II. NAVAL EXPEDITIONARY FORCES

EXECUTING THE NATIONAL MILITARY STRATEGY TODAY

Our National Military Strategy of Flexible and Selective Engagement defines two national military objectives: promoting stability and thwarting aggression. It also outlines three sets of tasks: peacetime engagement; deterrence and conflict prevention; and fight to win. Because we are a maritime nation with vital economic and security interests that span the earth's oceans, we must meet the military objectives through overseas presence and power projection, which naval forces are ideally suited to execute. Indeed, forward presence and power projection form the centerpiece of strategic guidance in the white papers ...From the Sea and Forward ... From the Sea.

U.S. naval forces remain a critical ingredient in promoting and protecting national interests. Joint Vision 2010 outlines a plan for achieving the objectives set by our National Military Strategy — a strategy revalidated by the Joint Strategy Review, a strategy that demands the unique capabilities of sea-based forces. Joint Vision 2010 also notes the rapid advances in command, control, communication, and intelligence capabilities, and links information superiority with emerging technologies to create four new operational concepts: dominant maneuver; precision engagement; full-dimensional protection; and focused logistics. These concepts highlight many of the unique capabilities that sea-based forces possess today, and provide a framework for 21st-century execution of our enduring strategic concepts of overseas presence and power projection. They will enhance our naval forces' ability to continue to play a critical role: persuasive in peace, compelling in crisis, and capable in every aspect of war.

Persuasive in Peace

Naval forces play a unique and vital role in maintaining U.S. overseas presence. Their full combat capability, inherent mobility, and capacity for self-sustained operations make them an expeditionary force without peer. A balanced, forward-deployed naval force serves multiple purposes. Simultaneously, it can reassure friends and allies, build and enhance coalition interoperability, deter potential aggressors, and respond effectively to crisis or war. On any given day, roughly 30% of the Navy and Marine Corps' operating forces – more than 50,000 men and women and 100 ships – are deployed throughout the world. Our carrier battle groups and amphibious ready groups with embarked Marine expeditionary units are forward-deployed to achieve near-continuous presence in four major deployment hubs: the Mediterranean Sea, the Arabian Gulf/Indian Ocean, the Western Pacific, and the Caribbean. In Japan, we maintain a Marine expeditionary force as well as the forward-stationed Independence (CV 62) battle group and the Belleau Wood (LHA 3) amphibious ready group. Finally, the Navy's Western Hemisphere Group specifically is focused on supporting our nation's counterdrug efforts as well as strengthening and improving our ties to Caribbean and South American friends and allies. From these strategically placed forward locations, naval forces can quickly deploy to crisis areas outside these regions.

Naval forces participate in the full range of peacetime-engagement activities. This year alone, Navy ships made 1,629 port visits to 99 nations, including such frequently visited ports as Freemantle, Australia, and Naples, Italy, and ports where U.S. forces are seldom seen — such as Shanghai, China, and St. Petersburg, Russia. Each of these visits provided enormous benefits through military-to-military contacts and goodwill established with local communities. These ships hosted hundreds of thousands of visitors onboard. In return, more than 20,000 Sailors and Marines went into nearby communities to participate in numerous public-service projects, such as refurbishing schools and orphanages and providing basic medical care.

Navy and Marine Corps cooperative efforts with the sea, land, and air forces of friends and allies are essential to successful coalition building. The enhanced relationships and interoperability — gained through 160 major multi-national and bilateral exercises with 64 different countries — increase U.S. capability and credibility in forming and maintaining coalition partnerships to deter aggression and control crises. Because sea-based forces do not require sophisticated support facilities ashore to operate with other nations, the burden imposed on any exercising partner's infrastructure is limited. Ultimately, the interaction of our naval forces with other nations provides tangible evidence of our commitment to peace and regional security.

Naval forces also are critical to joint force information superiority. They extend the national command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) system throughout the littorals in peacetime, enabling the intelligence preparation of a potential battlespace well before crises or conflicts. These forces maintain operational familiarity with potential areas of conflict, and with coalition partners and potential adversaries. Our contribution to information superiority is critical today, and will be even more significant in joint warfare of the future.

Recurring natural disasters, civil wars, and challenges to international law and order have led to an increase in the number of military operations other than war — including humanitarian relief, counterdrug, counterterrorism, and peace operations. These efforts usually require the disciplined, highly mobile, self-contained, and well-organized response capabilities inherent in our military services. Forward-deployed in a high state of readiness, naval expeditionary forces are especially attractive candidates to conduct these types of operations.

As a key tenet of our National Military Strategy, our military forces must present a credible deterrent to an adversary's most potent weapon. As long as nuclear weapons are deployed in a manner that threatens our homeland or other national interests, we must continue to discourage their proliferation and use. Fundamental to overall nuclear deterrence is our highly mobile and capable strategic ballistic missile submarine force. This force, able to remain undetected at sea, is the most survivable element of the nation's strategic nuclear triad.

Forces based in the continental United States do contribute, but the key to successful conventional deterrence lies in combat-credible forces overseas. Visible forward-deployed naval expeditionary forces clearly convey to potential aggressors our capability to both deny and punish — and to do so quickly and effectively. These forces also are bought and paid for as part of our budget. A distinct advantage of naval expeditionary forces is their ability to act as sovereign extensions of our nation, free of the political encumbrances that might inhibit or limit the employment of ground and land-based air forces. Our conventional deterrence capability enhances regional stability by deterring aggression and reassuring allies and friendly nations of our commitment to their well-being. These naval capabilities combine to make our forces truly persuasive in peace.

Compelling in Crisis

Naval forces involved in peacetime engagement also serve the nation by providing immediate crisis response capabilities. Their expeditionary character becomes more pronounced when nations are reluctant to offer visible support or grant access, either for fear of reprisal or because the warning is ambiguous. Operating in an uncertain world, the Navy-Marine Corps team – highly mobile, self-sustaining, and responsive in nature – is a prudent first choice when our national interests are threatened. Naval forces, on scene at the onset of a crisis or conflict, represent the Nation's willingness to act and share in the risks. To limit the extent of a crisis, U.S. leadership is provided a wide range of options, including: naval fires for fire support, interdiction and strike missions; amphibious operations; special operations; and Marine air-ground task force operations ashore. These forces also serve as the immediately available and visible forward element of the powerful combination of joint forces that can be projected from the continental United States. These attributes result in naval forces frequently being used as an instrument of our foreign policy. Naval forces are suited ideally for conducting rapid noncombatant evacuation operations when U.S. citizens or foreign nationals are at risk, supporting U.N. sanctions or crisis response. A number of operations, that clearly demonstrated naval crisis-response capabilities during the past year, are discussed in the following chapter.

An increasingly important issue in promoting regional stability during a crisis is our emerging ability to extend theater missile defenses (TMD) to joint forces, friends, and allies — unobtrusively, from offshore. Mobile, sea-based TMD will enhance the security and safety of friendly nations by providing defense against missile attacks by rogue states. Building on the existing Aegis system, the Navy is vigorously pursuing area and theater missile defense capabilities.

The Navy-Marine Corps team continues to be a powerful, visible, and credible instrument for supporting national policies and preventing conflict. Forward-deployed naval forces, expeditionary and adaptive in nature, are the preeminent force for deterrence and conflict prevention, and they are able to bring sustained, decisive force to bear when required. Naval forces protect our nation's global interests — most of which reside within the littorals. Their on-scene capability, ready to respond immediately to the nation's tasking, makes them compelling in crisis.

Capable in Every Aspect of War

The ability to fight and win against any adversary is the irreducible core of the U.S. military. Naval forces are an integral part of this joint capability. When deterrence fails, forward-deployed naval forces, working with other U.S. and coalition forces, must blunt an adversary's offensive, prevent him from consolidating its position, and protect friendly forces until additional combat power can arrive in theater. The speed and flexibility of these forward-deployed naval forces provide the National Command Authorities with viable options during the initial stages of a crisis or conflict. In recent years, rapid repositioning of carrier battle groups and amphibious ready groups has been instrumental to national policy execution. The acquisition and deployment of the F/A-18 E/F will enhance significantly our strike capability and will ensure continued air superiority in future conflicts.

Naval forces must guarantee maritime superiority and provide strategic sealift to transport joint and allied forces into theater. Using the sea as a secure maneuver space, naval forces can ensure dominant maneuver at the operational level, throughout the littorals. The sea-control, strategic-sealift, and forcible-entry capabilities inherent in our naval forces are essential to attaining dominant maneuver by joint forces. Procurement and development of the MV-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft and the advanced amphibious assault vehicle, coupled with the present utility of the air cushion landing craft and highly capable amphibious shipping, will provide improved tactical and operational mobility for over-the-horizon maneuver. The threat of amphibious operations disrupts enemy planning and execution, forcing it either to concentrate its forces at the most likely avenues of approach or to spread its defenses to cover the entire threatened area. In either case, the enemy's action – or inaction – will expose gaps and vulnerabilities that joint or combined forces can exploit.

Maneuver operations from the sea provide an opportunity to exploit unique naval advantages in executing precision engagement. Naval precision engagement underscores the Navy-Marine Corps team's ability to tailor force packages for specialized and task-organized missions, to employ special-operations forces and Marine air-ground task forces, and to deliver extremely accurate and high-volume naval fires. We are leveraging technology aggressively to enhance precision engagement and destroy targets that become exposed in the course of our dominant maneuver.

Emerging technology will allow naval forces to employ a wide range of ordnance against targets ashore. Our weapons can be delivered from a variety of platforms, with unprecedented flexibility and lethality. These fires can be launched from well beyond an opponent's reach. Sea-based engagement permits rapid maneuver and sustained concentration of lethal fires from far less vulnerable positions. Integrating precision fires with extensive command, control, computers, communication, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) will allow us to quickly transmit tasking orders for strike, interdiction, and fire support, to accurately deliver the appropriate ordnance, to conduct timely battle damage assessment, and to reattack when required. In 1996, the Navy's Cooperative Engagement Capability, which links sea, air, and land sensors to firing platforms for air and missile defense, supported the first-ever successful engagement of an air target that was well beyond a firing unit's radar horizon. Improvements in Tomahawk cruise missiles and innovations in naval surface fire support and weaponry — such as the Arsenal Ship and improved munitions, to include the extended range guided munition and a Navy tactical missile system — hold the potential to increase dramatically the ability to conduct precision-engagement operations.

Naval forces also provide the defensive umbrella under which joint and combined forces can deploy safely during a conflict. These forces counter enemy threats from the air, land, or sea. Beyond defensive measures, naval contributions to full-dimensional protection will include offensive initiatives to eliminate potential threats at the source. Sea-based defenses will, in many circumstances, be the only capability available at the onset of a crisis. They provide critical protection to forces flowing into theater by airlift, sealift, or prepositioning ships.

The future long-range delivery of weapons of mass destruction will increase the importance of force protection for U.S., allied, and coalition forces. The emergence of naval theater missile defense capabilities will reassure potential coalition partners and allies, and will be critical for gaining access to overseas bases and infrastructure. Another critical part of full-dimensional protection are units such as the Marine Corps Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Teams and the Chemical-Biological Incident Response Force. These units provide protection against terrorism and consequence management for chemical and biological incidents, respectively.

Controlling the undersea battlespace remains a unique naval capability and is a vital aspect of sea control. Our dominance in this arena counters the threat posed by advanced capability submarines and sea mines and enables early preparation of the battlespace through surveillance and intelligence collection. Additionally, since over 90% of the material required to support a land campaign arrives by sea, undersea battlespace dominance ensures other elements of the joint force may transit successfully to the objective. Concern with the growing challenge posed by submerged threats to our power projection forces prompted the Navy to establish the "Anti-Submarine Warfare Requirements Division" under the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Resource and Warfare Requirements. This organization assesses the Navy's undersea warfare capabilities to ensure continued undersea battlespace dominance.

Naval forces provide the strategic sealift to transport forces into theater and to ensure the uninterrupted flow of logistical support — the lifeblood of any military operation. Self-sustaining endurance is an intrinsic strength of naval expeditionary forces. As the vulnerability of large stockpiles ashore continues to increase, sea-based logistics will become even more important. The Navy and Marine Corps are experimenting actively with innovative concepts to overcome the logistic challenges associated with supporting a land campaign from the sea. Future developments in the Maritime Prepositioning Force and advances in ship design are part of the answer to these challenges. Providing focused logistics from the sea in support of forces throughout the littorals will become a reality, as innovative concepts reducing logistic requirements are tested and proved.

Naval forces make critical contributions during all phases of conflict, to include: maritime, air, and information superiority; Marine air-ground task force, Maritime Prepositioning Force, and amphibious operations; precise naval fires for fire support, interdiction, and strike; special forces operations; and crucial sea-based logistics. This wide range of missions demonstrate our naval force capabilities in every aspect of war.

Total Force Integration

To ensure success, throughout the full range of missions that have been discussed, requires the seamless integration of active and reserve forces in the Total Force package. This is critical with today's smaller active-duty force strength. Unprecedented levels of Reserve support in 1996 has increased reserve readiness while helping to maintain an acceptable operational tempo for our active forces. Through this total integration of our active and reserve forces, naval capabilities are further enhanced and our overall ability to meet all taskings is increased.

In conclusion, our continued operational primacy depends on the total integration of our warfighting capabilities. Proliferation of precision technology will make it increasingly dangerous to mass forces ashore, especially in the early stages of a conflict. During this period, joint force commanders can look to naval forces to provide fire support, logistics, and operational maneuver from the sea. Forward-deployed naval forces serve as a catalyst for joint operations. Our capabilities fully support Joint Vision 2010 operational concepts of dominant maneuver, precision engagement, full-dimensional protection, and focused logistics.

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