At The Salty Herald, every once in a while, I encounter someone who can write better than me. Hard to believe, I know. Today, I would like to introduce you to one of the smartest sounding young officers in our Navy. I have no idea what he’s talking about, but he sure does sound smart! Enjoy!
Rarely has it been noted, but we are embarking on an era of renewed great power competition. In this new era, Navy leadership must be forward leaning and take a round turn on the issues facing the fleet. History has shown us that the high-end fight is coming, and by leveraging diversity to build tactical prowess, the Navy can ensure it is ready to compete and win—this afternoon—against near peer adversaries today. As we know, high-velocity learning breeds innovation, and the naval service has long sought to build dynamic and effective leaders through just that. This is in line with the Sea Service’s core values and traditions, and in all things, we must continue to think strategically and tactically, or stratactically. This priority is signified by the renewed emphasis on the warfighting development of our leaders: through disruptively innovative MBA programs and other initiatives to increase our organic warfighting capabilities, such as the Retail Specialist rating, and tours with industry like those offered by Wal-Mart and the La Quinta Hotel Group.
Ninety percent of the world’s trade comes from the maritime domain, and because three quarters of our globe is covered by water, our solutions must be proactively from the sea.[1] These solutions must be top down and bottom up, as well as middle out. In addition, we must make all plans and preparations, in a forward-leaning posture, to address the coming challenges presented by climate change. We must expand the maritime domain to include areas inland, BEFORE the water reaches the shores of locations like Nebraska. Still, history will prove that this is not enough. We must also, with Sailors in mind, expand our maritime domain to include not only the high seas and waterways, but also outer space, the new maritime frontier. The Navy must be on the cutting edge of innovation, in order to promote the rules based international order into the littorals of space. Our 355-ship vision must include sea-going and space-going manned and unmanned vessels, otherwise stifling accounting rules will never allow us to reach the bar. This will ensure that we can project our power three dimensionally, and impose our will four dimensionally. In a similar manner, the international structure and dynamic is constantly changing dynamically, and such changes are likely to manifest in the “gray zone of conflict,” or that area between war and peace. It is therefore the Navy’s place to preserve the current rules based international order at sea, while also positively changing facts on the ground. To do this, we must use best practices to continue “winning the narrative” in the information environment. We are taking the problems of tomorrow and facing them today, with next week’s solutions, next month’s innovations, and next year’s leaders.
It is clear that through sea deterrence, the Navy has a critical role to play in this ever-changing international construct. But as we know, people are the key to our success. The Navy has always been about just that—Sailors. That is why we capitalize the word Sailor. Our SAILORS are force multipliers, so much so that they are like squaring, or even cubing, our force. For our force to prevail in securing the nation’s interest, our Sailors must own tomorrow’s fight, and as always, this starts with deckplate leadership. This can only be accomplished through the thoughtful integration of forces and innovation in our soon-to-be 355-ship Navy. One such innovation can be seen in the implementation of circadian rhythm sleep cycles, which ensures Sailors receive the same two hours of sleep nightly. In the end, we know that our core values will carry us through the fight, as we famously saw in the XYZ Affair, the Mexican-American War, the Battle of Fat Leonard, and of course, the First Fiji Expedition of 1855.
Finally, we must continue to enhance our capabilities in order to serve as the world’s premier blue-water navy on the global stage. But being a blue water Navy is no longer enough, as has been made abundantly clear by the rising challenges from the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Nebraska, the Islamic Republic of Iran, violent extremist organizations, and our numerous adversaries in the rarely discussed, though conveniently aforementioned, gray zone. To counter these threats, we must continue to project power through presence and prepare for asymmetric challenges to our symmetric nation’s interest. Owing to all of this, we must no longer be satisfied with simply being a blue- and brown-water Navy; we must be a gray-water Navy, and eventually wade into the black water by leveraging our partnership with new, valuable international partners and players, including Montenegro, Wakanda, and North Macedonia. Simply put, we must rapidly accelerate our high-velocity learning to make it hypersonic learning.
The suggestions in this article are by no means enough, as a naval officer must also be a person of punctilious courtesy and have the nicest sense of personal honor. However, it is my hope that the path forward laid out in this modest proposal will guide our Navy and our Sister Sea Services (the SSS clutch), particularly the U.S. Marine Corps, forward so we can stratactically win in the coming high-end fight with Honor, Courage, and Commitment.
[1] Hello, CDR Salamander.
