Official websites use .mil
Secure .mil websites use HTTPS
Well, good afternoon, Kim. Thank you very much for that kind introduction. I really do want to take a minute to thank Chairman Reed, who originally encouraged me and gave me this invitation to be part of this year's conference, and for his leadership in helping to bring together this community of experts, policy makers, and business leaders. It was a pleasure to meet so many of you last night, and I really learned a lot and enjoyed speaking with you and seeing some of the challenges that you're facing as well as many opportunities that are out there for us all. I think events like SENEDIA Defense Innovation Days, help ensure that in a time of heightened geopolitical and technological competition, our country retains its competitive advantage. And New England is really a region that helps provide this advantage. You all have a significant and leading role to play in our nation's security. As Under Secretary LaPlante has said, our industrial base and our innovation base are themselves a deterrent, and key leverage of our national power. Navy and industry are really one team, and I am proud to partner with you in the work of defending our nation. As we gather today, our country stands at an inflection point in history. Our national security strategy makes it clear that we face tremendous challenges, as well as unprecedented opportunities. It's our response to decisions that we make in this decisive decade that will not only impact the security and prosperity of the American people, but will really determine the direction of our world. The United States Navy embraces this moment. America is a maritime nation, and your Navy recognizes that American sea power plays a unique role in achieving our security objectives. Your Navy also recognizes that what is at stake in this decisive decade is nothing less than the global maritime balance of power. To ensure that we maintain that favorable balance of power, I believe we really must look backwards to see forward. And as I think about our Navy's history, I view the 1930s as another decisive decade that rhymes in some key ways with our own. In the early 1930s, constrained budgets following the Great Depression resulted in reduced construction and a widening gap between the capability and capacity of our Navy and that of Imperial Japan. America possessed a fleet that was too small and insufficiently resourced for total war. Furthermore, the fleet of the ’30s lacked balance in its force design, with a heavy concentration on those two types of platforms, battleships and submarines. And due to a lack of funding, the shipbuilding industry really suffered. By 1933, America had lost 20 of its 27 private shipyards, as many of them made other projects just to stay afloat. CNO William Pratt warned that the Navy could not execute its basic war plan due to, “failure to initiate and carry on a well-balanced program of new construction.” The situation was alarming, but in that decisive pre-war decade, the nation made critical decisions that would help prepare us for war when it came to our shores in 1941. I would suggest that the great rearmament of our fleet in the 1930s offers some key lessons for us today. So let me just offer three.
First, how we fight determines what we fight with. Warfighting concepts describe the design of our warfighting platforms. In the ’30s, wargaming and conflict development produced Warplan Orange, which informed warship design. Similarly, the Navy recognized that it had to develop a balanced fleet that included not just battleships and submarines, but also aircraft carriers, logistic ships, and many other smaller vessels. This conceptual framework provided a plan for rebuilding our naval forces. Today, the U.S. Navy is taking a similar approach. We have energized our wargaming enterprise at the Naval War College and at our war fighting development centers. In fact, right now this morning and tomorrow, I'm leading a force design wargame, just up the road at the War College. We are methodically experimenting with new tactics, new capabilities, and a series of fleet exercises and battle problems. We're using live, virtual, constructive training environments, not only to help crews certify for combat, but to test out these operational concepts. And through our force design initiatives, we are reinvigorating our long-range planning process, identifying the capabilities we must invest in now to maintain our advantage in the maritime environment of the future. These efforts, and many others, inform our planning for the size and composition of our future fleet, which we estimate must be larger, more capable, and include a mix of manned and unmanned platforms. Additionally, I can't overstate the importance of our submarine fleet, both for today and for tomorrow. It's imperative that we maintain the undersea advantage that our submarine forces provide. And we can't do that without those of you that are here today who develop, build, and maintain and repair those submarines. Your work is critically important, both for our nation, for our allies, and for our nation. We must be able to deter, fight, and win with these submarines. And we are depending on you to deliver in this no-fail mission. Second, the rearmament of the 1930s reminds us that we must think long-term, increasing our capacity in peacetime so that we can surge effectively in war. In the mid-to-late ’30s, private shipyards expanded their infrastructure, increased their manpower, and ramped up production. Historians tell us that the peacetime rearmament efforts of the ’30s contributed 95% of the modern ships that were available to fight in the War. Many of the ships had fought in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Guadalcanal Campaign, and the Battle of Niue, including three aircraft carriers, Yorktown, Enterprise, and Hornet, were all built as part of the peacetime Navy in the pre-war decade. Today, our shipbuilding industry faces many similar challenges to those of the early ’30s. However, thanks to the support of Congress, we have begun to make much-needed investments in our shipbuilding infrastructure. We've begun recapitalizing our strategic nuclear deterrent, our century-old dry dock facilities, and our public shipyards. We're also working very closely with the private sector to strengthen the submarine and surface ship industrial bases. And our Navy is supporting efforts to build more ships annually.
And, for our part, we owe industry headlines, and that's why we're pursuing multiyear contracts, large-lot procurements, and things like munitions and supply chain investments. But this audience knows better than most that we all have much work to do. Strategic investments in our Navy will require years of stable and predictable funding. This will require us to leverage the creative talents of our robust science and technology communities, and it will require us to incentivize industry partners so that they invest in the infrastructure and capacity that we need to support a growing fleet. We must all exercise strategic discipline and remain committed to the long term, because the work done in our shipyards – by the most skilled and talented workers in the world – is essential to our nation. The third lesson I see from the ’30s is that only a concerted effort across the executive branch, Congress, and Navy industry can provide and maintain the fleet America needs to deter, fight, and win wars at sea. It took the vision of President Roosevelt, the leadership of Representative Carl Vinson, the support of the Congress, the planning of the Navy, the innovation of our research institutions, the adaptability of industry, and the determination of American workers, all striving together in common cause to build the foundations on which we will win the war. Our decisive decade demands that same unity of effort, that same sense of urgency, and the same resolve. The stakes are too high, and the time is too short, to act otherwise. General Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said that we are in the middle of a fundamental change in the character of war. From artificial intelligence to cyber weapons, unmanned platforms, directed energy, hypersonic missiles, and much more, we are on the cusp of technological breakthroughs that will define future conflict. We must develop and fuel these disruptive technologies at speed and at scale. We must leverage the traditional strengths of the industrial base, as well as the untapped potential of our research institutions and our innovation base. As we operationalize these game-changing capabilities, this will strengthen our warfighting edge. The Navy is clear-eyed about the need for action, and we are determined to tackle tomorrow's challenges just like we have in the past. Let me just provide a few examples. With Task Force 59 in the Arabian Gulf, and in the Gulf of Oman, we’ve tested hardware and software against real-world problems, such as maritime domain awareness. And we're now starting to operationalize these capabilities at scale around Central and South America – I know you'll hear more about that and the great work of Task Force 59 later today.
We're employing integrated unmanned platforms to create mesh networks that provide our warfighters with resilient communications, resilient command and control, even in a comms-degraded, or communications-denied, environment. We're developing and testing conventional strike capabilities that will mark a significant leap forward in our ability to deliver munitions with range and speed. We're working with the Joint Force to develop cyber capabilities that can be used across the entire spectrum of conflict. These are just a few examples of the many efforts the Navy is undertaking right now to adapt to changing character and reform.
So, in closing, let me just say that it's very clear to me that the 2020s will require that same unity of purpose that our nation demonstrated in the 1930s. Only with a long-term commitment by government, academia, and industry, can we modernize and build the fleet America needs. Only with this commitment will we develop, design, and deploy the weapons and tools to compete and win, both now and in the years to come. Events like these here at SENEDIA should inspire confidence in all Americans that such unity of purpose is possible.
Ladies and gentlemen, a decisive decade requires a decisive naval force. I ask for your continued support. I ask for your ideas, your skills, and your talent, to help ensure that our Navy is ready to fulfill our mission in this decade and beyond.
Thank you very much.
Adm. Lisa Franchetti
29 August 2023
Subject specific information for the media
Events or announcements of note for the media
Official Navy statements
Given by Navy leadership
HASC, SASC and Congressional testimony
Google Translation Disclaimer