all of the technology we have to bring a
viable national missile defense to the forefront."
With its high-technology Pacific Missile
Range Facility (PMRF) at Barking Sands, on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai, the Navy's
Pacific Fleet is at the cutting edge in missile-defense technology. Congress has
designated PMRF as the "lead range" for testing high-tech U.S. weapons to
counter short- and medium-range ballistic missiles such as the Iraqi SCUD. The PMRF is not
only relatively inexpensive, Clemins emphasizes, but is "probably the only place in
the world with the air space [needed] to carry out missile defense testing. It is not
something you can do where there is high-volume airline traffic. PMRF turns out to be a
real asset to us. The capability out there is really impressive."
Clemins also is installing and testing
the Navy's first ballistic missile defense systems on board the Aegis guided-missile
cruisers USS Lake Erie and USS Port Royal, both of which are homeported in
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The systems will have two tiers. The "Lower-Tier" system
will provide protection for specific targets--such as ports and airfields--against
short-range missile attacks. The "Upper-Tier" system will be able to defend
theaterwide areas as large as several countries against long-range missiles. The tests
scheduled to be carried out this year will pave the way for advanced prototypes next year.
The administration's FY 2000 DOD spending plan calls for funds to be added to the Navy's
Theater Wide program to move it from the development phase to the acquisition phase.
The Unpredictable Future
What does Clemins foresee as the most
likely future "hotspot" in the world? "I would be worth a lot of money if I
could predict what would be the next crisis, whether ... in the Pacific, Kosovo, or the
Persian Gulf," he replied. "Back in 1996 I asked somebody if, a year earlier, he
would have told me there would have been a crisis over Taiwan [the March 1996 Taiwan
Strait crisis]. And the answer was, nobody predicted that."
In that crisis, the United States
deployed the USS Independence and the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier battle
groups to the area in a freedom-of-navigation display of strength aimed at promoting
regional stability. "Nobody predicted the economic strife that occurred in Southeast
Asia," Clemins added.
"Personally," Clemins
continued, "I am an eternal optimist. But I also do not believe people just lay down
their arms--just give up and say that the world is going to be a nice place. ... I would
not predict what would be the next crisis area. I cannot tell you that. But there will
be a crisis."
In the view of today's Pacific Fleet
commander, his Sailors and Marines will be more than equal to the task when that crisis
erupts. |
