Admiral Roughead: "Very Committed" to LCS

The WWS had the chance to speak today with Admiral Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations (CNO), as part of the Pentagon's ongoing bloggers roundtable series, and this, I believe, was the highest ranking officer OSD has landed us so far.

The admiral was calling in from the International Seapower Symposium in Newport, Rhode Island, where he was unveiling the Navy's new maritime strategy, titled "A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower." The admiral also said the symposium boasted an attendance of 98 countries, and 90 leaders of navies or coast guards.

The admiral started by saying it was "equally important to prevent wars as to win them," and explained that this new strategy would allow the Navy to concentrate its power in a way that would better deter foes and defend American interests, specifically in the Western Pacific, Arabian Gulf, and Indian Ocean "because we believe that that's where our interests are most connected." But he was quick to add that the Navy was not neglecting other areas, saying "the other imperative is to be able to take our forces, that are globally distributed, and be able to operate them in a flexible enough way where we can bring them together or break them apart in very mission-defined configurations that allow us to contribute to our homeland defense and depth..."

The admiral spoke also of the need to retain the Navy's ability to project power, "even when access is denied," to protect sea lanes as global commerce increases, and to react quickly to disasters like the the 2005 tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. To that end, his emphasis was on better cooperation with regional allies, and on building trust with those allies. While the admiral did not specifically mention the 1,000 ship Navy, it seems the concept is near and dear to the CNO's heart.

Until that 1,000 ship International Navy materializes, however, the U.S. Navy is stuck with 279 deployable battle force ships. This despite a Navy fleet size target of 313 ships. Cost overruns and delays have made the number look ever more distant, particularly with the trouble the Navy's had with its Littoral Combat Ship, which was to comprise 17 percent of the Navy's 313 ship fleet, but has now been halted while the Navy looks for ways to bring costs down.

I asked the admiral when the Navy might meet its target of 313 ships. His response:

With regard to the 313 ship shipbuilding plan, I consider that to be the floor. Because of my experiences as a fleet commander in both the Atlantic and the Pacific, knowing what the demands are out there, I think 313 is the minimum number, but I do like the balance that we have. The objective was to get to 313 by 2020. As you well know, our Littoral Combat Ship program has been slowed down a little bit, but I'm very committed to that program, very committed to the capability that we need, that the LCS will give us. So I'd say within a couple of years of that is the target that I will pursue.

I also asked the admiral about the naval balance of power in the pacific, which was the topic of a recent op-ed in the New York Times by Robert Kaplan, who wondered whether the 21st century might not be "the Asian century" given China's recent buildup of naval power. The admiral implied that the U.S. Navy was ceding no ground in the Pacific, saying that "in the last two years, we have had more naval activity, we have had increased participation from navies in that region with the United States, than I have seen before." He added that "even though some of the force postures may be changing out there [in the Western Pacific], the interest in and the level of activity in working with the U.S. Navy has actually increased over the last couple of years."