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SUBJ/DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY THREE-YEAR REVIEW (CORRECTED COPY)//
RMKS/1 Today marks my third anniversary as your Secretary of the Navy. It is
the honor of my life to serve alongside you.
We face incredible challenges in every corner of the world today- from Europe
to the Red Sea to the Indo-Pacific. In Europe, Russia has entered the third
year of its unprovoked and illegal war of aggression in Ukraine. For the
first time since World War II, we face a comprehensive maritime power-our
pacing challenge-in the Indo-Pacific. The People's Republic of China
continues to exert its excessive maritime claims through their Navy, Coast
Guard, and Maritime Militia. In the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, where we are
facing the most sustained period of combat the United States (U.S.) Navy has
seen since World War II, we are working alongside our North Atlantic Treaty
Organization allies and Middle East partners to ensure the safety of
innocent, civilian mariners and to protect our commercial shipping against
the Iranian-aligned Houthi attacks.
This past September, I introduced the concept of National Maritime
Statecraft, an expanded and innovative approach to guide the creation and
application of seapower. Maritime Statecraft encompasses not only naval
diplomacy and maritime competition but also national, whole-of-government
efforts to build comprehensive U.S. and allied maritime power, both
commercial and naval. We are making significant progress toward renewing the
foundations of seapower inside the lifelines of the Department of the Navy's
(DON) own programs and authorities as well as by mobilizing support across
the whole-of-government, industry and academia. As we advance our enduring
priorities of Strengthening Maritime Dominance, Building a Culture of
Warfighting Excellence, and Enhancing Strategic Partnerships, our Navy and
Marine Corps team continue to deliver for the American people: in the past
three years we have delivered 28 battle force ships to the fleet, and the
Marine Corps undertook and passed a full audit, the first for any branch of
the military, setting the example across the Department of Defense (DoD). As
a result, our nation continues to make robust investments in the DON which
will allow us to continue to advance the principles of the National Defense
Strategy and outpace our adversaries. Since Fiscal Year 2021 our topline
budget has been raised by more than $50 billion, an increase of 25%.
The following highlights many of the accomplishments our Sailors, Marines,
and civilians have continued to make to advance Maritime Statecraft over the
past year alone:
- Taking Care of Our People. Our people are our greatest source of maritime
power. We will continue investing in their success through our Quality-of-
Service efforts that delivered a 5.2% pay raise, increased basic allowance
for housing an average of 5.4%, and are helping modernize our installations.
Strengthening family support is crucial. This past year we made great
strides in meeting active-duty requirements for childcare and increased
support for military spouse careers to include expanding the spouse licensure
reimbursement program. We are implementing the Director of Psychological
Health program, which provides an installation- level leader to coordinate
clinical and non-medical counseling services and resources for our Service
Members and their families.
Some of our greatest successes came from streamlining efforts, such as the
Navy's success in reducing the time to process travel claims from an average
of four months down to less than four days and the Marine Corps' Barracks
2030 focus on improving unaccompanied housing. I am proud of all the Naval
Education Strategy accomplished as we implement a continuum of learning for
the entire force, integrate education into talent management frameworks, and
strengthen the Naval University System.
- Reinvigorating Recruiting and Retention. Ensuring we meet our recruitment
and retention goals is an essential element of Quality- of-Service. Marine
Corps and Navy recruiters at our recruiting commands have taken herculean
efforts to address the propensity to serve. The Marine Corps has met or
exceeded their recruiting requirements and their retention goals were met by
funding enhanced retention bonuses and providing incentives for lateral moves
into low density, mission critical fields. The Navy used its "Get Real Get
Better" mindset to reduce barriers to recruiter productivity, adjust
leadership's approach, and through extraordinary efforts, reestablish the
path toward fully meeting its needs. Our National Call to Maritime Service
initiative is aggressively reaching out to our nation's youth, educators, and
leaders to demonstrate that service is not just a career but a life path of
profound personal and national significance.
- Transforming Naval Shipbuilding. A bedrock to Maritime Statecraft is an
advanced, robust, and efficient shipbuilding capability.
Earlier this year I tasked a 45-day shipbuilding review to assess the
longstanding causes of shipbuilding challenges and provide recommended
actions for a healthier shipbuilding industrial base.
The review found common issues driving delays and other challenges across the
Navy's shipbuilding programs, including first of class design challenges and
the wide-ranging challenges on workforce recruiting, retention, and
proficiency for shipbuilders and suppliers. We are working alongside
industry to tackle immediate challenges and implement improvements across the
shipbuilding enterprise. This includes the establishment of a Direct
Reporting Program Manager for the Maritime Industrial Base and providing a
long-term, steady demand signal to improve the health and capacity across the
industrial base and deliver critical capability at a lower cost to the
taxpayer. Additionally, through initiatives like the Taxpayer Advocacy
Project, our contract community and Office of General Counsel are ensuring
that we will leverage all legal means at our disposal to hold companies and
individuals accountable to ensure that the American people are getting what
they paid for. The success of the Australia-United Kingdom-United States
security agreement is just one example of how continued focus on
strengthening our relationships with international partners can reduce
barriers for industrial cooperation and expand the shipbuilding enterprise,
to include building our combined conventionally armed, nuclear-powered
submarine capability.
- Seapower Through Commercial Shipbuilding. A key tenet of Maritime
Statecraft is the recognition that no great naval power has long endured
without also being a commercial maritime power. Making naval shipbuilding
more cost effective requires we restore the competitiveness of U.S.
commercial shipping and shipbuilding. We continue to build awareness and
advocate across this Administration that long-term solutions to many of the
Navy's challenges require we renew the health of our nation's broader
seapower ecosystem. This past year we drove the creation of the Government
Shipbuilders Council. This Council brings us together with Maritime
Administration, Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
and Army to tackle common challenges in ship construction and maintenance.
We've catalyzed multiple White House- led interagency processes on both naval
and commercial shipbuilding, bringing together the National Security Council,
National Economic Council, and Departments across the Executive Branch. In
conjunction with our partners in Congress, our team is working to
reinvigorate existing but unfunded authorities and craft new incentives to
build and flag commercial ships in the U.S.-efforts that will offer
significant returns to Navy shipbuilding and sealift.
- Developing the Shipbuilding Workforce. Maritime Statecraft builds upon a
partnership with government and industry leaders to expand our shipbuilding
workforce and provide compelling opportunities for a new generation of
American shipbuilders. This includes supporting and expanding programs to
build capacity in naval architecture and engineering as well as technical
expertise in nuclear welding, robotics, software and electronics, and
additive manufacturing. We are working at the federal and state level to
improve shipyard communities and mobilizing the world-class industrial
workforce of America's North Coast. We are engaging with organized labor as
an essential stakeholder. This year, the Navy launched an innovative program
to train union welders in construction trades for shipbuilding work, and
deploy them as a rotational, expeditionary workforce to shipyards.
Shipbuilding workforce initiatives like this will help us deliver ships to
the fleet in a timely manner to advance our national interests and deter
China and other adversaries.
- Modernizing and Maintaining the Fleet. Completing submarine and ship
maintenance on time using cutting edge capabilities is foundational to the
comprehensive and formable maritime deterrence pillar of Maritime Statecraft.
Over the past three years, our public shipyards have improved on-time
completion rates by 16% and reduced Days of Maintenance Delay for submarines
and aircraft carriers by 25%. Our Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization
Program is modernizing our four aging public shipyards. This year we awarded
$2.8 billion to construct the new dry dock at Pearl Harbor Shipyard and BAE
installed a shiplift at their facility in Mayport. These investments will
improve on-time delivery and increase efficiency in maintenance, making the
fleet we have today a more formidable deterrent. We are on track to deliver
the Transportable Re-Arming Mechanism. This system will provide surface
combatants a game- changing ability to reload their Vertical Launch Systems
while underway in the open ocean, an achievable, near-term deterrent that
will disrupt the strategic calculus of those who would do us harm.
To address our critical tanker shortage, we are fielding a modular fueling
system that enables commercial tankers to sustain our fleet forward. Both
these advances will effectively increase our fleet's size and combat power.
- Leveraging Technology, Innovation and Competition. A critical component to
Maritime Statecraft is leveraging our nation's advantage in technology
through continuous innovation. The transformational successes of 5th Fleet's
Task Force 59 have allowed us to put 10 unmanned surface vessels and enabling
technologies into direct operational use in 4th Fleet. I've doubled down on
non- traditional and dual-use technologies across multiple operational
missions with over 50 new contracts that will deliver asymmetric unmanned
technical advantage, to include a significant investment in DoD's Replicator
initiative. Additionally, the newly established DON Science and Technology
Board has proposed a series of recommendations that will fully integrate
unmanned systems into the operational fleet. To continue the momentum, my
comprehensive Science and Technology Strategy, the first of its kind since
2017, focuses naval science and technology priorities for basic research,
experimentation, and rapid capabilities. As a central line of effort of
Maritime Statecraft, I have engaged extensively with top executives of some
of the world's most technologically advanced and prolific dual-use commercial
and naval companies, to include shipyards. These world-class players'
investments in U.S. subsidiaries will energize the U.S. shipbuilding
marketplace with fresh competition, renowned innovation, and unrivaled
industrial capacity.
- Investing in Installation and Energy Resiliency. Maritime Statecraft
requires we develop energy resiliency so we can sustain the fight as close to
the enemy as possible. The DON is on path to decrease energy-related
strategic vulnerabilities and enhance military readiness through a
systematic, full-cycle solution that links energy across wargaming,
requirements, acquisition, operational, and workforce behaviors. We are
progressing on the safe, timely, and permanent closure of Red Hill Bulk Fuel
Storage Facility, where we completed defueling operations in March 2024 and
have now transitioned to the closure phase. We are addressing historically
underfunded infrastructure needs through initiatives such as building
environmental resilience at locations from Naval Station Norfolk to Parris
Island and the Naval Academy.
- Entering a New Era of Strategic Thinking. Maritime Statecraft embraces a
cultural shift in strategic thinking that views our contributions to
promoting the national interests and prosperity of the nation through a
transformed prism of comprehensive maritime power. Force Design is an
excellent example as it transforms the force structure of the Marine Corps
and multiplies the competition and combat effectiveness of our afloat forces
from the littorals.
To that end, the newly established 12th Marine Littoral Regiment will
integrate with the Joint Force and the capabilities of our allies and
partners, support deterrence efforts, and remain prepared to respond to
potential crises. Additionally, we are increasing investments in our
foundational educational institutions and renewing our commitment to
intellectual leadership as we prepare naval strategists and leaders to
compete and prevail in an ever more complex global environment.
As I close out my third year, I am proud of the DON's ability to unify around
Maritime Statecraft's visionary approach to delivering comprehensive maritime
power. With our new Service Chiefs at the helm, Chief of Naval Operations
Admiral Lisa Franchetti and Commandant of the Marine Corps General Eric M.
Smith, this past year the Navy and Marine Corps demonstrated daily from the
Red Sea to the South China Sea their unique role as America's most timely,
flexible, and forward-deployed forces and were fully prepared to meet every
challenge. I thank you, and most of all, I am proud of each of you and your
mission driven focus on being the best Sailors, Marines, and Civilians you
can be.
2. Released by the Honorable Carlos Del Toro, Secretary of the Navy.//
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