Service Chiefs Discuss Sea Power in the Face of Fiscal Constraints

By AMY L. WITTMAN, Editor in Chief

The cooperation and coordination between the U.S. sea services and their common concerns was the focus of “Seapower and America’s Security,” the first of five professional development seminars planned for the Navy League’s 2010 Sea-Air-Space Exposition May 3-5 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, National Harbor, Md.

“On any given day, 35 U.S.-flagged commercially operated merchant ships are carrying U.S. military cargo somewhere in the world,” said David T. Matsuda, acting maritime administrator. Joining him on the Sea Service Chiefs’ Panel May 3 were Adm. Thad W. Allen, Coast Guard commandant; Gen. James T. Conway, Marine Corps commandant; and Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations. The panel was moderated by Gordon S. Holder, from the National Capitol Council of the Navy League.

“When it comes to sea power, the Maritime Administration [MARAD] is the glue that binds many of the aspects of the marine transportation industry,” Matsuda said.

MARAD was along side the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard as part of the U.S. response to the devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti earlier this year.

“We activated seven of our own ships, including five from the government-owned Ready Reserve Force and two high-speed ferries,” he said. “Three of these ships were sent to Haiti for recovery and relief efforts and they returned a little over a month ago. Our experts also coordinated the availability of 25 U.S.-flag vessels to help deliver much-needed supplies.

“Similarly, the Maritime Administration stands ready to help the recovery efforts in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig event. … Before there was a spill, there was a fire. One of our 2008 Merchant Marine Academy graduates, 23-year-old Darren Rapinsky, survived the explosion, and credits his survival to the emergency preparedness training he received while at Kings Point,” he said, referring to the Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, N.Y.

Chief among MARAD’s concerns is the decaying infrastructure of the academy at Kings Point. Transportation Secretary Raymond H. LaHood’s goal is to restore the physical plant at Kings Point to make the campus a “jewel” comparable to the facilities at the other service academies. To that end, President Barack Obama has proposed doubling the facility’s budget for fiscal 2011.

Together, Kings Point and the six state maritime academies, graduate more than 700 highly trained U.S. Coast Guard-licensed deck and engineering officers each year. “But we have to start motivating our next generation of mariners even sooner,” Matsuda said. MARAD is working with maritime high schools to introduce young people to the maritime careers that exist within the industry.

“As we ready our next generation of maritime professionals, we need to make sure there are jobs for them,” he added. “The U.S.-flag Merchant Marine allows us to transport large quantities of supplies, equipment and personnel in many campaigns throughout history. This system relies heavily on a partnership with the private sector. These maritime companies move things for a living. … The quick and successful startup of the Northern Distribution Network into Afghanistan is a good example of how much we depend on these folks and these international logistics networks.”

Matsuda said this industry-MARAD partnership must be “carefully managed by the federal government to ensure that these companies and this capability will be there when we need them the most.” The industry has been challenged by the difficult economic climate, making MARAD incentive programs increasingly important.

Aside from economic challenges, the maritime industry also faces threats like piracy, climate change. “In any given month, 11 U.S.-flag merchant ships will be transiting the pirate-infested waters of the Gulf of Aden.”

Industry health as well as port development and efficiency also remain key issues for the administration. Among current port-development projects are those in Anchorage, Honolulu and Guam, “one of the nation’s newest defense seaports,” he said.

Allen provided the audience with an update on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig incident in the Gulf of Mexico, having just returned from a trip to Louisiana with Obama.

He described the complexity of the situation and what is being done by the Coast Guard to mitigate the damage.

“We had a catastrophic explosion on the old drilling unit that was connected to the wellhead by 5,000 feet of rising pipe. And after the explosion we had a search-and-rescue case. We tragically lost three people; we were able to save over 100,” Allen said. The rig burned for two and a half more days, he said, and when it eventually sunk, it landed about 1,500 feet from the wellhead on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. “So you can imagine about 5,000 feet of riser pipe compressed into 1,500 feet,” that’s what is in the sea floor.

It took two to three days to survey the scene with remotely operated vehicles, finding three different leaks, and reporting the location of those leaks.

Allen noted the service has tried a few unique things, such as using dispersants at the source of the leak instead of on the surface, something that had never been done. Also new during this response is the use of coffer dams at 5,000 feet below the surface.

“Ultimately, the only solution is going to be to drill a well parallel to the existing well, go down 18,000 feet, relieve the pressure and cap the existing well,” he said. That be about 90 days out, he said. In the meantime, the oil on the surface must be managed using aerial dispersants, surface skimmers and burning. The latter was done successfully last week.

Other concerns for the Coast Guard include piracy, enforcing exclusive economic zones, ballast water management and invasive species, and ice breaking capabilities.

Prior to addressing the audience, Conway asked Allen to stand and noted that the Coast Guard commandant was going to retire in 23 days. Aboard ship, Conway said, “the guidance was always leave your spaces better than you found them. And I think we can certainly say that about Adm. Thad Allen and the United States Coast Guard.” The crowd responded with a standing ovation.

Turning to the state of the Marine Corps today, Conway noted there are now 200 Marines in Iraq. The Corps, he said, is in a period of transition from Iraq to Afghanistan. About Iraq, he said Marines and coalition forces “did what we went there to do. … We did, in short order, fight the al-Qaida. And over a period of years they, for all intents and purposes, have been crushed in the nation of Iraq.” Other nations in the region have seen that, “moderates are once again taking charge of their religion, and I think, in the context in which we view Afghanistan, events in Iraq have incredibly important,” Conway said.

There are now about 17,500 Marines in Afghanistan and that number will grow to 19,400-19,500.

As the nation’s expeditionary force, the Corps is “fast, austere and lethal.”

The Marine Corps has a saying, “We do windows,” meaning that at the same time they are launching an assault with 4,000 Marines, there are 4,000 other Marines are in Haiti. There is “lots of work to do” in Afghanistan, and Conway said the situation there is comparable to “where we were in Iraq in 2004-2005.”

The Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), and the focus is on the Corps being a hybrid instead of major peer competitor. “We say that we are a two-fisted fighter, equally as able in a counter-insurgency as we are in a major contingency,” Conway said, noting 100 percent of the equipment the service procures “can be used in either way.”

Like the other services, the Corps has very difficult fiscal choices to make, and must be more efficient, more effective, realize more energy savings. He also noted that it is time to “examine the American way of war. It used to be that you bludgeoned your enemy into submission. Today, even though Marines arrive in a theater, it’s a one-to-one contractor to Marine Corps relationship. I don’t know that we can afford to keep doing that.” Things need to be lighter, interoperable, more efficient and more affordable, he said.

Roughead took a moment to thank both Allen and Conway, who also will be retiring, for their service and friendship.

Like Allen, Roughead began with a reference to breaking news – the flooding in Tennessee. The Navy base in Millington, Tenn., had to be evacuated, and his attention immediately after the panel discussion will be on securing the safety of his people and their families there.

The QDR, he said, supports the Navy’s combat operations, and the service has 13,000-14,000 people on the ground in Iraq, Afghanistan and Djabouti.

On the piracy front, “the counter-piracy effort, led so ably by coalition partners, continues to take maritime forces time to build partnerships to deal with the piracy from the sea,” he said.

For ballistic missile defense, Obama has announced a phased adaptive approach in Europe” which places the Navy and its Aegis and ballistic missile defense ships “squarely at the forefront of that,” Roughead said.

The value of the Navy to the nation, he noted, is assurance and deterrence.

The pace of operations “is quite busy,” Roughead said, and sustaining that pace has hit maintenance and operations funding hard. Maintenance is key because “that’s how we generate capacity. He still considers the floor for fleet size to be 313 ships. Ballistic missile defense ships “are being pushed quite hard. We also see great demand for our submarine force, and for our carrier force,” he said.

He also referred to fiscal constraints. “We’re going to be dealing with an industrial base that has changed markedly. … We also seemed to have fallen into the mode of whenever a contract is awarded there is an immediate protest on its heels. That is extraordinarily disruptive, an inhibitor to building the fleet that we need.”

He urged again the importance of calculating the total cost of ownership, including the cost of manpower.