Discussed the status of the media and its role in protecting national interests. He also discussed the defense readiness. Thisth a is an hour. Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests thank you for joining me in welcoming the 31st Naval Operations admiral John Richardson discuss the navy the nation needs. The presence of almost 100 ships and submarines across the globe to detour the potential adversaries from the allies and ensure the freedom of the maritime for all nations. The greatest challenge has come from our own congress over the decade of continuing resolutio resolutions. The National Defense strategy today couldnt be more timely. I am greatly honored to be ablet to host. Admiral John Richardson the bachelors of science in physics holds a masters degree from mit and strategy from the National War College on the numerous submarines and commanded the award for his time in command. We did go all the way back as tom eluted to. I also want to thank you and the foundation for being so flexible and putting this event together. In terms of the offense as i said a couple of other times, they go in three categories and get it out of invitations, remarkable number of invitations you just sort of say no. Then therand there are some youd rather not do that have to do some you say yes, reluctantly. But then you are out shopping around and then this is one of those events. We are eager to be here and looking around at the crowd people that know as much or more of naval strategy thaabout navat to get mike remarks as quickly as possible to the question and answerwhich will be a lot of fun and it is a pleasure and a privilege to be here. The foundation itself has a Firm Reputation for supporting National Security into the navy in particular. Before i get into my remarks about the update as i speak to you now, my briefing this morning shows that we have 92 ships deployed in the United States navy today about 60,000 that includes the Carrier Strike groups. It is a bit of a high point. Our normal operating there is between ten and 12. As they have been 100 of the time thats an important part maintaining that status but we have six cruisers and destroyers on the station so the discussion comes at a critical time for the navy as we face this environment so with some important annual events as well. Talking about some of the underpinnings that confirms that the budget and as we are talking about strategy and other realities is the National Security strategy has been released as a National Defense strategy a couple weeks ago. Maybe the nation needs to fulfill the responsibilities and strategy so we have one for the department and this could be seen almost as a part of the Maritime Component of this strategy. We willme get through the quick discussion and then questions, so i thought i would throw up a couple of charts. I dont wantth to go to get the into the charts but this looks like take pictures of kind of an intimate setting i dont feel bad spending time on a couple of charts and he looked at the map for the world this is not an uncommon format for that depiction so you see a lot of geography maps at focus on the land part of the globe. So you have both the political and geographical things happening here. Then theres this stuff that connects it and i will tell youl you this is how i see it. I start with the blue and that is just a template. I see it more like that, which is a depiction of how busy things are and they are getting busier all the time. But we will talk in the context of. It will go back to the first time into just makes them a comparison. Its not just a rerun of that last time a. Was on the order of about 25 years ago. Since that time it just is an increased 400 . 10,000 years is probably not a bad estimate to see the increase in the last quarter of a century. Think about what that means for us in managing the amount of traffic. It has been manifested int in te cities continuenu to grow, expected to grow from 31 to 41 and a majority of those are within 100 miles of the coast line. With both carbohydrates and increased 13 fold is expected to continue that way going into the future. On this chart ive depicted a number of things. As is are the purple shaded areas which technology has given access to the resources we never had before so now weve got access to oil, natural gas and other resources. The lines that run parallel that are colored in gold or orange signify the cable network. Infrastructure that is at the center of the International Traffic so when we talk about the cloud, we are looking in the wrong direction from my standpoint. A cloud you look up and most of that information we should be talking about a late, so just help me there are not Cloud Computing but lake computing. Another thing that is depicted as the polar ice caps on the top of the charts into those are the smallest theyve been since the last time we were in the great power of competition giving rise to the sea lanes of communication so given these dynamics, a balanced strategy and approach is more important than ever and the priorities have been clearly defined by the National Security strategy that directs us to promote american prosperity, promote peace through strength and defense influence throughout the world and the National Defense strategy picks up the imperative for confronting the challenges to the challenges head on. We are going to compete in a detour and when. Centered upon those to build a more lethal force to continue to strengthen our alliances and attract new partners to expand and deepen those alliances and then to look to reform the department in the way we do the business and acquired the material with which we do our business. This is also the handoff point. They pick up that and call to action. I want to talk quickly in terms of how i see defining the power. Thereve been many other studies in the last roughly two years that have all converged on the conclusion that we need more naval power to meet our responsibilities to the nation. Dimensions that hang together very difficult to talk about these powers we must keep them in power for their wholeness. One dimension and one way to increase the naval power is to build a bigger fleet and a number of those studies that i eluded to talk about that capacity and converged on 300 to 355 ships and there were a number of other studies and the congress picked up on that with a statement that we will do everything we can to achieve this navy subject to appropriation or authorization or all of, those things so the idea of the number of platforms for the leap of intuition. A second component if you modernize each of those platforms with better systems to make them more capable that means each one being more capable but they sum up also to a more capable fleet. I think it can be on the correct side of the cost curve. On the platform to mention manyh of them here in the capability of the family of systems andys Service Systems and air systems the third dimension of power as we think about it is to take those platforms with their inherent capability and then network them together so we have a bigger fleet and then theres plenty of examples creatively, adaptively to bring more power to the force we can talk about those historic examples but if you are able to share the data with more agility you can be a little more powerfully. Not talked about enough is what i will call forth dimension which is a moreno talented fleet if you think about growing these other dimensions as a member of sailors to mention but also the skill set different than the ones we have right now. Lets go back to that Network Fleet for a assimilating into sifting through the vast amounts of data so as we get a bigger fleet we will need more sailors and we will need them trained differently than we treat them right now. They demand different skills and as we consider a Network Fleet youre going to need some help so this is the realm of Artificial Intelligence of learning algorithms and figuring out the optimum way to team up together, the people, our sailors and machine assistance to be able to sort through that amount of data and get to that information as quickly as possible. We can beat the competition in that part of the move. This is an appreciation for the operations with which the structures with which we command and control the fleet so once weve built the fleet, weve modernized an and banded with appropriately trained sailors with the assistance they need on how we are going to operate it and theres always a dynamic tension between the Technology Available to the fleet. Navy as it maneuvers weapon dont think in terms of where a particular naval capability is, right . But not only where it is but then its only a few days away from wherever it might need to be. And they this idea of tethers rather than a one or a zero presence. And then final dimension. This is getting complicated so the only thing i could have done worse is to have every one of these things on a slide. So, the final dimension is everything ive talk about right now, sort of a fleet in being. Potential energy, if you will. Until you get the force out and train it and this is the ready fleet, so turning all of that potential power, the potential energy into Kinetic Energy requires readiness, and that means you have to go out, have to steam, have to fly. You have to have your magazines full. You have to have your logistics element in place. You have to have your parts, do the maintenance, all of those things bring that fleet light and turn it into actual energy. Actual fleet capability. And so i hope ive painted a picture, then, of naval power composed of elements, and it is that wholeness, right . Its a unless you have all those elements present, youre not talking the full dimensionality of naval power. Mission commander versus network command is both and youve got to navigate your way into the space dynamically so theres these tradeoffs that when you think in terms of naval power we can elevate our thinking about these false choices and concentrate on whats important. If youve got the pure element and you think about the bigger fleet, the better fleet and the more talented fleet. Those are the components and if you try to care one out. As you all know because i know youve done your nuclear homework the isotopes are sometimes unstable. As we talk about the strategy and strategic components my aim is to sort of give you a view through the telescope up a microscope. In the last 18 months of the fiscal year 17 and 18 we have the continuing resolutions in the period of time. During the 18 months weve operated five months in the budget and in a continuing resolution. This type of dynamism impacts the strategic planning. Working through this time managing through the turn rather than getting it the Strategic Direction we need to maintain. As we build a more lethal navy and build more ships and advanced technologies none of them by themselves are sufficient to respond to the complex challenges without Commanding Officers of ships that are focused on competition. Just as we have done throughout our history we are going to continue to focus on developing Commanding Officers who are almost literally obsessed with building winning teams that can compete again and again on a sustainable basis that is our business. We envy the service so many are still resident and you can see the train to coach again. We want to be the navy that disables the way celebrity no doubt. Protect america from attack and protect the prosperity of the. By virtue we will build a niche in the league of nations in Meeting Needs safety before the sailors. Some wonderful remarks. Following up on mac having read the piece for the more agile do you see with the guidance says as the military posture in operations how do you see this driving . You sort of keep that naval power thing as your northstar and so as we move forward one of the things we will focus on is making sure whatever force we deploy or whatever mission they are assigned they will be certified to give offense to those missions, so establish the maximum level of offering to the Combatant Commander and then in terms of how we employ the force that is out there. Its sort of a strategic predictability to end up reassuring the allies. [inaudible] some of the audience may not have. They wrote an oped in the time a couple days ago to complete the training order required but we also need to store the fleet readiness. The two demands how do you see yourself able to build the fleet and return . The secretary of the navy is completely in front of this leading us down this path to make his version real. So, as we build more naval capacity, with that comes the need to make that whole soviet oonly other consequences that we build something its at the fleet commander level they have to deal with that in balance. People are always mindful as we increase capacity and capability the rest of the dimensions are part of the total cost. The type that you said about the 18 months but he only had a budget the resbunch of the restf the resolution. Maintenance might be one of the things taken. Deep in a naval vessel that is a big undertaking that requires planning. All of those things that go into the proper maintaining to keep them relevant in the first thread environment. Workers are difficult to hire so they said this is too volatile. Im going to go someplace its more stable. They dont understand the impact of picking up these operational ships out of commission. If you think about naval power the ship that cant go out because it isnt maintained, it isnt because of that reason its keeping the front and center goal. We had the command preview and what do you see as a lot of corrective actions. Its the biggest effect. Some of them are kind of training things we can do right away. They dont require a lot of time so we can get at those fairly urgently. The idea of identifying and sticking to the process but the first generation maintenance training, certification strokes that needs to happen and at least a routine base. I would say that is the biggest idea. Thats the big idea behind the review. One of the pillars of the capability often ties into the National Defense strategy. They are more rapidly to the fleet the new team that is forming his terrific. One of the most important things is we are starting to have meaningful conversations with the industry and research and development. We are just going to have a system that can get to the sweet spot of the requirements at a maturity level where i can make some predictions about the cost and schedule that i can stick to and those sort of things will get through the day is fast so this accelerated Acquisition Program that weve got and then even as we are developing that we want to make sure we are thinking about the next step already so it allows us to ride thwritethe Technology Curve clo. Now have to be doing this stuff so much more quickly we do thinthink about the unmanned vehicles and systems that are moving forward. I would say that it is adopting some of the features as well and look forward to leveraging all that. The secretary is educating about the race to get this done. How is the navy integrating in the commercial industry to bring their ideas and Serve Technology . We work with a lot of commercial partners. This is a matter of routine so that isnt anything new it is bringing the Team Together which is the key so we have been locked in a room until they come up with the requirements and here it is, the industry takes a look at that and says theres nothing thathere isnothing thatt now. Its bringing the technologists in and you can do some good work to find something that is executable. I can tell you a rich part of that is i think indicative of a shift of some part of the innovation based in the country where it may be used to be classified etc. A lot of times the leading edge of that we just have to be fast followers. I dont want to take up all the time with my questions the current giant naval sinker. I didnt say that. Thank you for your comments today. You began as you often do by talking about the number of ships that are deployed, and roughly they are about the same number deployed now as they were during the cold war when we have a navy that was at least twice as large if not more. To concentrate on the highend threat to concentrate on the highend. He said that the solution to some of the problems in the Surface Force is more ships that it takes a long time to build more ships and onetime consumer distractions. One was to remove the distractions and it comes down at the end of the day i think to doing not doing too much or too little how do we free up the navy to concentrate on the highend fight are we trying to do too much with too little. What is that sustainable level and that is what we are checking right now. That is at the most fundamental level. What you have in this worst Generation Cycle and optimized Response Plan is an example of one of the cycle where you are now preparing in the force. The lethal navy and what we do to employ the force always with keeping and increasing in mind. To get somethin give something t of this time in the station when we do that weve got a mind towards maintaining that readiness that we have invested in and build up. Maybe we do a highend exercise where the aggregated strike and combination of that not only makes us less predictable but also in the aggregate might make us more lethal as exciting navy. What does the chief officers say they are doing with their time on a daytoday basis and i want them always coming in on their drive to work as they are getting ready what will we do today to compound of the enemies were competition and at the end of the day when they put their heads down and say what did i do today and what might i do tomorrow and if we can remove the distraction from the focus. They have more time to focus on leadership and command and those of things. To go back to the question about how the budget environment affects the ability to keep the nucleus together, they talked about how they are now contracting for the modernization period with multiple years of money rather than maintenance availabilities where it is only one year are there any ways of adapting in the business to keep the nucleus together with the budget environment or are you focused on the areas . We do need a Stable Funding that the system as you know is ways to get the Business Done so we dont put a lot of important things in the first fiscal quarter because we rarely have a budget. I know everybody in the room has a position on that. You cant expect the team to win if they only played three quarters out of four. We talked about the time penalty into the staffing penalty that have to be written twice and so we are adapting but it is you can do some things particularly in a multiyear money that you would have this dialogue with Congress Make sure we have a meaningful discussion about th this. So we do the best we can to try to get it out. Going back to this concept, the way that we bring the program together starts with our Strategic Direction and then you have a very integrated approach which includes keeping the nucleus intact and then at the end of the check our homework and start with a particular vision in mind that goes through all the machinations and they want to make sure it looks like all that we started with and so that process of getting all of the leadership connected to very closely with the fleet helps us to keep that in balance to when they have been we have more agility to navigate the trade space for the budget environme environment. You mentioned earlier how they authorize in fy 18 and i wonder but they didnt appropriate the funding i thought that is what you said. Anyway i want to hear the concrete steps taken and i know that the president mentioned 350 ship navy if you can get an example of that. Whe when we get a budget i think that is just still news to come. One last question. Twopart question where you talked about the maritime planes which i know is one of the issues in the base right now that is massively under staff at the moment and there isnt a nato strategy at the moment with regards to the north atlantic to combat. Its one that they obviously have prepared a Going Forward to meet those fast requirements which you mentioned as well. I dont know if i would agree we are vastly understaffed in the forces. That is a dynamic and responsive environment to the thread in the maritime domain, so im actually pretty optimistic of the responding in agility with respect to these combatants that you mentioned that he ha some or big part in the future with visible surface combatants endquotes from the a technological standpoint moving us forward also an operational standpoint weve done a lot to rationalize the program for each one of those. They are going to play important parts Going Forward. Each one has become more capab capable. We learn our way forward and so particularly with not a agility part. Thank you everyone in the audience for joining us today. [applause] its two hours and 40 minutes. And all of the thoughtful proposals and great work from the staff of those of republican and the democrat side and i look forward to seeing progress. The bills to be extended are targeted and promoting innovation, cutting the red tape and advancing public