Social media. [inaudible conversations] welcome. [applause] good evening and thank you, everyone, for coming tonight and also everyone thats online monitoring and watching this virtually from wherever in the world that you are tonight. Its a great honor and privilege to welcome today the chief Naval Operations. This is a very interesting period of time in our nations history, we are facing some unprecedented risk right now with an ongoing war in ukraine to set the context for a threat and a decade that could be very perilous, especially as you look alt whats happening the last few weeks around taiwan in the western pacific with china. This will be a very contested decade and the navy has been for generations the preeminent Deterrent Force of the United States and has maintained the peace in the world for generations, and tonight, the chief of Naval Operations, topic de jour will be the navigation plan. Now, this is a term that mariners are familiar with. The navigation plan provides the guidance and also points out the perils and also the needs of a preplanned course. In this case, the future of the navy as we move forward into this decade and so were going to focus in on that. Were going to focus in on what the navy needs and what the nation will have to supply in order to get the fleet that the country needs in this very contested decade. And without further ado. I invite the chief Naval Operations to join me on the stage. [applause] so now that im in my seat i want to give the rules of the road tonight before i hand the stage over to the admiral for a few prepared comments on the 2022 navigation plan. First, ill be moderating throughout the evening. Im the Senior Research fellow here at Heritage Foundation for the last couple of years for Naval Warfare and technologies, but the reason the event is possible is because of folks like you from the media, academia, the think tank world, active duty, retired members as well and of course, everyone online all across the world. So, you will have a chance to ask questions. Please start to think about those and please keep it, and admiral, over to you for comments. Thank you, mr. Sadler. I appreciate the opportunity to talk about where were headed as a navy. I think its best to open up what is infloo unsing influencing our decisions the path were taking, navigating. In a word, its china. In the path over the last decade, weve seen a force tripled in size and investments in Nuclear Capability both in terms of their capabilities, but also the breadth of those capabilities. We see an increase in their ability to leverage the space domain, so, their satellite constellations that allow them to find us and to target us, potentially. We see a heavy investment in weapons with long range and we also see a big investment in sensing systems and netted sensing systems terrestrial, space and the maritime. Theyre a significant potential adversary, as this audience is well aware, their 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. And so, that led the United States navy to take a look at ourselves in terms of what would how would we face this adversary not only to deter them, but if we potentially had to face them in combat. And we decided that we would have to face them in a different way than the means that weve been operating in the past 30 years, and spread out the force and mass effects across all domain, sea bed to space and also include leveraging the United States marine corps from island chains in the pacific. That led us to think about what kind of fleet wed need to actually deliver those kinds much effects in the distributed manner, and the fleet that we have today, we believe we have too much capability and that is focused on too few platforms. And so, in order to give us a distributed force, we looked at what type of attributes that force would need in order to be effective in combat. So we thought about the fact that, i talked about it needed to be it needed to be a distributed fleet. It needs to be able to come at an adversary like china across multiple vectors and all doe mains simultaneously. It needs to have the attribute of distance, so, thats weapons with range and speed that can hold an adversary at bay. We have to have sound defensive systems or possibilities, and that includes our investments in areas like hydro sonics, areas like Laser Technology and high powered microwave in the defensive role. We had to think about deception, maneuver, stealth, how to apply the technologies. We had to think about decisions advantage and 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 ever have before to put our commanders and our tactical action officers in a position to deliver effects and to make decisions faster than their opponent. And so, that influences us in thinking about the force of the future and it will take, as i was just talk to go mr. Sadler, 20 budget cycles to get to a hybrid fleet of 355 manned and 150 unmanned and every single study in washington or beyond, whether its done inside the pentagon or by think tanks like this, have conclude that had we need a navy of at least 355 manned vessels and about 150 unmanned. Thats not a perpetual in state, though. We continue to learn through exercises, through battle problems, through war games, and in a war college next week for a twogame war game with Senior Leaders that will influence how those numbers will change, but probably more importantly, how the composition, the mixes the navy changes with capabilities we need for the future. So, with that as a table setter, i open it up to your questions. So thank you very much, admiral. So, theres actually, i think ive got a question already from the audience, and one as a moderators discretion that i will hold for right now. Ill go to the audience. First. [inaudible question] so, we are expanding those capabilities. I think what we owe private industry, what we owe industry in the ship repair business, is a stable and predictable vision of what kind of fleet were going to have in the future. So,s a you see right now, in our budgets, were decommissioning ships at a rate thats probably higher than wed like. That adds a degree of instability in their ability to predict what size work force they need, what type of infrastructure we need in our shipyards and so, i think you know, if i if i would i think give them credit for making decisions based on the signals that were giving them, and so, where id like to get with the Service Ship Building line, with respect to fleet size, id use the submarine ship building plan that we have as an exemplar. So, out for about 20 years, were in a cadence right now to deliver two attack boats and one ballistic submarine a year and thats high degree of predictability to those. And likewise on the repair side, it gives us a high degree of fidelity on what repair requirements we are going to have during that same period. On the surface side, i would like to get to that same place with our production line for destories, for frigates for amphibious ships for smaller amphibious ships and for our supply ships so we can then have numbers that are fairly stable and predictible and give the repair yards a target to shoot at with a higher degree of confidence. So, before we go to the next question, id like to take one from the online, so, while fred bartels is getting that, i have one question, admiral, ill take moderators prerogative. The navigational plan, you mentioned the 350 manned ships and 150 unmanned and 3,000 or so aircraft, you know, arriving somewhere in the 2040s, but the danger right now, and weve had several people come and speak here at heritage, the cia director, secretary of state, to pacom commanders, say that china is making preparations for a showdown or contest this decade. How are you preparing or how is the fleet postured to address the more immediate dangers at hand . Our priorities have been readiness, modernization and capacity in that order. So, in other words, we cant have a navy bigger than we can sustain because we have to be ready to fight tonight. We need a lethal, ready, capable navy, more than we need a bigger navy thats less lethal, less capable, less ready. What does that boil down to, you need ships on point deployed in the western pacific, arabian gulf, high north, that are properly manned and those crews are properly trained for combat number one. And the second, adequate supply parts when things break down they can repair them themselves or into port, turn them around quickly and selfsustaining, and equipped today. The magazines have to be filled with ammunition, we cant be a hollow force and the fourth point of readiness is maintenance. Its imperative for us to drive down delay days out of private shipyards to zero. Were not satisfied where we are now. The industry is working closely with us to get to that point, but we have to be able to maintain the fleet that we have with a high degree of confidence. So that to answer your point, we have to be ready to fight tonight, ready for the 2027 scenario that the previous indoe pacom commander laid out a couple of years ago, but we have to be ready to fight left that have mark. At the same time modernizing the fleet. So 60 to 70 of the navy that you have today, we will have a decade from now. So, we cant ignore modernization. Thats why capacity is last. So, the force that we have cannot be a hollow force. Thats where we have to put our effort right now. And then, as ive said in my navigation plan, i do think, in order to fight and distribute the manner, we need a bigger navy as i mentioned a few moments ago, every study thats been done, said we need at least 355 manned ships. No question that we need a bigger navy. But as i said in my navigation plan, we cannot simultaneously modernize the fleet that we have, and grow to a larger fleet without 3 to 5 growth above inflation, so, that will mean at least another 9 or 10 billion in our budget a year. Short of that, im going to focus on maintaining readiness as my number one priority and the nation demands it to have a ready nation to respond to whatever comes up. Thank you, i might come back around to the key regions later, admiral, but over to you, fred, from the online audience. Its a regional question, how do you our allies contribution in the South Pacific and how that ties in the future naval plans and how do you think of the contribution of the allies in that region . So, i would say that when people ask me about asymmetric advantage, the first thing i talk about is sailors, but the second thing i talk about is the numbers of allies and partners that we have knitted together in the pacific, as a likeminded force. Last week, i was in the United Kingdom for three days and spent a day in spain as well. As you know, we recently signed an agreement about a year ago with australia and the u. K. Known as aukus. I think thats had a strategic stroke of brilliance for the United States or actually for all three countries, but that puts all three countries working in lockstep with advanced capabilities to put us in a position where were not just interoperable, but were interchangeable. So, ill give you an example with another ally, the french. So when we didnt have a carrier in the middle east, the french carrier, charles de gaulle, filled in for the u. S. Carrier under the tactical control of the fifth fleet. Think about the power of that. If you can have another ally or partner fill in for you when you have other priorities say in the western pacific or mediterranean or in the red sea . We have other allies and partners that are significant as well in the western pacific, the japanese, the south koreans. I mentioned the australians. New zealand of course, singapore is key for us in terms of access, and so, 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 we have with any other country because i consider them to be a Strategic Partner for us in the future. The indian ocean battle space is becoming increasingly more important for us, and quite frankly, the fact that india and china currently have a bit of a skirmish along their border, i think i think its strategically important with respect to india that they now force china to not only look east toward the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, but they have to be looking over their shoulder at india. India is a key partner for us, absolutely essential going forward, but i would tell you that the framework that we have with u. S. Fifth fleet and coalition of the willing of 34 navies that we operate on a daytoday basis and have for the last quarter century is powerful. We just finished a rim pac exercise in the pacific and the third fleet commander who ran that exercise said, you know, the construct that we have in the middle east, it wouldnt be bad if we could import that to the western pacific and hes absolutely right. So i remain bullish and allies and partners and keeping those relationships strong and leveraging daytoday. Ill finish up by saying, be is once told me armies meet in conflict and navies meet daytoday. And we do. We dont just operate in the military lane. Your United States navy has effect in both of economic and the diplomatic lanes as well and historically has been very important for our country. Thank you. If you have a question in the audience here in person, please raise your hand and then wait for the microphone. As we wait for that. I did have a followup question, admiral. In the navigation plan, you mentioned the importance of key regions, the curious as to what you see. Weve heard some of them already mention just in the last your last answer. What is your into um number one, and maybe your second, your top two key regions and you focus on the numbered fleets and assure that theyre postured and theyre equipped appropriately. When you look at that and you look at the key regions, is there a mismatch for how the numbered fleets are structured today and with this evolving global threat from china that you might be thinking that there could be some modifications the way those numbers are being distributed and admiral when he was secretary of the navy mentioned first fleet and your reaction is also on that idea would be welcome as well. Sure, well talk about regions for just a second. So, my two highest priorities would be the pacific and then the atlantic. I think the indian ocean is a close third. In terms of opportunities in the future we absolutely r to look at the artic, as the ice cap continues to recede. Think about trade routes in the next 25 years between europe and asia fundamentally changing. I recently made a trip it iceland. Iceland, as you know, a member of the n. A. T. O. Alliance, they dont have a navy, but a coast guard. Think about it in a transatlantic fashion and transpolar fashion, and we need to think about that particularly with finland and sweden joining the alliance, i see opportunities in the high north that we need to continue to operate up there with allies and partners and we need to continue to do and iceland is an example. Theyve been gracious to allow us to do rotational deployment of our aircraft controller up there. And to continue to ensure those rotational deployments. So with respect to the size and scope of the battle space that we cover. And do we have adequate coverage with our fleet headquarters right now . I think thats worthy of debate and we need to continue to have that debate and i would prefer to focus any money that i have on capabilities and more ships, rather than more headquarters. And what ive done, what we have done, our navy has done, as an example with the newly formed u. S. 2nd fleet out of norfolk, weve used expeditionary manner, light headquarters thats operated out of the iceland. Theyve traveled from norfolk to operate on our command and control ship in the mediterranean and then in the high north up by norway. They have actually gone down to north carolina, and operated with the marine corps and so, my point there, sir, is that do we have enough fleet headquarters to go around . One could argue that we dont, but one of the great things that navy brings to bear in our headquarters is global maneuverability. Thats perfect. I think we have a question here if we can bring a microphone. Yes, maam. So, prior to the well, until the ukraine war, all of the arms control publications that i was reading were focused on russia as the threat, in areas such as the hypersonic missiles and those sorts of capabilities, but you havent mentioned them at all within your scheme of planning and so, are they were they overestimated in these capabilities or are they just not . Thank you. So there is significant concern. Ill talk first about russia and china are both developing those capabilities and well be be and will be filling those shortly. I mention imperative for the future fleet, not only the future fleet, but the fleet in this decade. Thats why our investments in Laser Technology to defend against weapons against hypersonics, as far as high powered microwave continue to be high on our priority list for research and development. Weve actually deployed Laser Weapons on board some of our navy ships. Theyre on track to deliver that capability to across more ships here in this decade. So, from a defensive nature, we are from a defensive standpoint, were focused on the threat. Were not ignoring it. In terms of offensive capabilities, the navy and army are working closely in the same hypersonic missile. The army will deliver that capability. Theyll field it next year in 2023 in a mobile fashion. The navy will put it on our stealthy destroyers beginning in 2025, and 2028 on our virginia class submarines, best lethal, most stealthy submarines in the world. I hope that answers your question. Thank you, and weve got from the online audience, fred. Back to you. Sir, there have been a few questions about recruitment and retention, and how the recruitment scenario now days has been very challenging. So, what are your what are the problems that youve seen with recruitment and what are the challenges that youve been seeing on retention, and they specifically mentioned high skilled officers. Yes. So, let me talk proudly about recruiting. Were definitely focused on retention and retain the navy is a family and we serve as families. So, were focused, under the secretary. Navy, were increasing our funding for family focus, child care, child care 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 dont see any navy commercials on tv anymore. Thats not where the demographic is that were trying to recruit into the navy. So, weve gone to every social media platform that weve been allowed to go on, in terms of in terms of getting our message out. But weve also done it through the eyes of sailors, so if you see our stuff online, its not slick, now, fifth avenue media stuff that were pushing out, its the United States navy through the lens of a sailor. Because thats whats attractive to young people and actually, is authentic and credible. Were trying to tell the story out there of excitement, of opportunity, of operating in areas with cyber, quantum computing, ai, robotics. The chance to gain a skillset, a 21st century skill set. The education opportunities, i will tell you that the key when i was just aboard two navy ships last week. And when i asked sailors, why did you join the navy, the key reason continues to be serve my country and so you can never downplay that the patriotism element is the most important its the most important aspect, i think, in our recruiting message and when we try to tell a story of the navy through the eyes of navy sailors, that really rings true, and i think it sends a message that what theyre doing is important. They are part of an important worldclass elite team. One of the other things that weve done is weve leveraged kind of popular and do it yourself venues online, on venues like youtube as an example where well take a navy musician, and hell be in a dumb drum contest with a drum fler a famous band on take a navy sea bee and with an engineer talking about what they do billed infrastructure on remote islands. We try to keep it real and thats been successful. And so the navy, weve been meeting our recruiting goals this year, were in a pinch. Were not resting on our laurels, but looking for innovative ways to get our message out, again, through the eyes of sailors. A question in the back over here and then well go to you, sir. What can you discuss about project overmatch . So, overmatch is a project let me say this, one of the aspects i talked about that was important to the future fleet, actually the fleet of this decade is one of decision advantage. So, we are swimming in data and how do you get the right information to the right Decision Maker at the right time, to put yourself in a position of advantage against your opponent . So, what weve decided to do with project overmatch. I made it my second highest priority since delivering the columbia class submarine and what weve had a lot of success with is developing a network of networks, that allows us to transfer any data over any network. So its a Software Defined communication communication as a service framework, where Software Actually decides what that prioritized information is and what the best path it should take to get to a Decision Maker. Over match has been a project now for about a year and a half, were at the point early next year, where we will deploy a Carrier Strike group with this capability and well see how it goes and look to scale it after that. We believe that the navy is on a path to deliver the Navy Tactical grid which we think could easily become the joint tactical grid as part of a priority project called jad2 for the department of defense. And we feel good in terms of this and were actually leveraging the best technology that we can, but also the best processes that weve been able to obtain from industry. So, were trying to so were trying to benchmark against worldclass networks and worldclass software systems. Sir. Admiral, building on your comments about partners and allies in the pacific and the new aukus agreement in there under the framework of this expanding chinese capabilities and range, is the navy looking as forward deploying and looking at new bases and bases in places, i guess, you know, i think that where we can forward base our ships in australia and other places, is that dispersal piece and also provide more conventional return of kind of being closer in there . So the short answer is absolutely. So were taking a look at opportunities, particularly in the pacific, we have a plan thats closely knitted with indo pacoms position for future posture in the pacific that would include sustainment as well, another important aspect of it. As china continues to become a more capable force, that timeline for, you know, for moving potentially across the Taiwan Strait becomes shorter and shorter in terms of tactical warning. So, forward force, as the navy and the marine corps are, are in a position to be able to respond. So, we think that, again, Forward Deployed naval forces, particularly if we can keep forces home ported forward puts us in a better position to respond best. Now from the online audience. Following up on your comments on the arctic, what about the american arctic and the u. S. Coast guard operations there . Do you see more cooperation with the services . How does the navycoast guard interaction been playing in that area . I will tell you were highly reliant on the coast guard as a partner. Theyve just put their five most capable cutters in the western pacific, and they just did a few months ago, just did a big commissioning ceremony and i think the three ships in guam simultaneously. Theyre on a great vector right now in terms ever their capabilities. Were leveraging that, whether thats in the caribbean, whether its in the western pacific, you see them operating side by side with us in the arabian sea and also up in the high north. So, i think that thats going to continue. Were in a very good path with the coast guard as a service, as a partner. And i would tell you that likewise, with the United States marine corps, weve been lockstep with the commandant in terms of supportive of his force design and where hes going with the marine corps and his marine elements, his expeditionary manned spaces to actually support the fleet in a fight. Yes, sir. With respect to threat assessment, how would, according to you, look the next pearl harbor, what would it look like . I think its likely to begin in space and cyber space. I think that many of the again, ill be in a war game next week, but i increasingly see those as first steps. I was actually a bit surprised that russia didnt leverage their Cyber Capabilities more broadly in the beginning of the ongoing conflict, but i would predict that we will see heavy cyber and space activity in any fight and that would likely be the next pearl harbor. We all recognize our vulnerabilities in the cyber domain and so others recognize that, too. As i mentioned earlier, the way that the navy looks at how were potentially going to fight, isnt just on the sea, under the sea, its sea bed warfare, its in the air, its space, and its cyber space. So, a potential fight against china is not just limit today a single domain, it has to be multidomain and it also is likely to be trans regional. So you just cant think of china through the lens of the indoe pacific. You have to look alt the indian ocean. You have to look at you have to look at their belt and road. You have to look at their economic connected tissue which is global, you have to look at their vulnerabilities. I think weve got a lot online. You said several years ago the Submarine Base was not up to par. And have things changed or not, improved or anything that you could comment on that . So not enough time has really passed yet to has there been a significant change other than theres a laser focus on industry to improve. They get the seriousness of this. Theyre a dedicated partner this this and they know how, if you go to a shipyard, whether its down in newport news, virginia, or if you go to groton, connecticut, go to rhode island, go to pascagoula, mississippi or san diego and you meet those skilled trademen and trades women and what they do and what they believe in, im telling you, they are dedicated and they believe that they are we are True Partners in terms of what we need to get done and what the wall street journal calls the combustible decade and others call the decade of urgency. I remain optimistic about the path were on. None of us is satisfied with where we currently are and that includes industry and theyve been selfcritical as well. So theyre getting after it. Okay, were reaching towards the end. One more from the audience. Hi, admiral, we are going to follow up on your plan given the numbers and goals in there for both unmanned and manned ships. What do you see as the biggest barrier growing the suite . Yeah, so, we have an industrial capacity thats limited and in other words, we can only get so much ships off the production year, production line a year. My goal would be to optimize those production lines for destories for frigates, for amphibian ships and supply ships. We need to get a signal that we need to get to three destories a year instead of 1. 5. That we need to maintain two submarines a year. So part of this is on us to give them a clear set of a clear aim point so they can plan a work force and infrastructure thats going to be able to meet the demand. But again, thats, you know, no industry is going to make those kind of investments nms unless we give them a higher degree of confidence. Were trying to round that curve to put us in a place where were producing those lethal capability ships that we need the most. In terms of unmanned, were making, i think, breath taking progress right now. Weve changed the construct. Weve changed the work of unmanned capabilities and so, when i first got into the job, i looked at unmanned through the lens that i look at any ship building or aircraft production line. So, you know, think of a 7 to 15 year process in order to get something off the delivery line from first design to, you know, to testing and acceptance. We cant do that with unmanned. With Unmanned Technologies that are out there, weve developed an environment, where Unmanned Task force and the pentagon thats closely connect today task force 59 which operates out of bahrain and that task force is operating with six or seven Different Countries as a team right now to increase maritime demand awareness, using unmanned in the air and on the sea. Our goal is to have 100 networked unmanned platforms operating together, tied together in a mesh network that delivers an understanding of what is afloat out there. Whether its in the red sea or the arabian gulf. 100 unmanned by the summer of 2023. So if i could just describe what that kind of means in real terms. If we take a look at the red sea. The red sea is about the size of the state of california. On any given day, we may have four or five coalition ships that are operating in that water space. And think about five patrol cars, trying to secure the state of california. And then, think about the power of unmanned. And what that capability gives you in terms of sensing, and then understanding at the tactical edge and Operational Centers leveraging ai. In terms of unmanned itself. One of the biggest changes is the way that were look ago the the magic sauce for ai, if i could use the water bottle as an example. Isnt necessarily the platform, its the ai Software Integration that plugs in. So, if i do a parallel to tesla, a digital native in the automotive industry. Theres plenty of platforms out there. Volkswagen, ford, a number of companies have the platform, the secret sues is the ai software and we dont have to have the same company that develops both of these, its a very competitive environment, Small Companies are making the magic plugin that we can change out quickly. So, were trying to field capabilities and unmanned capabilities in this fiscal year defense plan, within three to five years, actually, were fueling it now and its informing this progress is informing some of our bigger programs like large and medium unmanned that we would hope to scale later on in this decade. I want to keep going oh, we have one from online, but first well go over year, and get a microphone to you, but moderators prerogative quick, you mentioned task force 59 and earlier you also mentioned unmanned being tested during rim pac. Could you talk about complete experimentation and represented by more of our numbered fleets . Absolutely will. Were doing more and more experimentation and ill give you an example, weve taken unmanned platforms and weve sailed them from, from the gulf states through the panama canal, up to california and so 4,000 plus miles. Weve got, you know, 40,000 miles of unmanned, unmanned autonomous operation making those transits, where we had this unmanned vessels that are able to follow rules of the road and avoiding other ships and were operating within the International Rules of the road. And so, were making significant progress in op and doing those kinds of operations as well as you mentioned rim pac, its not only the work were doing in fifth fleet is to not only sense, but make sense of the maritime environment. The testing that we did during rim pac is actually passing targeting data to unmanned vessels and firing weapons from them. Were trying to come at this in a rapid way thats much different than the approach that weve had with traditional weapons positions in the past. Weve got to field the capability. One last question, online and then to you and then well have to wrap up. And follow up on unmanned vessels. The u. S. Provided manned close to defense vessels close to the ukraine. What are those, how effective have they been . What have we learned from that usage. What are the types of missions theyre used for, what the specific missions and details you can share . I cant. [laughter] thats why i said it would be a short one. I will say there are plenty of Lessons Learned from russiaukraine and among them are, you know, you need to come at an adversary differently than you would traditionally think of in the past and so we have not provided tanks to go after the russian tanks, we provided them javelin missiles. What is the status of Service Deployment from the looking into the sixth fleet this year and whats you confidence level that the repeated reliability problems laid out by the dot and e reports as recently as january for emails and agg have been solved in in somewhat meeting reliability goals necessary for sortie, right . Just a couple of years ago we did not intend to employ the gerald r. Ford until 2025. Were going to send her this year. Im not going to say exactly when, im not going to say exactly where shes going to go, but were going to deploy here as part of a battle group this year. We have put a lot we put a shoulder behind getting beyond some of the heavy Technology Problems weve had with elevators with resting gear, with catapults. Last year we took the gerald r. Ford and she had the highest 8500 catapults and arrested landings on that flight deck. She was our carrier call carrier in the atlantic for our pilots that had to qualify on the east coast. In terms of the network issues, were leveraging star link to give us more bandwidth and satellite capability. So were leveraging commercial satellites at a scale that we have not done before to give us that kind of to give us more capability. All right, well, thank you very much, admiral. Thank you everyone in the audience here and online as well. I did want to give you, the chance, at admiral, as im wrapping up here, any parting comments that you want to make before we close out the evening. All of you are influencers and i hope some of the things that ive talked about with respect to your navy tonight are appealing and i hope that young people that you can influence, id ask you to talk to them about the navy, to talk to them about the military, and the opportunities that it presents them, but also talk about the opportunities that it presents to serve their country, to serve the greatest nation in the world, and so, your talent, the talent in this country is important to us, and we hope that we continue to be an attractive option for young people and ive never met anybody that, you know, my age at that served in the navy and said it hasnt been a hasnt fundamentally changed their lives, now, theyve had good, solid, positive memories and so, thats how you could help us, i think, and help your country and help the navy. So, thank you. Thank you, again, and thank you all for attending tonight. And your active participation both online and here in the room. Thank you very much, admiral, again. Thank you. [applause]. [inaudible conversations] cspan is your unfiltered view of government who are funded by these Television Companies and more. Including wow. The world has changed, today the fast, reliable Internet Connection is something no one can live without, so, wow is there for our customers, with speed, reliability, value and choice. Now more than ever it all starts with great internet. Wow. Wow supports cspan as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. Now available at the cspan shop, cspans 2022 congressional directory, go there to order a copy of the congressional directory. The compact spiral bound book has Contact Information for every member of congress, including bios and Committee Assignments and contact for state governors and the Biden Administration cabinet. Order your copy today at cspan shop. Org or scan the code with your smartphone. Every purchase helps to support cspans nonprofit operations. The u. S. Senate today working on more of President Biden nominations. Coming up at 11 30 eastern this morning a vote to confirm a judge to the 2nd Circuit Court of appeals and at 1 45 p. M. Eastern a confirmation vote on the nominee to head the transportation security administration. Later in the month, lawmakers will consider a shortterm spending bill to fund the federal government past september 30th. And Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer also plans to bring a bill protecting samesex marriage to the floor over the next couple of weeks. As always, live coverage the senate on cspan2. The presiding officer the senate will come to order. The chaplain, dr. Barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Eternal god, who harmonized the world with seasons and climates, sowing and reaping, color and fragrance, we praise your loving name. Lord,