Good morning, everyone. Distinguished guests, Foreign Heads of Navy, Joint and Combined servicemembers, and ladies and gentlemen – it’s absolutely an honor to be here with in Panama with such great friends, allies, and partners.

I am grateful for the opportunity to engage such a passionate group of leaders who care deeply about the security and stability of our shared American waters.

Because whether you’re from North America or South America … there is no doubt that indeed we are all Americans. More importantly, we are maritime nations. Our prosperity, our security, and in many cases our sovereignty depends upon the sea.

Long before the first aircraft flew or the first satellite was launched, the oceans connected our economies, our people, and our futures. That remains true today.

With that said, I’d like to recognize the longstanding maritime partnerships the United States shares with our fellow seafaring nations throughout the region.

Thank you for investing your time, energy, and resources into what I know is going to be a great Naval Conference.

It’s a privilege to call each of you shipmates.

And I can think of no better place to have this conversation that right here in Panama.

This nation has long stood at the center of maritime commerce and connectivity in the Americas.

The Panama Canal remains one of the world’s most important strategic waterways – linking economies, enabling global trade, and reinforcing the importance of secure access to the maritime commons.

Panama has taken a clear position on commercial port neutrality and adherence to international maritime law. That matters. It reinforces the rules that keep this maritime system stable and open. And the United States will continue to stand with partners who uphold those rules – regardless of pressure from any quarter.

It has connected the Atlantic and Pacific, reduced strategic distance, accelerated trade, and reinforced the importance of maritime access to economic security.

Generations of mariners – military and civilian alike – have understood that the free and secure movement of commerce through this region affects not only our hemisphere, but the broader global economy.

What moves through this Canal every day is not abstract.

It’s energy, food, medicine, manufactured goods, and the economic lifeblood of nations across multiple continents.

And any disruption here – whether caused by natural disaster, cyber-attack, criminal activity, or conflict – reverberates far beyond this region.

That reality reminds all of us that maritime security is shared security. And the strength of this hemisphere is not that our navies are identical. It’s that each of us contributes unique and differentiated value.

Together, those contributions create a maritime network far stronger than any single fleet could generate alone.

No nation represented here can secure the hemisphere alone.

And let me be clear – this is not separate from our global posture. Strong partnerships in this hemisphere do not compete with Indo-Pacific commitments. They enable them. Regional logistics networks, maritime domain awareness, and combined operations give us the distributed advantage the Navy needs to operate globally. That is what modern maritime security requires.

We are meeting at a moment when the maritime environment is rapidly changing.

Artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, cyber capabilities, long-range precision weapons, and space-based sensing are reshaping how naval forces operate. New technologies are changing how naval forces operate, but the real challenge is not collecting more information.

The real challenge is turning information into better decisions faster than our competitors. Future advantage will belong to navies that can sense, assess, synthesize, decide, and act faster than any adversary.

At the same time, maritime challenges across our hemisphere are becoming increasingly interconnected.

Transnational criminal organizations, illegal fishing fleets, cyber threats, and strategic competitors all exploit gaps in awareness, coordination, and governance at sea.

And the pace of change is compressing decision timelines for all of us.

What once developed over weeks may now unfold in hours.

In that environment, maritime security is no longer defined only by geography or platforms.

It’s increasingly defined by shared awareness, joint resilience, speed of coordination, and the strength of partnerships established before crisis occurs.

That is what makes this conference important – not simply the topic, but the timing.

Because NAVAL VISION 2050 is not ultimately about predicting a single future fleet or a single model Navy.

It’s about how we prepare our navies to operate together in a maritime environment that will be faster, more connected, more contested, and more technologically complex than anything we have experienced before.

And in that future environment, advantage will depend not only on platforms or weapons – but on awareness, interoperability, resilience, and trusted partnerships across the hemisphere.

So, I appreciate the opportunity to discuss this year’s theme: NAVAL VISION 2050 – and the future responsibilities of our navies in an increasingly complex maritime environment.

One of the defining characteristics of the current maritime environment is that naval power is becoming simultaneously more distributed, more connected, and more transparent.

Low-cost sensing, commercial satellite coverage, autonomous systems, and rapidly proliferating precision weapons are changing assumptions about concealment, survivability, and operational reach.

In previous eras, maritime advantage often depended on concentrating combat power.

Increasingly, it may depend on the ability to distribute forces, sustain awareness, and maintain decision advantage across vast areas under contested conditions.

That evolution affects every Navy represented here – regardless of size or mission set.



Foundry, Fleet, Fight

In the United States Navy, we organize our approach to these challenges through our Fighting Instructions: Foundry, Fleet, and Fight.

Those priorities help translate strategy into operational readiness, deterrence, and warfighting advantage in a rapidly changing world.

Foundry is where future combat power is built before the first crisis ever occurs. It’s where we invest in people, logistics, infrastructure, industry, and partnerships that create durable advantages long before conflict begins.

Of course, it’s how we develop people, strengthen logistics, and modernize infrastructure, but in this hemisphere, one of the most important elements of durable advantage is cementing the trusted relationships that allow our navies to operate together under pressure.

No single Navy can maintain awareness or security across this vast maritime space alone. Maritime security is ultimately a team sport.

Our greatest advantage is not found in any single platform or technology. It’s found in the network of trusted maritime partners represented in this room.

That is why maritime domain awareness, information sharing, and regional coordination are operational necessities – not optional activities.

Technology gives us powerful tools: integrated sensors, satellites, autonomous systems, and shared data networks.

But technology alone does not create advantage.

Advantage comes from relationships built through years of operating together, exercising together, and solving problems together.

Trust is not built during crisis. Crisis simply reveals whether trust already exists.

We have seen the value of that trust repeatedly during exercises, humanitarian operations, disaster response, and real-world maritime missions across the region.

When communications are compressed and conditions are uncertain, established relationships matter more than ever.

We have seen that repeatedly across this hemisphere.

A hurricane strikes. A vessel goes missing. Maritime traffic is disrupted.

Within hours, partner navies are sharing maritime awareness, coordinating search patterns, exchanging logistics support, and operating together in real conditions – often long before formal coordination mechanisms can fully activate.

Those responses succeed because the relationships, procedures, and trust already exist before the crisis begins.

In our Navy, we also talk about differentiated value.

No two navies in this hemisphere are identical – nor should they be.

Geography matters. Mission sets matter. National priorities matter.

Some navies provide persistent maritime awareness in key approaches.

Others specialize in logistics, riverine operations, humanitarian assistance, expeditionary operations, or counter-trafficking missions.

What matters is not uniformity – It’s complementarity. Every Navy represented here brings strengths that others do not possess.

The objective is not to build identical fleets. The objective is to build a maritime team whose collective capability exceeds the sum of its individual parts.

NAVAL VISION 2050 should not be a vision of identical fleets.

It should be a vision of complementary strengths – navies that remain sovereign, distinct, and tailored to their national missions, yet increasingly connected through trust, interoperability, and shared maritime awareness.

In the future maritime environment, collective advantage will come from how effectively our capabilities align and reinforce one another across the hemisphere.

That kind of interoperability does not erase national differences – it turns them into strategic advantage.

You can see this in Chile’s operational professionalism and Pacific maritime expertise or Colombia’s leadership in counter-trafficking operations.

It’s also in Brazil’s regional maritime influence and South Atlantic presence, and the humanitarian and coastal security contributions of many other partners.

And our host, Panama’s leadership in leveraging its position astride the Canal to advance counter-trafficking and regional maritime domain awareness.

Each Navy brings unique capability, perspective, and regional understanding that makes the broader network stronger.

Together, we close the seams that adversaries and illicit actors seek to exploit.

Next is the Fleet – where readiness becomes operational power.

The Fleet is where we generate, sustain, deploy, and employ naval forces capable of delivering effects whenever and wherever required.

It’s about readiness, interoperability, logistics, and operational endurance.

And interoperability is becoming more important now more than ever.

Not simply because our forces operate together more frequently – but because future maritime operations will depend on the ability to share information, coordinate decisions, and sustain distributed forces under pressure.

In the future maritime environment, command, control, and communications – C3 – will be just as important as platforms. Ultimately, what matters is decision advantage.

The side that can understand the environment, make decisions, and act faster will possess a decisive operational edge.

The ability to maintain decision advantage despite degraded communications or contested networks will increasingly determine operational success.

That creates significant opportunities for partnership across this hemisphere – from shared maritime awareness architectures to resilient communications and interoperable data-sharing systems.

We are also seeing the rapid expansion of unmanned and autonomous systems across the maritime domain.

From low-cost surface vessels to autonomous aerial surveillance platforms, these technologies are changing how navies generate presence, extend awareness, and distribute capability across large maritime areas.

These systems also challenge traditional assumptions about cost, mass, and operational persistence. Future advantage will not belong to the force with the most platforms.

It will belong to the force that best integrates sensors, shooters, logistics, information, and partners into a coherent maritime campaign.

A relatively inexpensive autonomous platform can now provide surveillance, targeting support, electronic sensing, or maritime awareness capabilities that previously required far more costly force structure.

That matters because future maritime competition will likely reward forces that can combine high-end capability with scalable presence and operational endurance.

For many navies, that creates opportunities to expand maritime awareness and distributed operations without replicating the force structure of larger powers.

And importantly, many of these technologies are becoming more accessible across the global market, which means adaptation is accelerating well beyond traditional military modernization timelines.

Many allies and partners are already adapting these systems in operationally relevant ways – from persistent maritime surveillance in the Indo-Pacific to autonomous logistics experimentation in Europe and the Middle East.

And for navies across our hemisphere, unmanned systems present opportunities for a more effective high-low mix: pairing advanced platforms with scalable and affordable systems that increase coverage, persistence, and operational flexibility.

But distributed operations also require distributed sustainment.

Logistics will increasingly determine operational reach and endurance.

Access to fuel, maintenance, communications, and sustainment networks across the region becomes a strategic advantage in itself.

That is why partnerships matter not only operationally – but logistically.

The future maritime environment will also test the resilience of our industrial and sustainment capacity.

Readiness is not generated only at sea. It also depends on shipyards, maintenance networks, logistics infrastructure, communications architecture, and the ability to repair and regenerate combat capability over time.

In prolonged competition or crisis, sustainment capacity becomes strategic capacity.

Whether responding to disasters, sustaining maritime patrols, or supporting emergent operations, regional cooperation strengthens resilience for all of us.

Exercises like UNITAS remain important because they build those habits early – before crisis occurs.

They improve our collective ability to communicate, coordinate, and respond together across the full range of maritime challenges.

The maritime challenges we face do not respect national boundaries. Criminal organizations, illegal fishing fleets, malign actors, and strategic competitors exploit gaps wherever they find them.

Our response must therefore be as connected as the challenges we face.

And finally, Fight.

Fight is where deterrence succeeds - or where, if deterrence fails, naval power delivers decisive effects in support of our national objectives.

But deterrence does not begin at the moment of crisis. It begins long before that – through readiness, presence, professionalism, and the demonstrated ability to operate together effectively over time.

Deterrence in the maritime domain is not a single event.

It’s a posture built through consistency, resilience, and credible capability.

It’s reinforced every time partners train together, share awareness, respond to crises, or demonstrate the ability to act in concert under pressure.

Our National Defense Strategy makes clear that homeland and hemispheric defense remain foundational responsibilities.

For maritime forces, that means strengthening awareness, resilience, and deterrence across the approaches to our hemisphere – alongside allies and partners who share those interests.

For centuries, maritime nations have depended upon secure sea lanes, open commerce, and freedom of navigation. Technologies have changed. The enduring importance of sea power has not.

As we look toward 2050, technology will continue to reshape how navies operate.

Artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, integrated sensing networks, cyber capabilities, and space-based awareness will increasingly define the maritime battlespace.

The question before us is not what technologies will exist in 2050. The question is whether we will build the relationships, interoperability, and operational habits necessary to employ those technologies together.

But throughout naval history, technology has changed the character of warfare far more often than it has changed the nature of command.

Sensors evolve. Networks evolve. Platforms evolve.

But leadership at sea still depends on judgment, accountability, initiative, and the ability to act decisively in uncertainty.

And as operations become more distributed and more complex, trust between navies will matter more – not less.

Because cohesion in future maritime operations will depend less on proximity and more on shared understanding, interoperability, and confidence built over time.

By 2050, success for our navies will not be measured solely by the size of fleets or the sophistication of individual platforms.

It will be measured by how effectively we share awareness, coordinate across borders, sustain maritime security, respond to crises, and preserve freedom of navigation throughout the hemisphere.

The future maritime advantage of the Americas will rest in connected capability, operational resilience, and trusted partnerships built long before crisis occurs.

That is why conferences like this matter.

They strengthen relationships that become operational advantages in moments of uncertainty.

Let me close with this.

NAVAL VISION 2050 is not ultimately about ships, sensors, networks, or autonomous systems.

It’s about whether we have the vision and determination to build the maritime partnerships necessary to preserve security, stability, and prosperity across our hemisphere for the next generation.

For centuries, the sea has connected the nations represented in this room. It has carried our commerce, strengthened our economies, and linked our peoples together. That reality has not changed.

What has changed is the speed of events, the complexity of the challenges we face, and the importance of working together to address them.

No Navy represented here can secure the maritime domain alone. But together, our Navies possess extraordinary strength, experience, and capability.

Each of our nations brings differentiated value. Each contributes unique strengths.

And when those strengths are connected through trust, interoperability, and shared purpose, they create a collective maritime advantage that no competitor can match.

The future maritime advantage of the Americas will not belong to any single nation.

It will belong to all of us - working together, operating together, and standing watch together.

Thank you for your partnership, your professionalism, and your commitment to the security of our shared waters.

May God bless our Sailors, our nations, and the enduring bonds that unite us at sea.