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Well, Jim, thank you. And thanks for the opportunity to be here. It is great to be here at my very first McAleese Defense Program Conference. I really am honored to join all of you and be amongst the exceptional mix of civilians and military leaders that are part of this year's agenda and it's really an incredible honor to lead our Navy team, of over 600,000 active and reserve sailors, our Navy civilians as the 33rd Chief of Naval Operations.
Let me start by saying that I could not be more proud of our Navy team or more focused on delivering the Navy that our nation needs to get after our critically important mission. You know, it's a mission that the 2023 NDAA adjusted, to more fully reflect what the nation needs us to do, both in peacetime, when we are to promote the national security interests and prosperity of the United States, and in wartime, when we are to carry out prompt and sustained combat incident to operations the sea.
This is a mission that we don't do alone. Thanks to the work of our great team of our Marine Corps teammates of our Coast Guard teammates and the work done by many of you here. Our Navy is the most powerful Navy in the world. Together with the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard, we operate far forward around the clock, around the world, from seabed to space, in cyberspace, and in the information environment, to promote prosperity and security, to deter aggression, and provide options every day to our nation's decision makers. You know nearly 90% of the global economy moves by sea each day, roughly 95% of international communications and $10 trillion worth of financial transactions transit via undersea fiber optic cables. In the U.S. alone seaborne trade carries more tonnage and value than any other mode of transportation, generating $5.4 trillion annually and supporting 31 million American jobs.
As we meet today, the rules based international order is under threat in every ocean and as America relies on the sea, the role of our Navy is growing and it's more consequential every day. Just look at the last six months, our Navy is forward and we are operating in situations that are dynamic and often kinetic. In the Middle East the U.S.-led Operation Prosperity Guardian, a defensive coalition of more than 20 nations continues to provide international maritime security in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. It's our Navy team that's leading the way. It includes our destroyers like Carney, Laboon, Mason, and Gravely and fighter squadrons from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, who have worked tirelessly to ensure the free flow of commerce. Together, they have downed over 200 UAVs, as well as many cruise missiles, and for the first time in history, anti-ship ballistic missiles.
Many of those same forces are working alongside several Allies and partners, and they're launching strikes that are designed to degrade and diminish Houthi capability to continue these attacks.
If you look further abroad in the eastern Mediterranean, the Bataan Readiness Group and the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group before them, have sent a clear message of deterrence to those who may seek to escalate the conflict beyond Gaza, and in Europe for the last two years plus, the Navy has been part of the unified response to Russia's horrific and unjustifiable aggression against the sovereign nation of Ukraine.
In the Indo-Pacific, the Carl Vinson and the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Groups, along with ships from the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force have just recently conducted a multi-large deck event in the Philippine Sea. And today, the America Amphibious Readiness Group with the 31st MEU embarked is wrapping up Exercise Iron Fist with Japan, working ashore in the waters near their southwest islands. Our Navy is definitely in high demand but as Secretary Austin has said, “the United States is the most powerful country on Earth. We can walk and chew gum at the same time.” And that is true for the U.S. Navy. No other Navy operates at this scale, or can build, train, deploy and sustain such a lethal distributed maritime force. I think all of this is a testament to the hard work and commitment to excellence over time by many people in this room those online and the teams that you all represent.
But as good as this story is, I know that we cannot rest on our laurels. The threats are real and they are growing. We need to move with purpose and urgency. It's a message that I made clear in January when I released a paper “America's Warfighting Navy.”
The paper talks about who we are, what we do and where we're going and it lays out my three priorities of Warfighting, Warfighters, and the Foundation that supports them. The first is Warfighting, that's about delivering decisive combat power. The second is Warfighters and that's about strengthening our Navy team. And the third is the Foundation. It's the Foundation that supports them, the warfighters and the warfighting by investing in our infrastructure by building relationships, aligning our resources, and quite simply, always being ready.
When I think about who we are, we are the sailors and the civilians who have answered our nation's call to service. And we lead every day with honor, courage and commitment. And when I think about what we do, we're here to preserve the peace, to respond in crisis, and win decisively in war if called to do so. When I think about where we're going, I know that we must move rapidly to stay ahead, the battlefields of tomorrow will be incredibly complex, and they demand that we view everything we do today through a warfighting lens. Our adversaries are adapting new technology and developing novel operational concepts. They are working to undermine our critical strengths and develop their own warfighting advantage. To stay ahead, our Sailors alongside our Marines and Coast Guardsmen must be the very best warfighters in the world. And we must develop and deliver to those warfighters the best systems, weapons and platforms that will deter and defeat any adversary, anytime, anywhere. And there's no time to waste. To get where we need to go we've got to put more players on the field. And when I talk about more players, I'm not just talking about numbers of platforms, although the numbers do matter. And every single study since 2016 has said that we need a larger Navy and we do but it's also about the broader warfighting ecosystem that we're part of that will fight and win as a joint force alongside our Allies and partners.
When I talk about more players on the field, it's about getting the platforms we've contracted for delivered on time and on cost. It's about getting our ships and our submarines in and out of maintenance, on time and on cost. It's about stewardship. The Navy that we have today will largely be the Navy that we're going to have for the next 10 years. We've got to be good stewards, and we've got to keep our platforms serving as long as possible with decisive combat power and all the capabilities that they need. It's also about using what we have in new ways. So, we've got to think, act and operate differently with the fleet that we have today. I think if you look at Ukraine and you look at all the battlefield innovation, we need to think about how do we do the battlefield innovation, but now, before the battle.
More players is also about accelerating the design, the development and the delivery of the Navy's future hybrid fleet.
We're focusing on expanding the reach, the depth and the lethality of our conventionally manned fleet through disruptive and emerging technologies, and that includes unmanned systems. These systems have enormous potential to multiply our combat power by complementing our existing fleet of ships, submarines and aircraft. Through manned unmanned teaming, especially in areas like maritime surveillance and reconnaissance in mine countermeasures, seabed exploration and carrier airwing support.
One of the other ways we're working to quickly identify and get new technology into the hands of our warfighters is through our recently stood up Disruptive Capabilities Office, an office which reports directly to me and the Secretary of the Navy. And finally, it's about how we're increasing interoperability and information sharing with Allies and partners.
But more players is not enough. They must be ready players. More ready players on the field means platforms with the right capabilities, the right weapons, the right sustainment, and it means people with the right skills, tools, training and a winning mindset.
During the last year and a half, I've had a really great opportunity to get out and meet and visit with many stakeholders across our Navy team, our warfighters, as well as folks in industry, people who are making real and lasting contributions to our Navy's mission.
Our Navy partners with over 18,000 contractors across approximately 200,000 contract actions, totaling more than $150 billion each year.
In the past few months I’ve been out to visit industry in California, up in Rhode Island and Connecticut, in Philadelphia, and on Monday I had the chance to visit the Gulf Coast. It's great to get out and see firsthand the critical link between industry and our warfighting advantage.
The investments that we make in these partnerships from our traditional industrial base as well as with new partners are essential to putting more players on the field and ensuring that we are ready to fight and win our nation's wars in this decade and beyond.
I ask for your partnership, your energy, your passion, your expertise, and your focus in this effort.
It's clear that our Navy plays an outsized role in achieving America's security objectives. The decisions we make and the actions we take today will determine the global maritime balance of power for decades to come.
The stakes are high and the time is short. We must act with urgency. The Navy recognizes that speed matters and the pace at which we design, procure, maintain and sustain our force must accelerate.
Taking a page from the interwar period, we need to unleash the creative power of the American Sailor and of American industry. We must accelerate change now and rise to the challenge of this increasingly competitive environment. We need your ideas, your partnership, and most of all your commitment. As we work to put more ready players on the field. We need to be agile and innovative in how we do business. And we need adequate, predictable and reliable funding from Congress. And in all cases, we need to be flexible in our application of funding, to keep pace with rapid technological advancements and operational needs.
None of what I described happens on its own. Keeping our Navy the most powerful Navy in the world requires an all hands on deck effort. And as I said earlier, we view everything through a warfighting lens. And I'll ask that you keep this in mind as we work together to solve our most pressing challenges.
So as I wrap up today, let me just say thank you. Thank you for your exceptional partnership. Thank you for helping us create and sustain warfighting advantage and thank you for the teamwork that makes all of this possible.
Adm. Lisa Franchetti
07 March 2024
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