KingsBayPeriscope.com: Navy's top leader sets pace for coming months 03/28/02

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Thursday, March 28, 2002

Last modified at 4:28 p.m. on Wednesday, March 27, 2002

During a Career Decision Fair, DC1 Vincent Valenti, of USS Yorktown (CG 48), takes advantage of the opportunity to meet with HTC Laurie Pieper to discuss options available for his transfer. Career Decision Fairs have helped 20,000 Sailors in the past year gain information on opportunities available to them as they continued their Navy careers. U.S. Navy Photo
Navy's top leader sets pace for coming months

By Adm. Vern Clark
Chief of Naval Operations

Editor's note: Calling our Navy ''the greatest in the world,'' Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark recently published his vision for the future. The following is the first installment of the CNO's Guidance for 2002.

Fight and Win!

We are the greatest Navy in the world and we are getting even better. The United States Navy will be a highly skilled, operationally agile, and combat-ready force that enhances stability, deters conflict, and triumphs over all threats in all environments.

Introduction

On Sept. 11, 2001, USS Enterprise was returning from deployment when satellite television provided tragic images of deadly attacks at home, half a world away.

Within moments, the ''Big E's'' rudder swept over and, exploiting the forward presence and mobility unique to naval forces, headed for the Arabian Sea. By the next morning, Enterprise was within reach of Afghanistan, ready to launch and sustain precision strikes against dispersed enemies hundreds of miles from the sea.

Enterprise was not alone in taking prompt action. USS Carl Vinson steamed at high speed to join her on station while surface combatants and submarines prepared Tomahawk missiles for long-range strikes. USS Peleliu's amphibious ready group cut short a port visit to Australia and sailed toward the Arabian Sea. USS Kitty Hawk prepared to leave its homeport in Japan to serve as an innovative special operations support platform.

At home, shipmates saved shipmates in the Pentagon and swiftly re-established command and control. USS George Washington and USS John C. Stennis took station off the east and west coasts of the United States along with more than a dozen cruisers and destroyers, guarding the air and sea approaches to our shores. Shortly thereafter, USNS Comfort and USNS Denebola arrived in New York City to support firefighters and recovery workers.

In the weeks following Sept. 11, naval forces led the way. Carrier strike packages in conjunction with U.S. Air Force bombers and tankers flew hundreds of miles beyond the sea, destroying the enemy's ability to fight. Sustained from the sea, U.S. Marines, Navy SEALS, Seabees, and special operations forces worked with local allies to free Afghanistan from the Taliban Regime and al Qaeda terrorist network.

Presence É Power É Precision. Our Navy's response to the events of Sept. 11 is testimony to the dedicated service of our Sailors. It also underlines the mobility, lethality, and reach of naval forces. Most importantly, it shows our dedication to mission accomplishment. We stand ready to fight and win!

Where We Are Today

Before charting the way ahead for 2002, let us take a fix of our current position. The readiness of our fleet rests on innovative leaders focused on improving five key areas: manpower, current readiness, future readiness, quality of service, and organizational alignment. Impressive progress made in each of these areas serves as the foundation of our operational success.

Manpower

Our Navy needs talented young Americans who want to serve their nation and make a difference. The key words here are ''serve'' and ''make a difference!'' In return for their service, we offer them rich opportunities for leadership and growth. We have repeatedly challenged Navy leaders to recruit, retain, and motivate such professionals. The results have been encouraging:

More and more young Americans want to join our Navy. Recruiting goals were met in 1999, 2000, and 2001, allowing battle groups to deploy with record levels of manning. The ''Accelerate Your Life'' recruiting campaign is outperforming the previous recruiting web site by 24 percent. Record numbers of ''A'' school seats are filled, providing better trained Sailors to the fleet.

Our Sailors are staying Navy. Last year was a record year for retention. We are retaining 57 percent of all eligible Sailors at the end of their first enlistment, 68 percent of Sailors with 6-10 years of service, and 84 percent of Sailors with 10-14 years of service.

More Sailors are being advanced. More than 1,500 Sailors were advanced last year than the year before.

Our leaders are making progress in combating attrition. There were 8.5 percent fewer first-term attrites in fiscal year 2001 than the previous year.

We are reaching out to our valued professionals. A Bupers initiative, the detailer communications program, has a goal of contacting 100 percent of Sailors entering a 10-month window for orders. Last year, we successfully contacted 92 percent. Additionally, 35 Career Decision Fairs were sponsored by the Center for Career Development, engaging more than 20,000 Sailors and family members.

We are steadily improving force protection. We will increase the number of force protection-related professionals in the fleet (MAA, EOD, Mobile Security Force, etc.) from 9,800 today to nearly 13,000 by the end of fiscal year 2002, working toward a goal of nearly 17,000 by 2007, thereby easing the burden on other Sailors.

Current Readiness

The success of our fleet in the war against terrorism attests to progress made in current readiness. Our Sailors were ready on Sept. 11. They had the tools they needed. However, challenges remain. We are working hard to redress the shortfalls in training, spare parts, ordnance, and fuel that have burdened our fleet for too long. The fiscal year 2002 budget is the best readiness budget in a decade.

More readiness money is flowing to the fleet. The fiscal year 2002 budget adds more than $5 billion dollars to readiness accounts over 2001 levels, including:

$782 million for increased flying hours,

$487 million for procuring aviation spare parts,

$201 million for enhanced aviation maintenance,

$706 million for additional ship operations and maintenance, and

$680 million for installation maintenance and operations.

We are investing in combat readiness. Fifty percent of all additional funding the Department of the Navy will receive this fiscal year will be devoted to enhancing current readiness, while 25 percent will be directed toward research and development. We are investing in critical technologies for Navy transformation.

Future Readiness

I am excited about the capabilities our Navy is developing. We are taking important steps to improve our Navy's warfighting performance:

Two Navy firefighters train to contain a fire during a night fire exercise at the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island Aviation Firefighting Training School. Money for increased training is one of the CNO's objectives for 2002. U.S. Navy Photo

Ships and aircraft joining the fleet are the best in the world. In 2001, Ronald Reagan was christened and USS Iwo Jima was commissioned. Production is gearing up on more Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, Virginia-class submarines, FA-18 E/F strike fighters, MH-60S helicopters, and other outstanding programs. This year also saw the signing of the Joint Strike Fighter contract. This aircraft will introduce important new capabilities into the fleet due to its increased range and stealth.

We are dedicated to innovation. We are proceeding with the DD(X) program, building on DD21 research and development. DD(X), along with CG(X), and the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), will introduce complementary technologies for 21st century warfighting success.

We are pressing ahead with groundbreaking capabilities. These include Cooperative Engagement Capability), the E-2 Radar Modernization Program, Tactical Tomahawk, Active Electronically Scanned Array), Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared, Advanced Rapid Commercial Off the Shelf Insertion, and the Enhanced Range Guided Munition, to name just a few.

We are making substantial investments in research and development. More than $10 billion will be devoted to Navy R and D this year. Only operations and manpower accounts are allotted more money.

We are also realizing the potential of Network Centric Warfare:

Cooperative Engagement Capability successfully completed OPEVAL in May 2001,

IT-21 is in 182 of our ships,

Link 16 is in the fleet, and

Navy-Marine Corps Intranet is integrating the information backplane of the naval service.

Quality of Service

Quality of service for our Sailors is a top priority. This includes an attractive quality of life for Navy families with better pay, health care, and housing. It also includes providing our Sailors with a work environment of which they can be proud. We have a great deal to do in this area, but are making progress.

Pay is improving. This year, Congress passed the biggest overall pay raise since 1985. Pay was raised for all hands by at least 3.7 percent in fiscal year 2001 and 5.0 percent in 2002.

We are compensating our people for valuable experience and skills. Special pay, bonuses, and targeted pay raises have been approved to keep our profession competitive.

Out-of-pocket housing costs have been reduced dramatically for every Sailor and family. BAH was raised by 21 percent in some homeports last year and it will be increased by as much as 36 percent in some locations this year.

Career Sea Pay has been enriched. All Sailors now receive sea pay from the moment they cross the brow. Together, the pay raise, enhanced housing allowance, and improved Career Sea Pay will put $1 billion dollars into the pockets of Sailors over the next 12 months.

Sailors can now better invest in their own future. The new Thrift Savings Plan provides a tax-deferred wealth-building vehicle to supplement the traditional military retirement plan.

We are dedicated to a Revolution in Training. Task Force EXCEL is re-engineering the way we learn, to ensure all Sailors benefit from a career-long continuum of learning.

Quality housing is a priority. We invested more than $1 billion last year and will invest another billion this year to fund more than 1.000 homes and improve another 2,000 units. We also programmed construction of nearly 5,000 new barracks spaces.

Organizational Alignment

Mission accomplishment is what we are all about. To improve mission accomplishment, we have undertaken some important alignment initiatives aimed at helping us communicate better, capture efficiencies, and enhance combat readiness.

We have strengthened the warfighting focus of Navy Staff. This includes assigning a vice admiral as director of Navy Staff and establishing a deputy CNO for warfare requirements and programs (N7) to better integrate fleet requirements and spearhead transformation.

We dedicated a significant portion of the Navy Staff to fleet readiness and logistics (N4), to better support the waterfront. We also stood up the Navy operations group to provide innovative and transformational ideas for the support of combat operations.

We are improving fleet integration and standardization. Commander U.S. Fleet Forces Command was created to integrate policies and requirements for manning, equipping, and training all fleet units during the IDTC.

We have returned community leadership to the waterfront. Fleet type commanders were created to advise CFFC of vital issues such as modernization needs, training initiatives, and operational concept development.

We are improving support to Navy experimentation. Navy Warfare Development Command has been placed under CFFC to increase the fleet's focus on innovation and experimentation.

We are expanding support to the fleet. New officer communities were established in 2001 that focus on human resources and information professional specialties.

Editor's note: Look for the second installment of the Chief of Naval Operations' Guidance 2002 in next week's edition of the Periscope.

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