Remarks by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead at the Navy League of Denver

August 24, 2010

Well, thanks Dan for the introduction and thank you for all you do in leading the Navy League and for all the members here. Even though those of us who wear the uniform cannot be members, I cannot thank the Navy League enough for what you do for our Sailors who serve and are deployed. I speak from experience, that from the time I was a young Ensign until now, the hospitality of the Navy League chapters around the world make serving in the Navy something special, because everywhere we go we are welcomed warmly, we are taken great care of and that is something that is absolutely priceless.

But as I’ve become more senior, I’ve become more aware, more intimately with the Navy League leadership on dealing with matters that are of great import to our country, and to the strategic assets that we have to include shipbuilding, aircraft manufacturing, and it’s through the efforts of the Navy League that the story can be told in ways that I think are very compelling. So Dan for you and all of the members, I thank you for what you do here and for assembling this evening’s event, I thank you for that as well. And I really would like to thank all the chapters that are here for everything that you do for us because you really do have opportunities to raise awareness of what our Navy does for the nation.

The last time I was here was in 2008 when we were talking about our Maritime Strategy and the conversation that I had with many people from this region really has helped us shape the strategy, make the strategy come alive and has given us insight into what Americans think they need in the form of their Navy.

I have to admit that the last time I was here talking about the strategy, there was someone who thought I was taken the climate change issue too seriously, because they thought I was here looking for a new homeport for the Navy but they got away from that.

But it is so important, I think, to be able to have an organization that can carry the message forward of what our sea-going services do in a positive way and for helping us achieve the goals that we believe are so important to maintaining the security and prosperity for future generations of Americans.

For many citizens in our country today, the benefits of a strong Navy aren’t readily apparent. Our seaward approaches and the global commons that are represented by the high seas don’t have an obvious impact on their daily lives. And that’s where organizations like yours and individuals like you, with your efforts that range from advocacy that’s articulated in the document Dan talked about, to the support that you give to the Sea Cadet program, which is more than just a Navy program. It’s a terrific way for young men and women in our country to learn about citizenship, about service and about responsibility. So for all the young men and women here who are part of the Sea Cadet Corps and for the mentors that they have, I would like for us to join in a round of applause for them.

So through all those efforts, I think you keep the dialogue going, a dialogue that is so important. And the conversation that we started here and in other cities around the country a couple of years ago is still ongoing. It goes on here at home, it goes on abroad and it’s where we continue to advance the cause of what we call the global maritime partnerships where together working with the other sea services, working with countries around the world, we work together towards peace and prosperity that’s so important to all of us.

I was talking at a dinner just last week. I was in Sweden and Norway where I was able to spend some time with those navies, smaller than ours to be sure, but they’re pursuing advanced capabilities in ways that are extraordinarily impressive in areas such as littoral combat which I think in the future is going to become more and more important. They’re developing diesel submarines which quite frankly I think have become the international standard in that area and I think having the opportunity to work with them is extraordinarily important for us in our Navy.

Before that I had the opportunity to visit my counterpart in France. It sounds like I’ve been on a pretty good summer trip here but it really has been a good opportunity, particularly in France, to talk to a Navy that is able and sees a responsibility to be part of a global solution to some of the challenges that we face. In the case of the French navy, they are one of the few navies that operates aircraft from aircraft carriers in ways that we do and they are committed as they have just completed their 100th anniversary, two years ahead of us in fact, toward being able to continue to partner with us in bringing that safety and security and stability around the world.

We continue to build these global maritime partnerships as our Maritime Strategy said that we would in no small part because our partners see in the U.S. Navy a commitment to those capabilities that we talked about in our strategy. A commitment for our Navy to be a forward force, to be globally deployed, to be in all the oceans of the world. The ability for that force to be a deterrent, that goes beyond our ballistic missile submarine. That gets to the fact that we can move naval power, and put that naval power in places that cause those who would do something that we wouldn’t like, it causes them to check up and think twice. But it also includes the capabilities of power projection. That power projection can come off our aircraft carrier, it can be in the form of missiles that come off of our destroyers or submarines and indeed, in Marines coming off our amphibious ships. But it’s also being able to control the sea wherever we may need to do it. And it’s about maritime security operations that we conduct, not unlike what we’re doing off the coast of Somalia in checking up the pirates that are there. And then of course, humanitarian assistance and disaster response, something that I think has captured the respect of so many countries around the world.

And when you think about all those things going on there is no question that our Sailors today are very busy. They’re busy in Iraq and Afghanistan, where we have more sailors on the ground – 14,500 Sailors serving on the ground in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Djibouti – than we have serving at sea. We have another 10,000 Sailors who are on our ships off shore and at sea we serve in a more traditional role projecting power from our aircraft carriers which continue to provide over 30% of fixed wing flying in support of U.S. and coalition troops on the ground, in Afghanistan. In July alone, that aircraft carrier that’s on station in the North Arabian Sea and the strike group provided almost 1,700 sorties in one month and almost 700 hours of combat operations in support of those troops on the ground.

But our nation’s interests extend far beyond Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, almost 40,000 Sailors are deployed and about 39% of our ships and submarines are on deployment. That is an extraordinarily high percentage. And we’re delivering on our maritime strategy around the globe. Just this past month, in the vicinity of Hawaii, 14 nations, 32 ships, 5 submarines and more than 170 aircraft took part in the Rim of the Pacific exercise. And in the Mediterranean, our 6th Fleet commander on board USS Mount Whitney participated in exercises alongside the naval forces of France, Russia, and Great Britain. The USS George Washington, a carrier airwing, six destroyers, a fast attack submarine and maritime patrol aircraft conducted Exercise Invincible Spirit with the Republic of Korea navy. That exercise was an important one that showed our solidarity with the Republic of Korea after they had one of their ships unexpectedly torpedoed by North Korea. And in maritime security, we conducted maritime civil affairs & security training in six countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America. And in humanitarian assistance and disaster response, the USS Iwo Jima supplemented by naval mobile construction forces concluded our humanitarian assistance mission in Haiti, while at the same time, USS Peleliu Amphibious Ready Group and the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit are bringing flood relief to the people of Pakistan from the sea.

And I mentioned the power projection and forward presence being provided by the Harry S. Truman tonight, as we sit here having dinner together.

We continue to prove ourselves to be an adaptable, flexible, and fast responders, and globally we’re seeing the demand for our forces continue to rise and be in greater demand than ever before. In watching developments, I remain convinced of our maritime strategy’s continued relevance, and I am re-committed to the imperatives of that strategy: to prevent or to win in conflict, with the resources that it requires. Successive budgets from the fiscal year 2010 through the Navy’s program submission that we’ve just concluded for 2012 have been consistent with that commitment to the Maritime Strategy. As was the Department of Defense’s Quadrennial Defense Review or ‘QDR’, as was the recent Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panel report that was commissioned by Congress and released late last month.

That report reaffirmed the conclusions that we reached in our Maritime Strategy in 2007, expressing concern over a developing mismatch between force structure and our valid operational requirements. As you might be aware, that report that was just issued calls for a bigger fleet, and the floor of 313 ships that I’ve articulated since becoming the CNO has been encompassed in the number in that report.

And we’re also balancing our investments in ships and aircraft with systems to defeat the most challenging threats that we will face. We’re building information dominance, we’re building increased capacity in electronic warfare and ballistic missile defense, and intelligence, surveillance reconnaissance.

I welcome the report that was just issued and the larger public discussion over the size and composition of the Navy because it’s important, I believe, that all Americans realize that we as a Navy are in a different position than we were when we’ve been fiscally challenged in the past.

The size of the fleet is much smaller. We are the smallest fleet that we have been since 1916, and our responsibilities and our interests are much greater than they were in 1916. The industrial base of the nation, something that I consider to be a strategic asset for a country is very different than it was in the last downturn. The last time we saw the budgets decline, there were six major shipbuilding corporations in the United States. Today, there are two. Our nuclear fleet – in the past would depend on eight major corporations, today there are two. The overhead costs that we experience are a result of a decrease in fleet size and not the commensurate decrease with all the infrastructure that we in the Navy posses. And the cost of operating the Navy, globally, is becoming more expensive.

But I think the security environment that we face as our forces are withdrawn in the coming years in the Middle East will actually be different as well. Sovereignty concerns by nations will increase and may outright preclude the involvement of extensive land-based forces in the future. Global economic trends are changing allies, partners and “others.” Also while our Navy is very different, we face an emerging global order which requires more naval power if we hope to shape that order favorably.

In sum, the demand for naval capabilities is only increasing. It increases because the ability to overcome diplomatic, geographic, and military impediments to access areas of national interest has re-emerged as a necessity for U.S. influence and power overseas, and that demand will not soon fade – indeed, I think, as night follows day, it will only grow. This is certainly no time in this country, for what I call “sea blindness.” We must all recognize the importance of the seas to this nation and the importance of the Navy to this nation.

With the juxtaposition of the limited defense budgets against a growing demand for naval power in mind, we in the Navy have had to recast our approach to procurement, and focus efforts on developing affordable capabilities in capacity. We started down a new path programmatically in the last couple of years and we’ve cancelled some programs and we’ve truncated some programs, such as the DDG 1000. And shortly after becoming the CNO, there were some ships that we received bids for that were simply far too expensive, and we cancelled those. And I will tell you, I am going to continue to do that as long as I am in this position.

But we changed our processes to improve the decisions that we make. We merged the directors of intelligence and command control so that we could oversee our operations globally in ways that we never have been able to before. We created a fleet cyber command that is now moving into a leadership position in the world of cyber. We’re re-imagining naval power for dominance in the information age with cyber power for non-kinetic solutions on what I call the ‘left side of the kill chain.’ Sometimes not as glamorous as the things that are blowing up, but it’s where you can really influence some events. And we’ve created from all of the professionals we have in our Navy that deal with information, we’ve created an Information Dominance Corps. When you bring all of those together it’s 44,000 extraordinary professionals. And they come from the communities of intelligence, cryptology, information professional, meteorology and oceanography, and information warfare communities. Many of whom are here with us tonight.

Our program that we have put forward for the coming year solidifies our departure from what we call a platform-centric approach – an approach where we only look at the ship, submarine and the airplane – to one that centers on war fighting wholeness, where we look at anti-submarine warfare, ballistic missile defense, littoral combat, and unmanned capabilities as priorities. It seeks to reduce overhead for us to capture some of those funds for operations and maintenance, as well as new construction, for when it comes to capacity, quantity matters. Quantity becomes a capacity. And we’re resolved to maintain the fleet we have to the end of its expected service life and build affordable ships and aircraft by focusing our program management on total ownership costs and common equipment.

Our goal as we budget for the future is to turn a path to a force that can be sustained and positions us well for the Secretary of Defense’s effort to find efficiencies that we began this summer. That process continues and it will for the foreseeable future, but I believe it should continue in this environment in which we live. But I am also confident the navy will fare well because it’s an effort that we have already been on the path to achieving.

But over time, one has to consider the stress we’re placing on the force, and the impact that stress places on our most important factor in the Navy, and that is our people.

In the operations we conduct globally today, and in the fleet we are building for tomorrow, people will become even more important. Today’s sailors are the highest quality service men and women with whom I have ever served, and they – not the ships and the aircraft and the submarines – are where the real power of our Navy resides. And we will only ask more of them in the emerging security environment of the future. That’s why I remain focused on providing wide-ranging support to our Sailors & to their families. Our emphasis on family readiness programs – dependent healthcare, child and youth education services, public-private venture housing – are crucial in determining whether a Sailor can focus on the mission at hand, and whether he or she will choose to continue their service or take their extensive training elsewhere. Our commitment to a continuum of care – with programs like Navy Safe Harbor program that’s focused on our wounded warriors that are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, and operational stress control where we work with those Sailors who are repeated deployments – these are all part of the covenant we keep with our fighting men and women who put themselves in harm’s way. And our commitment to a continuum of service for those considering a transition from active duty with the career transition office and the career management system where we have interactive detailing makes for better informed decisions by those men and women that are making that career choice, and it reflects our commitment to a total force. Not a force of just active and reserve, but a Navy that is one.

Our comprehensive approach to support is not lost on our Sailors, and we’ve seen some very positive retention and recruitment rates. The economy to be sure is part of that, but it is not all of it. We continue to build on what we set as a goal, of being a top 50 employer in the United States. We started building on our foundation of integrity and professionalism and service to attract the best and brightest towards naval service and rewarding careers in the Navy. In the past two years, we’ve garnered 26 awards for our competitive benefits and life/work balance options. In some cases we became the first federal entity to be recognized for ethics, for vision, for innovation and for our global outlook. And we continue to attract and to retain motivated and impressive young Americans who answer the call of service above self.

But I continue to watch the health of our force, and believe that we cannot let up on our current efforts if we want to man the sustainable fleet we need. When you consider that only 28% of American youth qualify for military service today, our options going forward are not as plentiful as many might think. The Navy is and will remain a highly technical service, but during my visits to leading technical universities across the country, I’ve been struck by how few Americans aspire to study in areas of science, technology, math and engineering. The Navy does not yet reflect what I call the face of the nation, which it must do if we are to remain relevant to the security of all Americans. As American demographics change, the pool of potential leaders changes with it, and we want to include as many qualified applicants as we possibly can. We in the Navy need the help of organizations like the Navy League, and the type of activities like the gentlemen Kathleen pointed out, where he works with underprivileged kids to show them the benefits of what the Navy has to offer. Because we have to continue to reach out to those communities who do not yet know us, and we have to let young people know about the opportunities for leadership, for service and education that they could find in the Navy today. Because there is great potential benefit for both the Navy and the nation in bringing discussions like this – about the value of our Navy in the emerging global order, and of the boundless opportunities inherent in naval service to the next generation of Americans, those who will be best equipped to lead a global Navy in the information age.

I’m proud of what our Navy does on every ocean, on every day. Ours is really a global force for good. Its unique advantages, its flexibility, coming from the sea, and rapid response, are relevant today and they will only become more so as the characteristics of the future security environment fully emerge.

It makes sense to invest in our navy, and I’m confident that wise investment and knowledgeable sailors will continue to serve the nation well, now and into the future. Finally, to all of you here tonight, I appreciate your unwavering support for everyone who wears this uniform, and for all you do to ensure the continued maritime strength of our great country.

Thank you very much.