US Navy Moves from Defensive to Offensive:
Op-Ed by Rear Admiral Thomas S. Rowden, USN, Director, Surface Warfare (N96) Chief of Naval OperationsJim Kilby |
Captain Jim Kilby started laying out our vision for the future direction of surface warfare with “Surface Warfare: Lynchpin of Naval Integrated Air/Missile Defense”,
(Navy Capt. James W. Kilby, nominated for appointment to the rank of rear
admiral (lower half). Kilby is currently serving as deputy for
ballistic missile defense, AEGIS, Destroyers and Future Surface
Combatants, N96F, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Washington,
D.C.)
and
Captain Charlie Williams followed up with
and
(Navy Capt. Charles F. Williams, nominated for appointment to the rank of
rear admiral (lower half). Williams is currently serving as deputy for
surface ship systems weapons and sensors, N96C, Office of the Chief of
Naval Operations, Washington, D.C.)
Together with our continuing mastery of land attack
and maritime security operations, the three operational thrusts they
describe a Surface Force that is moving from a primarily defensive
posture to one on the offense. This is an exciting development, and I
want to spend a few paragraphs reinforcing their messages.
Surface Warfare must “go on the offensive”
in order to enable future power projection operations. I call this
“offensive sea control” and it takes into consideration that in future
conflict, we may have to fight to get forward, fight through our own
lines, and then fight to stay forward. Pieces of ocean will come to be
seen as strategic, like islands and ports, and we will offensively
“seize” these maritime operating areas to enable further offensive
operations. Put another way, no one viewed the amphibious landings in
the Pacific in WWII as “defensive”; there was broad understanding that
their seizure was offensive and tied to further offensive objectives. It
is now so with the manner in which we will exercise sea control.
What does this mean to fleet sailors? We
need to master the technology that is coming to the fleet—
- Navy Integrated Fire Control (Counter Air), or NIFC-CA;
- the Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR);
- the SQQ-89 A(V)15 ASW Combat System;
- the LCS ASW Mission Module;
- the introduction of the Griffin missile in the PC class;
- new classes of Standard Missiles;
- Rail Gun;
- Directed Energy.
We will
need to use these systems and then do what sailors always do—figure out
ways to employ them that the designers never considered.
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