As the nation continues to face the possibility of sequestration, the Department of Defense is girding itself for an era of austerity. Unless an agreement is reached between the White House and Congress by 1 March, the DOD will face more than $40 billion in cuts this year. Operations, maintenance, readiness, personnel, and support services would all suffer from reduced funding. But some argue that the greatest impact will be on the next generation of weapon systems. The Navy would feel those effects first and foremost in the shipbuilding arena.
Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development & Acquisition Sean Stackley has perhaps the most closely watched job in the Department of the Navy, especially in the current defense-budget climate. That’s why we asked him how he puts the Navy’s acquisition puzzle together to simultaneously satisfy service requirements and Congress. In a candid interview, he cites programs with the most promise, among them the Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine replacement, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer Flight III upgrade, and the Mobile Landing Platform. But he also acknowledges challenges in maintaining an industrial base for the builders of amphibious and auxiliary ships. Those who follow or influence such acquisition decisions would do well to ponder Secretary Stackley’s thoughts.
In this time of fiscal uncertainty, there’s one thing we can be sure of: The aircraft carrier will remain the centerpiece of the Fleet. The Navy has committed itself to the Gerald R. Ford class as a follow-on to the venerable Nimitz class. From its earliest days, aircraft-carrier design has undergone the constant refinements of an ever-advancing evolution. It’s a story well chronicled by retired Navy Captain John T. Manvel, who himself led the design of the new Ford class. And while many warmly welcomed Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus’ announcement that CVN-80 would be called Enterprise, the author points out that it’s not just the famous name that carries on—it’s the acquired wisdom of naval architecture’s progress through the years that has brought us to the next chapter in aircraft-carrier capabilities.
While the Navy’s hardware may be second to none, there are those who believe the service gives short shrift to the intellectual side of warfighting. The Navy has peerless professional military education institutions in the Naval War College and the Naval Postgraduate School but are they used to their full advantage?
Lieutenant Ryan Hilger, a submariner and current student at the Naval Postgraduate School, pinpoints persistent problems in Navy education and training and offers several solutions. Urging the expansion of joint participation to include global partners, he identifies existing Navy institutions in which his proposed comprehensive reforms could take place in a way that builds on current practices rather than starting from scratch. Just as the Air Force has its Squadron Officer School and the Army its Captain’s Career Course, where mid-grade officers from various communities prepare for the next professional level, the Navy also needs a common school where department heads can progress beyond mission-essential skills.
Others worry that the Navy, living in a high-tech world that primarily focuses on the future, has lost sight of the past and the value it holds as a guide to doctrine, policy, and operations. And that’s to say nothing of its role in sustaining the service’s proud heritage, says onetime naval aviator and historian Gregory Martin. He lays out a case for restoring history to what he believes is its rightful place: a core element of professional military education specifically, and more generally, deeply embedded in the entire ethos of the Navy.
Our maritime history really comes alive in the numerous museum ships around the country. For millions of Americans, those vessels are their salient contact with naval heritage, and the active-duty Navy could vastly benefit by more actively tapping into that connection to the public, notes retired Navy Reserve Commander David F. Winkler, director of programs at the Naval Historical Foundation. Once a ship is decommissioned, she still has an afterlife as a valuable public-relations tool—and can be a great avenue of communication between the current force and the citizenry it serves.
Paul Merzlak, Editor-in-Chief