Speech By Admiral Vern Clerk
Chief of Naval Operations
If we were looking for reasons we could have not been here today
we have them—but this was something I really wanted to do. First,
I want thank Admiral Tom Marfiak for the kind of support and the
partnership we have had with the Naval Institute this past year.
Second, I want to, in a very public way, express my appreciation
to the Naval Institute for the manner in which its staff members
have helped us publish and communicate our vision for the future,
our vision for the U.S. Navy in the 21st century—"Sea Power 21."
I believe the Naval Institute has done a fantastic job.
When we
decided to publish "Sea Power 21," we were convinced that we needed
to have a succession of discussions about this vision. We approached
the Naval Institute to work with us on this and they agreed to
do so. We are grateful for the partnership. I will tell you that
the Naval Institute's staff has suffered with us in working with
tight time lines and pushing publication dates. I hope it worked
well for the Naval Institute; it certainly worked for us, and
we appreciate it greatly.
I am told that I am to speak 20 minutes and then we are going
to have questions and answers. Those of you who do know me know
that me speaking 20 minutes is very difficult; because I can hardly
even say hello in ten. So in 20 minutes I might not get as much
done as I should. But I am a long-standing member of the Naval
Institute—I think since '76 is what it says on my little card.
I was telling Tom how much I appreciate the fact that the Naval
Institute has gone digital and the way things are working on the
Internet. It makes it easier for us. We are encouraged by what
we see going on, and I wanted to say that to the membership, too.
Admiral Vern Clerk, Chief of Naval Operations (SARAH HOWELL-SNOWDEN).
It is an exciting time to be in the U.S. Navy. And there is a
couple here who are very important to me, and I wanted to introduce
them to you. I wanted to do this under the context that you never
know what influence you are having on people. It is one of the
interesting things about leadership, isn't it? All of us have
a leadership role to play in some form. There is a couple sitting
over here, at this table, the Holmbergs. Would you two stand?
These are my sea parents. I wanted to introduce them to you: Lee
and Len Holmberg. Len Holmberg was my commanding officer when
I was a lieutenant (junior grade) chief engineer on the USS
Gearing (DD-710).
Many do not know that I had broken
service. I came in to the Navy as a reserve, and I got out of
the Navy after my initial obligation. When I got out, Len Holmberg
was back in Washington, D.C., and he started, once a week, going
over to the Bureau of Personnel and harassing them that they should
contact me. He worked it hard, and the rest is history. I am in
the Navy today because of Len Holmberg. When we came back in the
Navy, Connie and I came to Washington. We wanted to come to the
Pentagon and figure out how this thing worked. Lee got us a place
to live. They have just taken care of us like parents would.
I
want to share briefly with you where we are today and what is
going on. I have 54% of our Navy forward deployed this morning.
Every morning when I come in there is a piece of paper that tells
the number. I have 303 ships in the active Navy today; 163 of
them are forward deployed. They are ready. They have been performing
brilliantly. I will not spend time talking about that. I would
like to talk about "Sea Power 21" and what it means. Then I look
forward to a discourse with you.
I was thinking about what is
going on out there. Our Navy is incredibly ready. The day that
operations commenced, I wrote a note to the Secretary of Defense.
In it I told him the U.S. Navy is ready to commence operations.
Then I said I have never seen this Navy, in my entire career,
as ready as it is today. I want to report to you that that is
the case. This is the case for a lot of reasons. First, we have
absolutely incredible people. I am so proud of the way they are
conducting themselves and the way they are performing on the point.
We set out early on in something we called "The Battle for People,"
to win the battle for people. I am a great believer that we must
understand how to compete in the marketplace, because we are competing
in a marketplace for human resources.
To make a long story short,
we are in the third year of the most incredible retention that
we have ever had in the history of our Navy. The goal for this
year for first-term reenlistment is 56%. The last two years we
have broken each previous year's record as the best year ever.
So we cut 3,000 out of the recruiting numbers last month. When
I became chief of naval operations (CNO), I believe the number
we were recruiting was 56,000 or 57,000 a year. This year we are
down to 41,000 and the number will get smaller. It is an exciting
thing. One of the reasons our readiness is so good is because,
for the first time since I have been in the Navy, we have the
right number of people. We are training the right people at the
right time in the cycle, and it is all working.
"If you are not
growing, you are dead."
Let me give you a quick report on how they are doing. Seven aircraft
carriers are conducting operations forward and USS
Nimitz (CVN-68) will join them in a couple of days. Nine of
the 12 big-deck amphibious ships and numerous nuclear-propelled
submarines are forward.
It is important for somebody in my position to understand warfare,
and Afghanistan
taught me something new. By the way, we had the annual all-flag-officers
conference right here at this site. I shared with this group that
it is important for all of us to continue to grow. Because if
you are not growing, in my view, you are of little value to the
institution. So I told them if you are not growing, you are dead.
One of the things I
have learned over the course of the last year and a half is the
importance of persistence. When I got this job, I realized I had
to be able to talk about the Navy, the vision for the Navy, and
what our mission and task and function were. I can do that for
an hour and I can do it for 30 minutes or 15 or 10. And sometimes
I only have 30 seconds. The 30-second version is: credible combat
power, far corners of the earth, sovereignty of the United States
of America, anywhere we want to go without asking permission.
In the aftermath of Afghanistan, I added the P word—not just credible
combat power, but credible, persistent combat power. So persistence
is one of my favorite words.
When the special forces troops were on the ground in Afghanistan,
and there were just a few of them, somebody needed to be close
by if they got in trouble. On several occasions they did run into
trouble, and these special forces developed some very interesting
interpersonal relationships with F/A-18
and F-14
pilots up there hanging on the blades waiting for their calls.
These aircrews were flying eight-, nine-hour missions that required
multiple trips to the tankers. Persistence is an important word.
Of course, one of the reasons persistence works is because you
have people who are willing to serve. The USS Abraham
Lincoln (CVN-72) already has been deployed for eight months.
The USS
Nassau (LHA-4) amphibious ready group has been deployed for
seven months. I am hoping the Secretary of Defense will let us
bring the Abraham Lincoln home soon, because the Nimitz is coming
on the line. The future is about creating a force that projects
credible, persistent combat power, and decisive combat power.
Let us talk for a couple of minutes about the pillars of
"Sea Power 21." Admiral Marfiak, I am grateful for the Naval Institute
hosting an event like this to continue the discussion about "Sea
Power 21." We are past the point of understanding what "Sea Power
21" is about. The task for us now is to understand why "Sea Power
21" is what it is. We are past knowing what the "Sea Power 21"
pillars are; we must understand why the pillars are what they
are.
Sea Strike is fundamental for this reason. If you only take
away one sentence from this, I would ask it to be this: We have
always been a power-projection Navy. Sea Strike is about projecting
offense. If you are in the business of combat arms, it is absolutely
essential for you to have an offensive mind-set. We are past hundreds
of sorties in Operation Iraqi Freedom; we are into the thousands
now—a credible, persistent combat power; strike and close-air
support missions. You see it on television. The Super Hornets,
our newest combat aircraft, are on their maiden deployment on
the Abraham Lincoln. The Nimitz is coming in with two more squadrons.
These new aircraft are incredibly important. I describe a mission
like this: If you understand naval aviation in hour-and-a-half
cycles—take off, do your job, come back—how far can you go and
come back in an hour and a half? If you are going to be gone longer
than that, you have to have a tanker. So when they were going
to Afghanistan, it was going to require refueling from a tanker
four or five times. The same kinds of ranges apply if you are
going to Baghdad. The new F/A-18E/F can go without worrying about
it. And that is the kind of combat reach that allows you then
to meet the persistence requirement. These aircraft are fantastic.
"We have always been a power-projection Navy."
If you talk about
Sea Strike, projecting offense, you must talk about the U.S. Marine
Corps, our number-one joint partner. None of the services can
do this by ourselves. We are absolutely committed to jointness.
If it does not jump off the pages as you read the articles and
we define what it is, I need to reemphasize, first and foremost,
that it must be about jointness. Sixty-five-plus percent of the
Marine Corps' combat capability is over there, deployed. The Marines
are part of our projecting offense team.
Let us talk about what
the future is about. The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) will give
us more combat reach than F/A-18E/F. Our objective is to get out
of the business where we are providing for our own defense. Our
objective is not to tie up the resources on our flight deck with
sorties that have to provide for our own defense. We want to turn
all of that into combat offensive striking power.
Frankly, there has been a revolution going on quietly. When you
can shoot down missiles in the exo-atmosphere, you do not have
to hang airplanes on the blades for hours on end out there in
combat air patrol stations. The future is about JSF with incredible
reach, and unmanned
combat air vehicles (UCAVs). Just on 23 February, the first
UCAV flew. This year's budget, which we pushed through Congress,
has a major commitment to the development of that kind of capability.
It is exciting. The Tomahawks of the future will go hundreds and
thousands of miles and will loiter on station. With all of these
advantages, you can deal with real-time, developing situations.
Sea Shield is about projecting defense. When I came in the Navy
and served on Captain Holmberg's ship, we talked about war at
sea. We defended ourselves at sea. Tomorrow's Navy is about projecting
not just offense, but projecting defense hundreds and even thousands
of miles away. Now, do I see that clearly today? Well, I see some
of it. When I gave the assignment to individuals to write the
chapters on "Sea Power 21," I told them this: Do not even think
about being restricted in your dreaming about the future by what
is in the budget today. Do not do that. Quite the contrary. If
we are going to have a vision for the future, we have to be free
to dream a little bit about the future. So if somebody is going
to be critical of an approach and say, "Wait a minute, that is
not reflected in the budget; not what you wrote on your chapter
on Sea Shield," that means you reached far enough to at least
stimulate the kind of thinking that is possible.
What is it going to be like in the future for us to be able to
not just project offense, but to project defense? The last 15
months have been the most successful in our history in this area.
We have had an incredible year in the missile defense arena. Six
tests, 100% successful. Six tracking, six firing exercises that
have accelerated this to the point that the President, a few months
ago, said we will field, in the year 2004, an initial sea-based
missile defense capability. We are on track and we are going to
make it happen. Let us talk about Sea Basing. You had the Commandant
of the Marine Corps in here last night. Sea Basing is about projecting
sovereignty, if you will. It is about the operational independence
that comes from—remember my little 30-second blurb—the far corners
of the earth, without a permission slip. It is about operating
from the maritime domain. If you look at the challenges that we
faced in getting force structure to Operation
Iraqi Freedom, and look at the situation when we were operating
in Afghanistan, one of the reasons we were required to provide
this persistent air combat capability was because of the difficulty
of getting to the scene of action. It is my conviction that the
future is going to be more like that, not less like that.
To make a long story short,
here is what I think about the way we need to think about Sea
Basing. By the way, if you talk to the Commandant, his focus will
be on what he needs for the U.S. Marine Corps. That is perfect,
because the Marines are our number-one joint partner. But I want
the expanse of our vision to be as wide as we can figure out how
to make it, with this thought in mind: That if at the core of
our being is the ability to operate from the maritime domain,
with operational independence in the sense of freedom, then we
must have the courage to examine every assumption we have ever
made about the way we put our force together, and exploit to the
fullest the ability to operate from the maritime domain without
limitations that tie us back to the shore side of things.
Now
you let your imagination run with that as far as you can figure
out how to let it run. It absolutely means a maritime positioning
future. That is the Marine Corps program. Two years ago, I was
thinking that belonged to the Marines. It turns out it is in my
budget. I started thinking about how could we exploit some of
that capability for us, in partnership with the Marine Corps.
How do we do that? I am convinced that instead of having a floating
warehouse that you unload and then it is an empty warehouse, there
have to be really unique and powerful things that you can then
do with the potential that exists in the maritime domain to help
us with command-and-control problems and other kinds of challenges
we are going to face. It is about the ability to project our sovereignty
wherever we need to be able to project it, ultimately for this
purpose: to give the President of the United States of America
options.
"We will be a more distributed force. We will be a fully
connected and netted force."
Finally, let me speak briefly about
ForceNet. I heard you had some really interesting panels. You
can not be around Vice Admiral Jerry Tuttle and not have a really
great time. Do we fully see what ForceNet is going to do for us?
No, not fully. But here is what we do see. This last year, when
we restructured our headquarters staff, we said never, ever again
are we going to develop future capabilities in isolation without
understanding that for us to be what we need to be in the future,
we must be fully netted everywhere. We must be ready to exploit
the advantages and potential advantages that technology offers.
We will be a more distributed force. We will be a fully connected
and netted force.
The CNO's Studies Group in Newport, Rhode Island, at the Naval
War College had been studying this for three or four years.
Their program called for us to move to this 25 years from now.
I thought, wait, 25 years from now? No. We are not going to develop
anything from this point on that is not ready to be fully netted,
fully connected. That is what we are going to do. This is not
open for debate anymore. So all of the people who have programs
that do not fit that category are slightly nervous. What I would
like you to take away is this: I do not know anybody who can see
the future, not any human being anyway; what we have tried to
do is put together a framework for us to think about the future.
I see we have friends in the attaché community here
from other countries. At the Navy Command College in Newport the
other day I was with individuals attending our War College from
46 other nations. One of them asked me, "Do you believe that 'Sea
Power 21' is for other navies, too?" I said, "Absolutely!" Because
what we have tried to do is put together a construct that helps
us just think about the future—not just try to identify explicitly
things that we cannot see 10 years from now, or 15 or 20 years
from now—but how to think about what it is going to be like. I
can categorize all my programs neatly. This process already has
helped my Navy immensely get in line with a sense of direction
in the areas that we have talked about here. The key for us is
to be able to understand how to think about what the future might
look like, and then to figure out how to get postured to exploit
the possibilities that exist for us. We did not talk about any
of the enablers, the other pieces of "Sea Power 21": Sea Trial,
Sea Enterprise, and Sea Warrior. All of those are necessary for
us to exploit the potentials that are there for us.
Again, I thank
the Naval Institute for helping us tell this story, for helping
us have a large group of people help us see the vision. The future
is not perfectly defined yet, but we have a sense of direction
in areas that we are absolutely convinced will lead us to the
creation and the development of the kind of capabilities that
we will need so that we can give our national leadership, our
President, options to deal with the world he faces and the world
in which we live.
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