Good afternoon, everyone. It is an honor to join you here at the Naval War College.

Thank you, Ambassador Middendorf, for joining us today, and for your decades of public service to our Nation—including your time at the helm of our Department as the 62nd Secretary of the Navy. It is wonderful to see you again and it’s an honor to be here for this event.

I cannot thank you enough for your contributions to our nation, our Navy, and the world. You’ve lived a truly incredible life.

Rear Admiral Garvin, thank you for hosting us this afternoon here at the Naval War College.

Dr. Ballard, thank you for your presence today as well as for your decades of service, both in uniform as a Naval officer, your many contributions to our collective understanding of the ocean, and your numerous discoveries of sunken ships—including RMS Titanic, USS Yorktown, Bismarck, and PT-109.

I hope the future USNS Robert Ballard (T-AGS-67) will have as much success—and contribute as much to our Navy’s mission—as you have.

Admiral Foggo, Master Chief Stevens, it’s an honor to have you with us. Thank you for your service to our country and our Navy.

I would like to thank Commander Tom Callender and General Dynamics for joining us for this event. Commander Callender, thank you for your leadership and for helping ensure this event happened, as well as for your decades of service in our Navy as a submariner. It is great to see you again.

In the past two and a half years as the Secretary of the Navy, I have been lucky enough to announce the names for a myriad of new ships, as well as attend numerous commissionings, keel-layings, and christenings.

The ships we’re building across the country are a key piece of our department’s ability to deter our adversaries, support our allies and partners, and, if necessary, fight and win our nation’s wars.

Our ships, aircraft, submarines, and people are operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week at, above, and below the ocean’s surface, as well as in space and cyberspace.

A ready, combat-credible, forward-deployed fleet remains the most potent, flexible, and versatile instrument of military power. It ensures that the seas remain free and open, allowing for the peaceful flow of goods, ideas, and people.

With this in mind, in September, I called for a new approach to maritime statecraft—a return to a national, whole of government effort to build comprehensive U.S. and maritime power.

To that end, we have made significant strides and established new initiatives in the past year—including the Marine Innovation Unit, the Navy’s Disruptive Capabilities Office, our department’s Science and Technology Board, and five weeks ago, the Government Shipbuilder Council.

Four different cabinet departments—Defense, Transportation, Homeland Security, and Commerce—came together to form the G-S-C because we recognize that we need a whole-of-government effort to rebuild our nation’s comprehensive maritime power.

We recognize agility in ship production and design requires developing new, digital tools for our workforce to improve efficiency and capacity.

The future of shipbuilding, maintenance, and repair looks much different than it did when I retired from the Navy twenty years ago—advances in modelling, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence will allow us to reduce costs, optimize systems, and improve collaboration.

We continue to develop high-paying, high-skilled “new-collar” jobs that restore America’s manufacturing prowess by combining traditionally blue-collar trades with cutting-edge manufacturing technologies of today.

It’s hard to believe that fifty years ago Ambassador Middendorf was championing the Aegis Weapons System as the Secretary of the Navy—today, our Aegis-equipped Arleigh Burke-class destroyers remain the workhorse of our force.

Ambassador Middendorf also championed the Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine. Today, we’re working to continue that legacy—indeed, of our nearly 100 ships under contract and over 50 in construction, many of them can trace their lineage back to the systems and platforms he played a large role in shepherding through Congress.

Our number one acquisition priority, USS Columbia, represents the future of our ballistic missile and strategic deterrence force.

We’re building Ford-class carriers, Virginia-class submarines, Constellation-class frigates, San Antonio-class LPDs, and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

This year, we commissioned the first Flight III destroyer, USS Jack H. Lucas, which represents the most technologically advanced surface combatant ever built.

When commissioned, USS J. William Middendorf will become part of that storied line of ships—she will be the most capable surface combatant ever built.

As we stand at the precipice of this decisive decade—hearkening back to your many years of exemplary service—the Navy stands ready to defend our nation and our allies, and to uphold the values of freedom and democracy that our nation represents.

Today, our ships—especially the Ford and Eisenhower Strike Groups, and their surface escorts—have proven indispensable to our national strategy and defending American interests around the world.

Just recently, our destroyers, USS Thomas Hudner, and USS Carney, shot down missiles and armed drones launched by Houthi rebels in Yemen, and prevented a potential pirate attack on a commercial vessel.

The Navy's role is not just about deterring aggression; it is also about protecting American interests around the world.

But we can’t do it alone.

During my time in office, we’ve also announced the AUKUS trilateral security agreement—a landmark partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—to share resources and build nuclear-powered, conventionally-armed submarines for Australia.

This historic agreement reflects our shared commitment to upholding a free and open Indo-Pacific, deterring aggression, and safeguarding our collective security.

However, it is more than that, too. It’s a model for how we’re expanding naval diplomacy to the procurement and technology development spheres—and driving significant investment in our defense industrial base.

Mutually respectful cooperation with our allies and partners is at the heart of the Biden administration’s National Defense Strategy—in stark contrast to our adversaries, who seek to leverage economic and military power to coerce their neighbors.

In fact, our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific, Middle East, Caribbean, and Latin America continue to work with us to develop and field a hybrid fleet.

We’re operating and actively preparing the Navy for the future—laying the groundwork for the hybrid fleet.

We’ve proved that our Navy can procure and develop off-the-shelf technology quickly, effectively, and efficiently to free our more capable traditional naval forces—like the future USS J. William Middendorf—to conduct more strategic missions—and so we can rapidly deploy manned platforms when keyed by indications from our unmanned force.

During UNITAS 64, we operated seven separate robotic systems on, under, and above the seas, wholly integrated into the exercise’s command and control, and they executed missions alongside our—and our allies and partners’—traditional forces.

This summer we deployed four unmanned ships to Japan for the first time—and they participated in Large Scale Exercise and Integrated Battle Problem, also alongside traditional forces. Next year, they’ll again participate in RIMPAC.

Our future hybrid fleet is already arriving—and is changing how we utilize our forces today.

And today, we face a geo-political landscape more akin to the era during which Ambassador Middendorf served.

For the first time in 30 years, we face a nation with capabilities that approach our own. For the first time in over 100 years, we face intense peacetime competition with a global maritime power.

The People’s Republic of China remains our pacing challenge—over the next, decisive, decade of strategic competition, we and our military must tackle the challenges facing us.

Our reliance on the maritime domain is going to accelerate even further in the coming decades, and we still have so much to learn about the oceans our economy, lives, and national security depend upon.

We look forward to welcoming the future USS J. William Middendorf into our fleet, and are excited for its future crew to represent our nation on a global scale, just as her namesake did throughout his life.

May God continue to bless our country with fair winds and following seas. Thank you.