---------------------------------------------------------------- The United States Navy on the World Wide Web A service of the Navy Office of Information, Washington DC The United States Navy web site is found on the Internet at http://www.navy.mil ---------------------------------------------------------------- Remarks by Adm. Mike Mullen Interview with JO2(SW/AW) Chad Bricks, Of Navy-Marine Corps News Washington, D.C. 3 February 2006 Q: What importance does QDR play in the direction of the future Navy? CNO: The QDR will be lots of things to lots of people, but most importantly it will be about you, our Sailors and clearly the Marines, soldiers and airmen in the other services. It comes at it from a very joint perspective and we're a much more joint force than we used to be. And what the QDR endeavors to do is to put into your hands what you need to engage in the future. And that will cover the full spectrum of future missions. Everything from Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief through Major Combat Operations. When the previous QDR was published it was just after 9/11 and the world has changed dramatically since 9/11, and we as a Navy have worked hard to transform ourselves to make sure we bring the capabilities in a very robust way to the future that will continue to be very, very demanding. In many ways this is a long war, and it's a long war that we'll be engaged in for generations. So it's really important that we get this right and we continue to transform, create a Navy that is very relevant for the future. Q: What is the Navy's primary role in "The Long War" - to include the increased use of Special Operations Forces in this fight - and how is our mission growing and changing. What's happening with traditional Naval warfare? Is it less important with the lack of an opposing Naval force? CNO: You use the term 'Long War', and it's important to understand that and really grab this issue because it is going to be around for a significant amount of time. I call it generational. That said, there are still traditional capabilities that are very much required. We are first and foremost a warfighting, seagoing service. We're expeditionary, and the QDR mandates that we become more expeditionary. So the full spectrum of capabilities will be required. This QDR emphasizes a heavy reliance on special operations forces, and in those cases clearly that emphasizes our SEALs who have performed magnificently for many, many decades but all of us need to be thinking more SOF-like. We need to be more agile. We need to be light on our feet. We need to be more precise, more lethal, and it is important for the joint force that we provide that capability. We can do that at sea. We can do that in the maneuver space that freedom of the seas allows us to accomplish, so that emphasis on SOF- like forces is critical, certainly for our SEALs, but also for the rest of our forces. Q: What Navy programs does QDR target to shift? CNO: I think targeting programs is one way to certainly put this, but I think it's really important that we talk about capabilities that we are bringing and then the programs which support that. I previously talked about the Navy being a warfighting, seagoing service. In that regard we have to cover this full spectrum of missions that I described. The characteristics of who and what we are, are really important in that we offer more speed, that we offer more adaptability, flexibility, that we are able to fight from dispersed formations as well as an aggregated formation. That we are netted. That we have the adaptability that's required in order to make a difference in this future warfighting that I've described. And again, across the full spectrum of missions. These characteristics are really important and then it's those characteristics which are then embedded into the programs that QDR very strongly endorses. QDR endorses a larger Fleet. It is clearly a Fleet that is going to be more lethal and more capable across a full spectrum of capabilities with the kind of characteristics that I just described. So as we bring those capabilities in those programs online that QDR talks about, CVN 21, LCS, DD(X), F/A-18G, MMA ForceNet -- the net that makes all this work. As we bring those capabilities in those programs to support those capabilities, QDR has given us a strong upcheck to bring those programs forward in support of these kinds of missions. Most important QDR endorses our people. It endorses the people who make all this happen. And some very significant vectors, if you will, that we need to pay attention to. We're bringing on a new riverine force, and that will take skills. We've stood up a new Expeditionary Combat Command and that will require a new organization and new training. We'll expand our foreign area officer program, increase the kinds of cultural skills that we have for the future in order to engage, not just with our other service, to engage capabilities in the littoral right up to the shore line and indeed in the rivers of countries around the world who ask for our help. So there is a broad range of new capabilities that are very important for the Navy to bring to the future. Q: There seems to be an emphasis in the QDR on broader partnerships and cultural understanding. How much of a focus area is this going to be for the U.S. Navy? CNO: It's going to be a big focus area. Since I've taken over as CNO I've talked about a 1,000-ship Navy, and that's really a coalition of navies around the world participating in a much more interoperable way than we have in the past because of the security requirements in the maritime domain. And there's great interest and support from many, many countries around the world in that regard. I mentioned briefly before, establishing this riverine force, which will clearly emphasize this kind of engagement around the world. The increased requirement for all of us to understand cultures better to have a better facility with languages which are important in the future. The National Security Strategy, which the president recently signed out, has really given importance to the maritime domain, so our work with the Coast Guard in homeland security and establishing maritime domain awareness for our own coast as well as coasts around the world is a critical piece of this as well. So our ability to aggregate and disaggregate, I've described our ability to build a "City At Sea," small or big, where it's needed and do so in the maritime domain using freedom of the seas and relationships with enduring and emerging partners are all critical pieces of these future which I think is a very healthy one for us. Q: The QDR speaks to the need to keep six operational carriers and 60 percent of our submarines in the Pacific. Can you tell us a little about that rationale? CNO: The emphasis on the Pacific is one that is really important for our future n terms of security in the Pacific region. The emphasis both on our aircraft carriers as well as shifting our submarines out there speaks to the critical stability and security requirements in that part of the world. In the Pacific you are talking about something we call the tyranny of distance. It takes a long time to get places, so positioning our capabilities at this particular point in time is a really important strategic move in order to meet what we believe is this future security environment. Q: What are some lessons learned for the Navy pertaining to the Long War that QDR addresses? The Navy and the Marine Corps have always been expeditionary and clearly it emphasizes this important characteristic for us. But it tells us really that we need to be more expeditionary. It tells us we need to be more interdependent, not just the Navy and Marine Corps but the entire joint force. We need to pay particular attention to what's going on in the other agencies in our government because this is a team that must work together to solve these problems both in our own country and internationally. That interdependence, not just across the other services, but also throughout our government is really key. It really moves us in the direction of becoming more interoperable, more interdependent really, in some ways with our allies to their joint forces. So it breaks down stovepipes. We must continue to do that. That's why these characteristics, speed, agility, flexibility, adaptability, are so important. So it really speaks to all of us about this continued press to ensure that we are able to handle the future in a way that we see, in many ways, the enemy adapting to the future to meet that kind of asymmetric threat that's clearly out there which we must do in this long war.