Brent is a great honor and published the work of the day the chief of Naval Operations come as a very interesting period in our nations history we are facing unprecedented risks right now with an ongoing war in ukraine to set the context for a threat in a decade that could be very perilous. Especially when you look at what is happening the last few weeks around taiwan in the western pacific china. This will be a very contested decade. Navy, has been for generations the preeminent deterrence wars of the United States force 79 states and has made of the night states maintaining peace for generations. This will be for the navigation plan, a term owners are from mariners are familiar with. In this case course of the future of the navy as we move forward in the decade. We will focus in on that, what the navy needs and what the nation will have to supply in order to get the fleet the country needs in this very contested decade. I invite chief of Naval Operations admiral Michael Gilday to join me on the stage. [applause] brent now that i am in my seat i want to give the rules of the road for tonight before i hand the stage over to the admiral for a few prepared comments on a 2022 navigation plan. Ill be moderating throughout the team evening. The reason that this event is even possible is because of folks like you, media, academia, think tank world, active duty, retired members as world as well and all those online as well. You will have a chance ask questions, you have a chance to think about those. Please keep it short. Michael i appreciate the opportunity to talk about where we are headed as a navy. I think it is best to open up what is really influencing our decisions on the path we are taking. The path we are navigating. In a word it is china. If you take a look over the past couple of decades you see a force that has tripled in size. Significant investments in their Nuclear Capability both in terms of their capabilities, but also the breath of those capabilities. You see an increase in their ability to leverage the space domain. There satellite constellations that allow them to find us and potentially target us. We see a heavy investment in weapons with longrange and we also see a big investment in sensing systems, netted sensing systems. Terrestrial and maritime. They are a significant adversary. As the out inches well aware there behavior in the western pacific has been fairly aggressive. I think the reaction from their neighbors on a daily basis is testimony to that assertion. That led the United States navy to take a look at ourselves in terms of, how would we face this adversary, not only to deter them. But if we potentially had to face in combat. We decided we have to pay somebody different way than the means we have been operating the past 25 to 30 years. Anymore distributed manner. Spreading out force in mass effects across all domains from the seabed to space. That would be leveraging the United States marine corps from the island chain to the pacific. That led us to think about what kind of fleet we need to actually deliver those kinds of in a distributed and are. Manner. The fleet that we have today we have too much capability that is focused on to view platforms few platforms. To give us a distributed force we looked at what types of attributes those force that force would need to be effective in combat. Without about the fact, i talked about a need to be a distributed fleet. It needs to combat and adversary like china across multiple factors in all domains simultaneously. Need to have the attribute of distance. Weapons with range and speed that could hold and adversary at bay. We have to have sound defensive systems forceful four fleet survivability. Investments in areas like hypersonics, Laser Technology, highpowered michael wave defenses. We had microwave defenses. We have to think about deception, stealth, how we apply those technologies. We had to think about decision advantage. We have a project ongoing that we think will put us in a position to actually move information to the tactical edge faster than we have before to put our commanders and tactical actions officers in position to deliver effects and make decisions faster than their opponent. That influence in the us in thinking about the force of the future. It will take 20 budget cycles to get a hybrid fleet of 335 manned and 150 unmanned. Every single study we have seen, washington and beyond, weather has been done inside the pentagon whereby think tanks like this concluded that we need a navy of at least 335 manned vessels and 150 unmanned. That is not a perpetual and stage. We continual end stage. We continue to learn through exercises, wargames, we will be at a war college next week for today wargames with Senior Leaders that will influence how those numbers change. Probably more portly how the composition and exit the navy changes with capabilities we need for the future. With that as a table setter, i open it up to your questions. Brent thank you very much, admiral. I have a question from the audience and i have one as a moderator discretion that it will hold for right now. I will go to the audience. First. [indiscernible] michael so we are expanding those capabilities. What we private industry, what we owe industry the ship repair business is a stable and predictable vision of what kind of fuel eat fleet we will have in the future. We are decommissioning ships of a rate that is higher than we would like. That adds a degree of instability in their ability to predict what size workforce they need. What type of infrastructure we need that our shipyards. At our shipyards. If i give them credit for making decisions based on the signals that we are giving them. Where i would like to get with the surface ship older or example to give stability in example of fleet size. I use the plan that we have as an exemplar. For about 20 yards years we are in a case to deliver to attack boats and one ballistic submarine a year. That is a high predict abilities between industry that delivers those vessels. On the point of the repair sizes gives us a higher degree of fidelity of what repair requirements will need during that period. On the server side i would like to get to that same place with our production side with our resupply ships so we could then have numbers that are fairly stable and predictable and give the repair yards a target to shoot at with a high degree of confidence. Brent before we go to the next question i would like to take one from online. While they get that i do have one question, i will take moderators prerogative. The navigation plan you mentioned 350 manned ships, 150 unmanned, 3000 aircraft arriving somewhere the 20 40s. The dangers right now, we have had several people come and speak at heritage, they all say china is making preparations for a showdown or at least a contest this decade. How are you preparing or how is the fleet postured to address the more immediate dangers i have . At hand . Michael our priority seven readiness, arbor day station has been readiness, modernization, capacity. We need a lethal capable navy more than we need a bigger navy that is less lethal less capable less ready. What is that boil down to . You have to have ships out there today on point deployed into the western pacific, arabian gulf, eastern mediterranean, high north that are properly manned and that those crews are properly trained for combat. That is Mission Number one. The second is that they have adequate supply parts. When things write down they can pair them themselves break down they can repair them themselves or turn into port and repair them quickly. Thats be sustained in that capability has to exist today. There magazine has to be filled with ammunition. We cannot be a hollow force. Lastly, maintenance. It has been an imperative for us to drive down the leg days on private shipyards 20. We are not to zero. We are not satisfied were we are now, industry is not working closely with us to get to that point. To answer your point we have to be ready to fight tonight. We have to be ready for that 2027 scenario that the previous indo paycom commander laid out a couple of years ago. We have to be ready to fight left without mark. At the same time we had to be modernizing the fleet. 60 to 70 of the navy we have today will have a decade from now. We do not ignore modernization. Capacity is last, the force we have cannot. Be cannot be a hollow force. We need a bigger navy, as i mentioned a few moments ago every study that has been done says we need at least 355 and ships, no question we need a bigger navy. As i said in my navigation plan, we cannot, simultaneously modernize the fleet we have and grow to a larger fleet without 3 to 5 growth above inflation. That means at least another 9 billion, 10 billion in our budget each year. Short of that i will maintain readiness as our number one priority. We need a ready navy to respond whatever comes up. Brent thank you, i might come around to the key regions later. It is a region of question. How is our allies contribution in the South Pacific and has that tie in the future naval plan and how do you think of the contribution of the allies in that region . Michael when people ask me about asymmetric advantages of versing a talk about is sailors. These the first thing i thought about is sailors. The second, the number of allies and partners we have knitted together in the pacific as a likeminded source. Last week i was in the United Kingdom for three days and i spent time in spain as well. We spent signed an agreement a year ago with australia and u. K. That is a strategic stroke of brilliance for all three countries. That puts all three countries working in lockstep with advanced capability to put us in a position where we are not just interoperable. We are interchangeable. I will give you an example of another ally, the french. We did not have a carrier in the middle east. The french carrier filled in for the u. S. Carrier under the tactical control of the fifth fleet commander in bahrain. Think about of the power of that we can have another ally or partner fill in for you when you have other priorities in the western pacific, mediterranean, red sea. We have other allies and partners that are significant as well the specific. The japanese, south koreans, i mentioned the australians. New zealand, of course, singapore is key for. Us in terms of access. There are a number of. Allies and partners that we work with on a daily basis. India, ive spent more time on a trip to india than i have in any other country. I consider them to be a Strategic Partner for us in the future. The indian ocean battle space is becoming increasingly important to us and quite friendly the fact that india and china currently have a bit of a skirmish along their border i think it is strategically importance with respect to india that they now force china to not only look east to the South China Sea and the taiwan straight. They know how to be looking over their shoulder at india. India is a key partner for us and absolutely essential going forward. I would tell you, the um, framework that we have with the u. S. Fifth fleet in bahrain. We have a coalition of 34 navies that we operate on a daytoday basis basis has been powerful. We finished a exercise in the pacific, the third fleet commander said the contract we had in the middle east it would not be bad if we could import that to the western pacific. He is absolutely right. I remain bullish on allies and partners keeping those relationships strong and leveraging them daytoday. I will finish up saying somebody once told me, mark armies meeting conflict and navies meet daytoday. We do not just operate in the military length. The United States military has an effect an economic and double medic lanes as well. Historically has been important for the country as well. Brent if you havent alreadys question if you have an audience question lees raise your hand away for the macron. In the navigation plan you mentioned the importance of key regions. What is your number one, as you look across the world, where the threats and opportunities are greatest and made your second. Your top two key regions. You also mentioned a focused on the numbered fleets, ensuring that they are postured and equipped appropriately. We look at that and look at these key regions is there a mismatch for how the fleets are structured today and with the evolving global threat from china that you might be thinking there could be some modification the way the fleets are being distributed . Admiral broadway, when he was the secretary of the navy mentioned first flight. Michael i will talk about reasons in just a second. My two highest priorities would be the pacific and the atlantic. The indian ocean is a close third. In terms of opportunities in the future we absently have look at the arctic. As the icecap continues to receipt, think about reseed, think about trade routes between europe and asia fundamentally changing. I made a trip to iceland, they are member of the nato alliance, they do not have a military they have a coast guard. They have a key position that week typically thick about in a transatlantic passion. Think about it in a transatlantic passion. Think about it in a transpolar fashion. With i see opportunities in the high north we need to operate with allies and partners. Iceland is an example, they have been gracious to allow us to do rotational performance of our maritime aircraft up there. We continue those rotational deployments. With respect to the size and scope of the battle space and do we have adequate coverage with the fleet headquarters right now i think it is worthy of debate. I think we need to continue to have that debate. I would tell you i would prefer to focus any money that i have on capabilities and more ships rather than more headquarters. What i have done, what we have done come what our navy has done as an example of the newly formed u. S. 2nd street second fleet out of norfolk we have used as a expeditionary. A light agile headquarters that is operated out of iceland. They have traveled out of norfolk to operate on a command control ship in the mediterranean and the high north in norway. They have gone down to North Carolina and operated with the marine corps. My point there, we have enough fleet headquarters to go around . One could argue that we do not. One of the great things that the navy brings to bear, our headquarters included is glover global maneuverability. Brent we have a question over here. Prior to the, until the ukraine war, the publications i was reading was focused on russia as the threat in areas as the hypersonic missiles. You have not mentioned them at all within your scheme of planning. Were they over in these capabilities . Or are they just not. Michael thank you. There is significant concern. Russia and china are both developing those capabilities and will be fielding those capabilities charlie. When shortly. When i mentioned defense of the fleet, that is why our investments in Laser Technology to defend against weapons like hypersonics as well as highpowered microwave continue to be high on our priority for research and develop it. We have deployed Laser Weapons on board some of our navy ships. They are on track to deliver that give ability across more ships in this decade. From a defensive nature, a defensive standpoint we are focused on a threat, we are not ignoring it. In terms of offense of capability the navy and army are working very closely on the same hypersonic missile. The army will deliver the capability, they will yield it next year in 2023 in a mobile fashion. The navy will put you on our stealthy destroyers beginning 2025. In 2028 we will have it on our front line virginia class submarines. Theyre the best, legal, most stealthy submarines in the world. I hope that answers your questions. Brent from the online audience, fred, back to you. Sir there had been a few questions about recruitment and retention. How the recruitment scenario nowadays has been very challenging. What are the challenging problems you are seeing with agreement and the challenges with retention . They specifically mention high skilled officers. Michael let me talk probably about recruiting. We are definitely focused on retention. We retained that the navy as a family and we serve as a family. Under this sector of the navy we are increasing our funding for family focused childcare centers. Mental health capacity. Education would be some of those examples. In terms of recruiting, during covid we took a step fairly early in 2020 and went completely virtual in our recruiting efforts. You do not see any navy commercials on tv anymore. That is not worthy demographic is we try to recruit to the navy. We have gone to every social media platform we have been allowed to go on in terms of getting our message out. We have also done it through the eyes of sailors. If you see our stuff online, is not slick, media stuff that we are pushing out. It is United States navy through the lens of a sailor. That is what is attractive young people. It is authentic and incredible. We are trying to tell a story out there of excitement, opportunity, of operating in areas of cyber Quantum Community computing. Ai, robotics, the chance to gain a skill set, a 21st century skill set. The education opportunities. I would say the key, i was aboard two navy ships last week. When asked sailors why he joined the navy the key reason continues to be to serve my country. You can never downplay the patriotism element is the most important. It is the most important aspect, i think, in our recruiting message. When we try tell the story of the navy through the eyes of navy sailors, that really rings through. I think it sends a message that what they are doing is important. They are important of a part of a important worldclass elite team. One of the other things we have done is leveraged, kind of popular doityourself venues online. Venues like youtube. We will take a Navy Musician and he will be in a drum contest with a famous band drummer andy in a famous band. We will take a Navy Construction force and have them with an engineer talking about what they do for a living in the western Pacific Building of a structure on remote islands. We try to make it real authentic, keep it real. That has been successful. The navy has been eating recruiting goals this year meeting recruiting goals this year. We know we are in a pinch we are not resting on our laurels. We continue look for ways to get our message out in the eyes of sailors. Brent a question from the back and then we will go to you. What can you discuss about project over match . Over match is a project, let me say this, one of the aspects i talked about that is important to the fleet of this decade is one of decision advantage. We are swimming in data, how do you get the right information to the right decisionmaker at the right time . To put yourself in a position of advantage against your opponent . While we have decided to do a project over match, i have made it my secondhighest area after delivering a columbia class summary. What were it submarine. We are aiming for, it had a lot of success, to transfer any data over ending it any network. Software defined communication. Where software decides what that prior side prioritize information is and the best path they should take to get to a decisionmaker. Over match has been a project for 1. 5 years. We are at a point next year where we will deploy a Carrier Strike group with this capability and we will see how it goes and look to scale that. We believe the nail navy is on a path to deliver a Navy Tactical grid that would easily become the joint tactical grid as part of a project for the department of defense. We are in a very good pathway known terms of extermination. It is a dev ops environment we are leveraging right now. We are leveraging the best echoes we can, but also the best technology we can but also the best processes we gain from industry. We are trying to benchmark against worldclass networks and worldclass software systems. Building on your comments about partners and allies in the indo pacific, and the new agreement there. Under the framework of this expanding chinese capabilities, is the navy looking at you know for deploying and looking at new bases in places i heard the admiral say we can award bays our ships asked ray liotta as a dispersal forward base our ships in australia. Short answer is absolutely. We are looking at opportunities in the pacific. We have a plan that is closely knitted with indo pay, commands vision for future posturing in the pacific that would include this statement as well. That dimension would be an important aspect of it. As china continues to be a more capable force the timeline for moving potentially across the taiwan straight becomes shorter and shorter in terms of tactical warning. The ford force of the navy and marine corps are in a position forward force of the navy and marine corps are in a position to respond. If we can keep forces warm home ported puts us in a better position to respond fast. Brent from the online audience. Following up on the arctic, what about the american arctic and the u. S. Code coast guard . How does the Navy Coast Guard interaction play in the area . Michael we are highly reliant on the coast guard as a partner. They put their five most capable cutters in the western pacific. A few months ago they did a big commissioning ceremony of three ship in guam simultaneously. They are on a great vector right now in terms of capabilities. We are leveraging that whether it is in the caribbean, western pacific, you see them operating sidebyside in the arabian sea and also. I think that will continue we are on a very good path with the coast guard. As a service, as a partner. Likewise with the United States marine corps we are lockstep of the commandant in support of his force design and where he is going with the marine corps. With his expeditionary bases to actually support the fleet in a fight. Yes or sir. Belgian defense, with respect to threat assessments, according to you what is the next pearl harbor looking like . I believe it will begin in space and cyberspace. Many, i will be in a wargame next week, but i increasingly see those as first steps. I wasnt surprised that russia did not leverage their Cyber Capabilities more broadly in the beginning of the ongoing conflict. I would predict we will see heavy cyber and space activity in any fight. That will likely be the next pearl harbor. We all recognize our vulnerabilities in the cyber domain. Others recognize that as well. As i mentioned earlier, the way that the navy looks at how we will potentially fight is not just on the sea, under the seat. It is seabed warfare. In the air. Space. Cyberspace. The potential fight against china is not just limited to a single domain. It has to be multidomain. Will also likely be trained regional trans regional. You cannot think of china through the lens of indo pacific and vehicle to the indian ocean, you have to look at their economic connective tissue that is now global. Yet look at their vulnerabilities. Brent we have quite a lot coming in from online. Admiral, settlements ago you said the submarine Industrial Base was not up to par. Particularly with respect to private submarine maintenance, do you have an update on that front . Has a changed, improved, deteriorated . Not enough time has really passed yet to say there has been a significant change other than there is a laser focus on industry to improve. They get the seriousness of this. They are a dedicated partner in this. If you go to a shipyard, whether it is down in virginia or if you go up to connecticut. You go to rhode island, you go to mississippi or san diego and you meet those steel trades men and women and what they do and what they believe in. They are dedicated. We are True Partners in terms of what we need to get done and what the wall street journal calls the combustible decade. What the others call a decade of urgency. I remain optimistic about the path we are on. None of us are satisfied where we currently are in that includes the industry. They. Have been selfcritical as well they are getting after it. Brent we are reaching towards the end. We have one more from the audience. I want to followup up on your have plan nav plan, given your numbers of manned and unmanned ships, what do you see is the biggest. To growing the fleet . We have an industrial capacity that is limited. We can only get so many ships off the production line a year. My goal would be to optimizing the production line for destroyers, frigates, amphibious ships. Four supply ships. We need to give a signal to industry that we need to get to 3 destroyers a year instead of 1. 5. That we need to maintain 2 submarines a year. Part of it is on us to give them a clear aim point so they can plan a workforce and infrastructure that will be able to meet the demand. Again, no industry is going to make those kinds of investments unless we give them a higher degree of confidence. We try to round that curve to put them in a place where we are producing those lethal capable ship that we need the most. In terms of unmanned, we are making, i think brett taking progress right breath taking progress rhino. We are to we have changed the framework in terms of unmanned capabilities. When i first got on the job i looked at unmanned through the lens of any ship or aircraft production line. Think of the seven to 15 year process to get something off of the delivery line from first to line to testing and acceptance. We cannot do that with unmanned. With Unmanned Technology out there we have developed a dev Ops Technology that is closely connected to task force 59 operates out of bahrain. They are operating with six or seven Different Countries as a team right now to increase maritime domain awareness using unmanned in the air and on the sea. Our goal is to have a hundred networked unmanned platforms operating together in a mesh network that delivers an understanding of what is afloat out there in the red sea or arabian gulf. To get to 100 unmanned by the summer of 2023. If i could describe what that means in real terms. Take a look at the red sea. Is about the size of the state of california. On any given day you may have 4 or 5 coalition ships operating in that space. Think about 5 control cars trying to secure the state of patrol cars trying to secure the state of california. Think about of the power of unmanned, what the capability gives you in terms of sensing and understanding at the tactical edge in Operation Centers and are partnered nations leveraging ai. In terms of unmanned itself one of the biggest changes is the way were looking at the magic sauce of ai if i could use a water bottle is not the platform. It is the ai Software Integration that plugs in. If i do it parallel to tesla that is a digital native in the Automotive Industry there are plenty of platforms out there. Full wagon, ford, number of companies have the platform. We do not have to have the same company that develops out of these is a very competitive environment. Small companies are making the magic plugged in that we can change out very quickly. We are trying to field unmanned capabilities in this school year defense plan within three to five years. We are actually fielding it now. It is also informing some of our bigger programs like large or medium unmanned that we hope to scale later on in this decade. Michael we have brent we have one from online. First we will go over here. Moderators prerogative the quick. You mentioned task force 59 and you also mentioned unmanned tested. Can you tell us more about the future of fleet experimentation . Michael absolutely we are doing more and more experimentation. For example we have taken unmanned platforms and we have sailed them from gulf states through the panama canal, we have 40,000 miles of unmanned thomas operation making those autonomous operation making those transits. They can follow the rules of the road theyre avoiding other ships, they are operating within the International Rules of the road. We are making significant progress and doing those kinds of operations. As well as you mentioned impacts. It is not only the work we are doing in the fifth fleet. Not only to sense, but make sense of the maritime environment. The testing we did was passing targeting data to unmanned vessels and firing weapons from them. We are trying to come at this at a very rapid way that is much different than the approach we have had with traditional weapon systems in the past. We have to field the capability. Brent last question. Online that we will go to you and then we will have to wrap up. The online one is a quick followup done unmanned vessels. The u. S. Provided vessels to the ukraine. What are those . How effective have they been . How what have we learned from the usage . What are the details or you can share . Michael i cannot. I said it would be a short one. Michael i will say that there are plenty of Lessons Learned from russia ukraine. Among them you need to come at an adversary different he then you would traditionally think about the past. We have not provided Ukrainian Tanks to take out russian tanks. We provided them javelin vessels. Yet to think of different ways to problem quicker. I have one you can answer from blumberg. What is the bloomberg. What is the status of the deployment, what is the confidence level that the repeated reliability problems laid out by the dot and reports as recently as january for emails and agg have been solid and meeting liability goals reliability goals . A couple generations ago we did not intend to employ the gerald r. Ford until 2025. We will send her this year. I will not say where she will go, but we will deploy her as part of a battle group this year. We have we put a shoulder behind getting the aunt some of the heavy Technology Problems we have had behind some of the heavy Technology Problems we have had with elevators and catapults. The gerald r. Ford had the highest and the flight. She she was our carrier in the atlantic for our pirates pilots that qualified on the east coast. In terms of Network Issues we are leveraging star link give us more bandwidth and satellite capabilities. We are leveraging commercial satellites at a scale we have not done before to give us that kind of to give us more capability. Brent thank you very much admiral, thank you to the audience and online as well. I want to give you the chance as i wrap up, if you have any parting comments are once you want to make before we close out the evening. Michael all of you are influencers. I hope the things i talked about with respect to your navy are appealing. I hope the young people you could influence, talk to them about the navy, nila terry, the opportunities that it resents military and the opportunities it presents them. Talk to him about the opportunity it presents them to serve their country and the greatest nation in the world. Your talent is important to us and we hope we continue to be an attractive option for young people. I have never met anyone at my age who served at the navy and said it has not fundamentally changed their lives. Good solid positive memories. That is how you can help us, your country, your navy. Thank you. Brent thank you all for attending tonight and your active participation both online and in the room, thank you very much admiral again. Thank you. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2022] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] Kaiser Family foundation, this is 45 minutes