Good afternoon and thank you Admiral Faller and Admiral Boxall, great to be with you and all our shipmates from the Navy and industry! Good afternoon CNO, VCNO, Admirals, Generals, and esteemed guests. 

Thank you to Captain Chris Bushnell, Julie Howard, Debbie Gary, and the entire SNA Team for another fantastic National Symposium. Thanks for your leadership, energy, and commitment to our Surface Force… I’m fired up about this year’s theme: “Surface Warfare: Combat Ready Warfighters for 250 Years.” 

I thought it was great to hear from Professor Craig Symonds at the beginning. His point about history, seeming inevitable after the fact, is so true. It’s the decisions we make now that will affect how inevitable history will seem later. So, I’m a big fan of his. We are very fortunate that he will host tomorrow night’s Naval Heritage Celebration; you don’t want to miss it- Chris Bushnell has extra tickets come see him in the front. And for those of you who don’t know, Dr. Symonds was a history professor at the Naval Academy when I was a Midshipman and he had a fierce reputation as a tough grader, in fact, he’s responsible for the only 'B' Admiral Bill Daly ever received… Bill, I’m glad that GPA hit in HH347 did not set you back. 

But seriously, that video is a fitting tribute to our 250th birthday year, which has been a joy to celebrate, and we’ve shamelessly stretched that celebration out for a full year… besting my mother-in-law, call sign “Nana,” who makes her birthday last the whole month. 

Levity aside, this is more than just a milestone. For 250 years, the Surface Force has been a symbol of maritime excellence, and today we stand on the brink of a new era, the age of our Golden Fleet. Our team is rapidly moving out to make this Fleet into reality. 

Last year when we talked, I rolled out our updated strategy, Competitive Edge 2.0. 

I outlined our framework for advancing the Surface Warfare Enterprise, including how to introduce new warfighting capabilities, develop new operational concepts, and develop leaders and warriors to operate our evolving fleet. 

Since then, we’ve put that strategy into execution and we’ve had a great year. After Operation Rough Rider, the fight in the Red Sea came to a successful conclusion. We had 35 ships involved in that fight going back to October of ’23 and thank the Lord, not a single Sailor was hurt, and all those ships would come back home safe. We also executed Operation Midnight Hammer and four ships supported the Ballistic Missile Defense of Israel. We are actively bolstering the territorial integrity of the United States—a mission most recently and humanly demonstrated in Operation Absolute Resolve. On top of that, we deployed 46 warships in 2025. While I’d like to tell 46 stories about all the incredible things our ships did, we’d be here all day and I know  SECNAV comes on at 1600.   

So beyond many successful operations, 2025 has been a fantastic year. There’s never been a better time to be a Surface Warrior. We are forging the world's best Leaders, Warriors, Mariners, and Managers. That’s why this remains the first line of effort in our Competitive Edge 2.0 strategy. Here are some of the wins that Line of effort accumulated: 

Last year, Force Master Chief Lynch launched the Chief Petty Officer Leadership School and have graduated 22 Chiefs in its inaugural pilot courses. Integrated directly into the CPO initiation process, this program targets newly selected Chiefs at the most critical juncture of their transition to senior enlisted leadership. The curriculum focuses on developing core leadership competencies, ethical decision-making, and building resilience, essential traits for our deckplate Leaders. And our work on the deckplate starts even before a new check-in arrives. We’ve improved and standardized the process of bringing new Sailors to the fleet way before they step on board. We integrate our new Shipmates as early as possible and put them on a deliberate path to contribute to our mission with our World Class Onboarding Playbook. 

We’ve made significant strides in our Leadership Assessment Program for Officers and Senior Enlisted. We’ve officially codified our Surface Warfare Command Leadership Assessment (SWCLA) board as a requisite step for command eligibility. But we’re not stopping there, we’re moving this process left, ensuring that Junior Officers are exposed to this leadership assessment earlier in a coaching format, giving them the tools and experience to become the leaders we need, and they want to become. 

In parallel with leadership development, in 2025 we made significant investments in our Sailors’ technical expertise. Our Advanced Engineering Instructors, think engineering WTIs, for both Officers and Enlisted, have had 46 graduates to date. This is real deckplate impact- you see Lt. Se, USS Green Bay’s Auxiliaries Officer and avail manager, pictured there on the far left. 

Together with LT Sur, the AEI from the Surface Group, they stood up the inaugural Junior Officer Assessment Training on the San Diego waterfront to teach DIVOs how to succeed in an industrial environment. Some might call it how to survive in the industrial environment. And note the flight suit on the far right, the course is so good even aviators came to the class!! 

Just as we develop Sailors, we must forge ships that embody commensurate strength and readiness. The second line of effort in our Competitive Edge 2.0 strategy is producing more ready ships. More ready ships require functional equipment. As an example, at the end of October, Curtis Wilbur returned home after a 7-month, 80,000 nautical mile deployment … and, perhaps the most impressive stat from her deployment came at the very beginning.  

When she deployed on the 26th of March, she got underway with only 2 CASREPs, and just a reminder, that’s hull number 54 … an incredible accomplishment for the 31-year-old destroyer. How do they do that? Process improvement. Cmdr. Yilei Liu and his team didn’t just work harder. 

They instituted a troubled systems drumbeat where Sailors briefed their Triad directly on what barriers they were encountering. This empowered the Junior Sailors to demand answers from both tech reps and find creative solutions across work centers. They grew a culture of maintenance and their deployment embodied their motto – truly the steel hammer of the fleet. Here’s the proudest moment of any Captain – coming safely home from deployment. 

And for a historic first, last year we forward deployed three Littoral Combat Ships with the Mine Countermeasure Mission Package to Bahrain: Canberra, Tulsa, and Santa Barbara.  

I love this photo of Bill Golden, you can see him there in the middle talking about the MCM mission package. You can see the back of Adm. Wikoff, Fleet Commander, he’s there and our regional partners are standing around checking it all out. Bill will be on our CO panel later in the week, you don’t want to miss that! He had an amazing deployment on Canberra, and here’s the result of that capability deployment – the decommissioning of our Avenger-class MCMs after good and faithful service.

This kind of readiness generation isn’t glamorous, it’s gritty. It takes commitment and hard work coupled with innovation. And much like our whole-of-force investments for Sailor development- it takes enterprise-wide drive to make progress. It’s committing to the OPN-8 funding curve to ensure we have healthy spares stockpiles which are predictive and available, empowering Sailor self-sufficiency. 

It’s thinking differently to take advantage of what we do have, like re-evaluating our allowances and inventories to optimize our existing assets to avoid system down-time. This sort of common-sense approach to equipping our warfighters has delivered measurable readiness gains and advanced our material redundancy across the Force. The culmination of this synergy creates ready warfighting teams. What captures the enterprise success of 2025 is a warship like USS The Sullivans. 

Christmas Eve aboard The Sullivans, just over a year ago. It’s 0300, the Anti-Air Warfare Coordinator, a seasoned LDO, Lieutenant James Boland, detected a ballistic missile launch from Yemen. Within moments, the kinematics were confirmed—the missile was bound for Israel.

The Tactical Action Officer, Lt. Cmdr. Andy Martinez (who’s here…where’s, Andy?), Andy is an Integrated Air and Missile Defense Warfare Tactics Instructor, and he passed the word over the 1MC: “Captain to Combat.” The team had trained for this and knew this was not a drill.

In the thirty seconds it took for [Commanding Officer] Matthew Rechkemmer and Executive Officer Rod Hanks (where are you, Rod?) to arrive in CIC, systems were verified, weapons were postured, and authorities were confirmed. A final sanity check. An engagement order. And then words every CIC watch stander loves: “FIS green.” 

Moments later, darkness turned to light as an interceptor erupted from aft VLS. The sound carried through the ship. Fire Controlman Second Class Emmarie Eppers, standing Missile System Supervisor, calmly reported, “Eagle away.”

Time slowed. 

On screens across watch stations, two tracks closed in on one another at-speed—training and technology converging in a single moment. Margin for error, zero. 

Then both tracks disappeared.

The TAO received a message – probable kill. 

A brief cheer in CIC followed. One cleansing breath. And then the team locked back in. 

Fast forward seven months later on their deployment…The Sullivans prepared for her eighth Suez Canal transit, urgent orders arrived directing her to the Eastern Mediterranean. 

Before arriving on station, the words “Fireball, Fireball, Fireball” rang across the tactical circuits. Moments later, The Sullivans launched her first round in support of the Ballistic Missile Defense of Israel during the 12-Day War. The team was locked in again. Training and tech were harmonized to meet the mission, rooted in literally thousands of reps and sets. 

Engagement after engagement, the ship executed her mission. And in doing so, expended the BMD inventory. The Sullivans had done exactly what we ask of our deployers: she stayed on station, took the shots, and accomplished the mission. That success created a new operational requirement. To stay in the fight, The Sullivans had to rearm rapidly. 

Training prepares the force not only for anticipated challenges, but for those that emerge without much warning, too. That principle underpins readiness. Deliberate, realistic training is essential. 

Months before the deployment, The Sullivans had conducted a Tactical Reload Training Evolution, an innovative concept designed to rapidly rearm their ship after missile expenditure—something atypical in the normal workup cycle. At the time, it was labeled as “experimental,” emerging from a Competitive Edge 2.0 line of effort. Sullivans would go on to execute tactical reload multiple times. That performance was no accident. It was the direct result of early investment in realistic training. 

This is where the foundry meets the fight, where innovative concept marries with deliberate training for violent effect.

The success of The Sullivans proves our strategy is working. Yes, the systems performed, yes, the radar worked, yes, the missiles consummated engagements. But the decisive factor was the human one. It was the composure of FC2 Eppers and the instincts of a team who had trained on the hard stuff—tactical reload, high-clutter radar tuning, and thousands of DTEs—until it was second nature. 

Just like we saw in the video when Cmdr. Leigh Tate talked about how many reps and sets they put in before combat. This success validates our focus on the Foundry. 

 

Our most profound enduring advantage is not our technology; it is the initiative, the toughness, and the leadership of the American Sailor. We are investing in that advantage like never before, recognizing that our education must be as cutting-edge as our hardware. Knowing that if we want our warfighting innovation to take off, it has to come from well-trained Sailors. 

But the high-tempo execution of 2025 also comes with a reminder: that Maritime dominance is not permanent. Advantage is fleeting, and the cost of hesitation can be decisive. 

 

To harness advances in AI, cyber, space, and autonomy, we must move decisively and quickly. To drive our competitive edge even further, we must process, decide, and adapt faster than any competitor. But adaptation without application is just mere prototyping. 

Advantage is real only when it is operationalized, when Sailors know how to work the latest and greatest. Because as The Sullivans showed so visibly, when the bridge is dark and the stakes are real, you don’t rise to the occasion—you fall to the level of your training. 

Bottom line: winning in high-end warfare requires innovation and training.

In 2026, we are taking both to the next level through two important lessons from last year.

• First: We must move towards maximum redundancy. 

• Second: We must innovate with even greater urgency.

So, let me start with the maximum redundancy part. For decades, we optimized for the efficiency of just-in-time logistics. That era is over. A 30-day supply chain is a liability when the fight is 30 seconds. Operations in the Red Sea drove home hard facts; sending ships forward at maximum redundancy is an operational imperative, not a luxury. My Boss, Adm. Koehler, who gets this better than anyone else, tells me this all the time- “it should all work and I want it all, all the time.” 

I benchmark against this and our Strike Group Commanders’ specific Combat Readiness Requirements. Ships are designed with redundancy—every circuit, every pump, every sensor must work. A system-level sparing strategy is required for combat readiness. This takes resourcing beyond just the operational availability calculation of the past. We have to invest more in parts and people to always be ready on deployment, and we count on industry to deliver this functionality once resourced. 

It is maintenance that turns spare parts into combat power. Maintenance execution is inseparable from our sparing strategy. We are continuing improvements in maintenance in on time completion through both process changes and targeted manning. We are surging expertise where it matters most: investing Port Engineers in key hubs, doubling them on Large Deck Amphibs, and funneling Advanced Engineering Instructors to surf groups. On-time completion remains our number one goal as we drive towards zero days of maintenance delay. 

We’re making a significant investment in ship maintenance and Sailor self-sufficiency by re-establishing Shore-Intermediate Maintenance Activities (SIMAs) in Norfolk and San Diego. I can see the heads nodding—you know why this matters. These are our technical training centers of excellence. We are turning Sailors into Journeymen who can machine parts and repair systems at the tactical edge. These better-trained Sailors are the foundation of innovation—because the Sailor who understands the system deeply, is the Sailor who adapts it, improves it, and finds new ways. We are pairing this with World Class Planning and AI-generated production schedules to eliminate unplanned work. We need to employ more advanced manufacturing to machine high-end failure parts. The Workshop for Warriors in San Diego not only trains vets to become level 3 welders but they also bring additive manufacturing capability to the San Diego waterfront which is desperately needed by our regional maintenance center. We need to wake up and start using this more! 

To combine innovation with maintenance and training, we’re expanding access to the augmented reality maintenance system, or ARMS for short, which you can see in this picture. ARMS leverages AR/VR technology to support real-time troubleshooting and technical assistance across complex shipboard systems—including SPY—so we can diagnose and fix problems in the middle of the Pacific with virtual over-the-shoulder help from In-Service Engineering Agents back in Crane, Indiana.  

This is an amazing difficulty. When I was on deployment during the global pandemic. The closest thing we could do is get them on a VTC, but then they had to walk down about 10 minutes to actually get them on. This will find you there. It’s Amazing. 

 

 

As NFL coaching great Bill Parcells put it… “the best ability is availability.” We’re accelerating what Task Group Greyhound validated, a shorter, more frequent maintenance, increases on-time performance, resulting in more at-sea time for our ships. It’s a 24/6 strategy, which means upping the drydocking periodicity from nine-years to six-years for DDGs and executing shorter, more frequent availabilities in between. This has already proven successful in Rota and the East Coast, and we’re doing all DDGs like this now. 

Our data confirms that availabilities under one year in duration are significantly less likely to incur delays, equating to more combat readiness for our Surface Force.

And availability applies to Sailors, too. While we have had some excellent growth in recruitment and are trending positively in retention, strong headwinds remain we have 6,559 gaps at sea across 157 warships, that averages to 42 Sailors who are missing per ship. 

With that many gaps, we have to pick where we want to take them and when. Thus, to take full advantage of our team training enterprise, the great work our ATGs do, we’re making those investments in Basic Phase. Our goal is to get to peak personnel at the beginning of Basic Phase. This is a high bar and a serious mentality shift for the manning world. To build combat ready teams at the beginning of the training and cycle requires absorbing more gaps in the maintenance phase. This will reduce crew turnover that would naturally occur right before deployment. 

But manning and material readiness are only part of the battle. We also have to fight for our Sailors' time. 

In November, Lt. Chris Rielage from Carl M. Levin, wrote a thought-provoking piece for CIMSEC on reducing the administrative distractions on our warships. He called for a 'Night Court' for administrative requirements.  

I love the piece and I love the challenge. So, we’re doing this, this month. Capt. Tony Hyde (where are ya, Tony? There you are.), So Tony is going to be the judge. We are going to take the lessons from these initial scrubs and then open the floor to the waterfront—accelerating the review of any program that doesn't directly contribute to our readiness. 

So, that’s how we’re working on maximum redundancy. 

Now let me turn to the second lesson for this year: we must innovate with urgency. That urgency is anchored in three imperatives: we must move faster than our adversaries, we must unlock combat power through software and data, and we must operationalize unmanned systems in ways that put Sailors, teamed with platforms, at the center of the fight. As The Sullivans demonstrated, warfighting advantage does not come from individual programs or one-off successes. It comes from trained Sailors who can learn in combat, adapt quickly, and apply those lessons at speed when it matters most. This is what innovation by design looks like in practice. 

And in that spirit, first, we are prioritizing speed in developing lethal and reliable systems.

In modern maritime combat, the decisive advantage goes to the force that can sense, decide, and act faster than the adversary. That’s why we institutionalized the rapid feedback loop developed during Red Sea fight—breaking missile shots down like NFL game film and pushing those lessons immediately back to the Fleet from SMWDC, Dahlgren, PEO IWS and industry. This is how tactical insight becomes operational advantage, not months later, but in near-real time. This is the exact sort of feedback that was given to Andy Martinez and Rod Hanks on The Sullivans, both WTIs! Talk about having the right tactical expertise in the seat at the right time. 

That same bias for speed is now shaping how we field capability. Longbow Hellfire is a prime example. Working with our partners at Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, we’re leveraging software changes alone, expanding Longbow’s mission to counter-air—dramatically increasing lethality while reducing cost-per-kill. Building on lessons learned from integration with the Ford Carrier Strike Group, four ships in the TR Strike Group deployed with Longbow, Coyote, and 5-inch Hypervelocity Projectiles, applying lessons learned from recent deployments to increase magazine depth and counter-UAS effectiveness. 

This brings me to the second principle; we are shifting from hardware-centric solutions to software-driven agility.

We are leveraging American leadership in AI and digital engineering to rebalance acquisition risk—away from slow, expensive hardware changes and toward rapid digital iteration. Ultra Maritime’s Next Generation Surface Search Radar exemplifies this shift. 

Instead of costly physical modifications, we are delivering new capabilities—like wave-height sensing—through software updates at the speed of code.

This approach is reinforced by our Warfighting Data Ecosystem, where AI is applied across sensors and weapons to compress the kill chain and turn data into effects in real time—what the Secretary of the Navy calls the “bits-to-effects” cycle. We are moving from years-long development timelines to a model where tactical improvements can be fielded in hours, not years.

Third, we are integrating unmanned systems as operational warfighting assets—putting our Sailors first in design and operational commitments.

Unmanned surface vessels are no longer experimental. When I spoke to you last year, the Surface Navy owned about four small USVs. Today, we own hundreds, with that number growing steadily. 

This year, we will operate Navy-owned small USVs in multiple theaters and deploy medium USVs on the Carrier Strike Group, bringing modular, open-system architecture with containerized payload capability. When it comes to delivering combat power through robotic and autonomous systems in the Surface Force, the future we’ve been looking forward to is now here, thanks to great leading innovators like Capt. Sophia Haberman who’s Commanded USVRON 1 and now USVRON 3. Well done Sophia.

But platforms alone do not create advantage. The advantage comes from Sailors who can integrate manned and unmanned systems into a single, coherent force. That’s why our concentration is on concepts, training, and command-and-control—ensuring these systems extend reach, increase lethality, and reduce risk to the force. Taken together, these efforts—rapid learning, software-enabled capability, and Sailor-centered autonomy—deliver how we will drive the innovation that advances our competitive edge. 

The Surface Navy has a rare opportunity with leadership aligned on delivering lethality, capability, and capacity at speed. As an enterprise, we must continue to think big as we develop the future platforms within the World. We must lay the foundations for the systems on those ships now so that they deliver on their promise to the American people. Developing and scaling software-centricity in our systems is one way we are doing that work. Continued iteration with USS Preble’s HELIOS laser weapons system is another example of this. Last Fall successful at-sea testing paved the way for future laser weapons systems. We need to continue on this path. I am committed to advancing laser technology to the fleet. The dream of a laser on every ship can become a real one.

As we look ahead to 2026 and beyond, there’s a lot to be excited about; we are primed for speed. 

I’m thrilled to be partnering with Vice Adm. Okano and the new Naval Rapid Capabilities Office to ensure we can invest in, evaluate, and field the capabilities our Sailors need— while ensuring those capabilities are operationally relevant from day one. That means aligning the right people, training, sustainment, and tactics from the outset so new systems truly meet Fleet needs. I want to recognize Adm. TJ Zerr and the team at SMWDC for their continued collaboration with the Rapid Capabilities Office to ensure we’re getting the tactical calculus right from the start. 

I’m also encouraged by the innovative small businesses and non-traditional companies at SNA. The competition you bring in is invaluable, and I truly believe it pushes us to be our best. Your creativity and engagement are essential to our progress, so let me be clear – we need and value your innovation. 

And I’ll finish how I started, with an enduring reminder… Our primary weapon system is our Sailor. Our first line of effort is developing more capable Leaders, Warriors, Mariners, and Managers. Through programs like the Advanced Engineering Instructor (AEI) and common sense maintenance actions and reforms, we’re ensuring our systems are fully operational and our storerooms are stocked smartly to achieve maximum redundancy. As we look ahead, manned–unmanned teaming will remain Sailor-centric—integrating autonomous platforms to extend reach, increase lethality, and reduce risk to force. And we are aligning our digital strategy to rebalance acquisition risk in favor of speed, adaptability, and learning. This is how we win. Speed over perfection, software over hardware, and sailor-enabled autonomy. 

In conclusion, for the last 250 years, Sailors sailed the seven seas. Those earliest Sailors didn’t have radar. They didn’t have VLS, and they certainly didn’t have AI-enabled logistics. What they did have was grit, ingenuity, and an unbreakable commitment to win. That same spirit is alive in our force today. We are the stewards of that legacy—and the architects of what comes next. 

We will build a Surface Force defined by readiness, powered by innovation, and anchored in Sailor excellence. 

We will deliver the warships, the crews, and the capabilities required to deter conflict, project power, and—when called—win decisively at sea. 

Readiness is not a future aspiration. It is a requirement today and a requirement for the next 250 years. Perpetual readiness is our mandate. I’m very grateful to our President, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Chief of Naval Operations for their vision and unwavering commitment—support that has never been stronger for our Surface Navy. And because the Navy truly is a family, I want to close by thanking our families. Your sacrifice and support make everything we do possible. You are the steady foundation behind every deployment, every watch, and every win. Your resilience sustains us, your encouragement strengthens us, and your belief in our service allows us to focus fully on the task at hand. The readiness of our force is inseparable from the strength of our families. On behalf of a grateful Surface Navy, thank you very much. 

 

May God Bless you and may God Bless America.