Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus The National Press Club Washington, DC 12 October 2016 Good afternoon. Thank you to the National Press Club for having me, and thank you all for being here today. There is an election going on. This election will bring a new administration, so now is the appropriate time to take measure of what we in the current administration have accomplished in our Navy and Marine Corps institutions founded on continuity and legacy, but also on change and adaptability. To quote a former CNO, Our Navy has both a tradition and a future, and we look with pride and confidence in both directions. That is what I m going to do today give you a State of the Navy to demonstrate how the actions we ve taken ensure that the future of our Navy and Marine Corps will be as bright as its storied past. In his poem, The Laws of the Navy, British Admiral Ronald Hopwood wrote, On the strength of one link in the cable, dependeth the might of the chain. Who knows when thou mayest be tested, so live that thou barest the strain. And we ve been tested. Among the challenges, when I came into office, we had a shrinking fleet in a very bad economy; we had our hands tied by sequestration, which continues to hang over and limit our ability to plan; oil dependency and volatility threatened operations and training; and bad laws and an antiquated personnel system limited our ability to attract and keep America s most talented young people. All of this, of course, occurring amid increasing threats, a far more complicated world and an ever-increasing demand for naval forces. Yet, when history renders its judgment on our tenure, I m confident not only will it find that we bore the strain, but that we fixed the cable, and set the course for the addition of many strong links in the years and decades ahead. Each of you has a tri-fold with a small selection of the many achievements we ve made across a range of priorities and they are all important and meaningful. But today, I m going to focus on three of these priorities: shipbuilding, energy and people. There s a saying that: Eighty percent of success is showing up. Since I ve shown up more than any other Secretary of the Navy following World War I seven and a half years now I guess I could claim some success just on longevity. But that shouldn t be the standard, and is not the standard, for me or for our Navy and Marine Corps the standard has to be and is much, much higher. We ve never just shown up. From when John Paul Jones defeated the British in their own backyard in 1779, to when U.S. Marines planted our flag atop Mt. Suribachi in 1945, to when President Kennedy s naval quarantine of Cuba averted nuclear war in 1962, to when President Obama relied on carrier-based F/A-18s as his only strike option against ISIS for 54 days in 2015, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, uniquely and without lapse, have provided presence around the globe, around the clock. 1
And, to take this one step farther, not only do we not just show up we re already there. That unrivaled advantage on, above, beneath, and from the sea ensures stability, reassures allies, deters adversaries, and gives our nation s leaders options in times of crisis. We are America s away team because Sailors and Marines, equally in times of peace and war, are not just in the right place at the right time, but in the right place all the time. There is no next best thing to being there. In every case, from high-end combat to irregular warfare to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, our naval assets get on station faster, we stay longer, we bring what we need with us, and, because our ships are sovereign U.S. territory, we can act without having to ask anyone s permission to get the job done. To get that presence, you have to have grey hulls on the horizon. Quantity has a quality all of its own. To say that a Navy is too focused on building ships is to admit an ignorance of its purpose. So I made shipbuilding one of my top priorities, and we ve dramatically reversed the decline in our fleet. On September 11 th 2001 the Navy had 316 ships. By 2008, despite one of the greatest military build-ups in history, we were down to 278, and only 41 ships had been contracted not enough to keep the fleet from shrinking and not enough to keep our shipyards going. In the seven years since 2009, we ve contracted for 86 ships, and we ve done so while increasing aircraft purchases by 35% - all with a smaller top line. Our efforts, with the support of Congress, guarantee that we will reach 300 ships by 2019 and our currently assessed need of 308 ships by 2021 just with the ships under contract today. By implementing practices like firm, fixed-price contracts, multi-year buys and stable requirements, we increased output while driving down costs on virtually every class of ship. For example, the average construction cost of our Littoral Combat Ship has decreased by nearly 50 percent relative to those hulls contracted prior to 2009. While costs go down, capabilities go up. We are upgrading the design to significantly increase LCS lethality and survivability, and because of their enhanced counter-surface and counter-submarine capabilities, contributing to Strike Group operations, we are re-designating future ships as Frigates. The Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer (DDG 51) program is another one of the Navy s most successful shipbuilding programs. Sixty-two of these ships are currently operating in the fleet. We are in the fourth year of a multi-year procurement, and thanks to the hard work of and talent at our shipyards, the DDG 51 competitive multiyear contract is saving more than $2 billion. We ve enjoyed similar success with our submarines. In April 2014, we awarded the largest contract in Navy history, $18 billion to build 10 Virginia-class submarines. These submarines cost $2 billion apiece. We paid $18 billion. Essentially, we got a submarine for free. It s like having one of those punch cards: buy nine, get your 10th sub free. Finally, we ve expanded unmanned systems in all domains and put increased focus on these systems by establishing a DASN for unmanned and an office of unmanned warfare systems on 2
the CNO s staff, designed specifically to coordinate all unmanned programs. As both our manned and unmanned platforms join the Fleet, we are equipping them with advanced technologies like Electromagnetic Railguns and Laser Weapons. We ve protected research and development and science and technology so that we will continue to have our technological edge. I don t ever want to send Sailors and Marines into a fair fight. Our efforts to rebuild the Fleet have benefited more than just our Navy and Marine Corps. From Marinette, Wisconsin to Mobile, Alabama and from Bath Maine to San Diego, California, American workers build, maintain, and repair these platforms. Tens of thousands of skilled laborers are employed by our public shipyards. Four-hundred thousand U.S. jobs are directly or indirectly supported by the maritime industry, and 41 million jobs are linked to international seaborne trade. For every job created in shipbuilding, 2.7 jobs are created in other parts of the economy, and since 2009, we ve created 8,000 new jobs American manufacturing jobs with an average salary of $75 thousand. The overall impact is so great that in 2015, the industry produced more than $25 billion in labor income and more than $37 billion in GDP. When these are in the fleet, they protect the sea lanes through which 90% of world trade, or $9 trillion of goods, travel annually. These are facts, and the fact is that the focus on shipbuilding has undeniably produced substantial and tangible benefits for our Navy and Marine Corps and for American industry and American workers. And, it has advanced both our own economy and the global economy and contributed to international security in ways that benefit all Americans. Increasing the Fleet size, however, is only part of the equation. We have to have them in the right place at the right time, all the time, to provide presence. And the way we do that with ships, with Sailors and Marines, is by the energy we use. In 2009, oil had reached $140 a barrel, forcing us to prioritize overseas operations at the expense of training here at home. Worst of all, we were losing a Marine in every 50 fuel convoys in Afghanistan, way too high a price to pay. Although the cost per barrel of oil has eased, the price of oil is, over time, going in only one direction. As recently as the past few days, OPEC announced new negotiations on supply restrictions to get prices up. And while the final outcome remains unknown, for the first time, Russia showed willingness to cooperate. And, speaking of Russia, you only have to look at what Russia did to Ukraine and in Crimea to see how energy can be used as a weapon. That is why we took action to re-establish the Department of the Navy as a world leader in energy innovation and it was to make us better warfighters. Our Navy and Marine Corps have always been on the cutting edge of energy innovation. We led the transition from sail to coal, coal to oil, and pioneered nuclear power for propulsion. In that tradition, it was clear that we had to lead the transition to alternatives to maintain our edge. While we ve done this first and foremost to be better at our jobs be better warfighters we cannot ignore the effects of climate change. As new routes open in the Artic, as sea levels rise, 3
as storms increase in intensity, we re the first responders our responsibilities increase. We need to also lead in the response to climate change. So in 2009, I set a number of specific, ambitious energy goals, the most significant of which was to have at least half of naval energy both ashore and afloat come from non-fossil fueled sources by 2020. President Obama reiterated the goal ashore of 50% or 1 GW in his 2012 State of the Union Address. That is one of the many reasons why I m particularly proud to say to you today, in my State of the Navy Address, that we surpassed our goal ashore last year five years early. Today, at our shore installations, we get more than 1.2 GWs of energy, of our total requirement for 2 GWs, from alternative sources. We are also on pace to meet our goals at sea and in the air. In just seven years, we envisioned, tested, and deployed the Great Green Fleet, a Strike Group steaming entirely on blended biofuels and nuclear power. Our biofuels are drop-in, meaning we don t change a thing in our engines; they don t take away from food production; and they are cost-competitive with conventional fuels. Other countries are already following suit, as evidenced by the fact that the ships of nine other nations were refueled by blended biofuels and regular fuel in August during our 2016 Rim of the Pacific exercise. In June I was in the Med on a U.S. destroyer taking Italian biofuel from an Italian oiler with an Italian frigate on the other side of the oiler, also taking biofuel. *Singapore example* There were those who criticized us for the price we paid for a small test amount of biofuel we purchased in 2012 for our first demonstration. But they were strangely silent after we bought operational quantities this year as part of a regular fuel purchase for less than $2.14 per gallon, a price absolutely competitive with conventional fuel. The Marines who most of you wouldn t necessarily think of as ardent environmentalists have led the way in alternatives like kinetic knee-braces to power radios. In parallel with alternatives, we have pursued efficiencies changing the whole culture of energy consumption in the Navy and Marine Corps. At the recommendation of a Navy chief, we are retrofitting ships with LED lighting as they come through the yards. At our facilities, in the past year alone, we have eliminated 1,200 underutilized conventional vehicles from the Navy fleet, and when our vehicles reach the end of their service lives, we are replacing them with more efficient hybrid-electric or fully electric vehicles. We ve also invested in technologies like hybrid-electric drives that enable ships like USS Makin Island, for example, not only to increase on-station time by a third (44 days), but to brign home about half her fuel budget. Our combined efforts in alternatives and efficiencies have produced what some considered when we began to be unfathomable results. Ashore, we ve achieved $90 million in savings, $60 million in energy upgrades and 22 million tons of abated CO2, and along with our work at sea, 4
our energy initiatives as a whole have contributed to a reduction in oil consumption by 15% in the Navy and 60% in the Marine Corps. To be fair, part of that drop for the Marines is because we re largely out of two land wars, but that is clearly not the only reason. However, while they are impressive, it isn t the statistics that matter, but rather, how these statistics influence our ability to provide presence. Our pursuit of alternative energy and energy efficiency has made our SEAL teams stealthier, as they approach net-zero with power and water consumption; our Marines more agile, since they ve shed 700 pounds of batteries per company through the use of roll-able solar blankets alone; our ships less vulnerable, due to decreased replenishment requirements, and our bases more resilient in the face of attacks on our power grids. These are the real impacts of our efforts that give the United States a strategic advantage and operational flexibility. Finally, having the right number and type of ships, and the means to get them wherever they are needed, still falls short if you don t have Sailors and Marines who can offer the diverse perspectives required to solve today s complex problems - perspective and diverse being the operative words. From one perspective, it is critically important to honor the people and traditions that have sustained America s Navy and Marine Corps for 241 years. That is why I ve named ships after 9 Medal of Honor Recipients and 2 recipients of the Navy Cross individuals who fought, and in some cases died, in sacrifice for American values. From another perspective it is equally important to honor American values themselves. Our founding fathers set out to form a more perfect union, acknowledging the American experiment, that challenges us to live up to the principles established in our Constitution. That is why, in accordance with the longstanding naval tradition of establishing new conventions for new classes of ships, and for naming support ships for non-military people, I have also named 8 ships in honor of civil rights leaders like Medgar Evers, Cesar Chavez, Sojourner Truth, John Lewis, Harvey Milk, Lucy Stone, Earl Warren and Robert F. Kennedy Americans who also fought, and who also in some cases died pursuing our most sacred values of justice, freedom and equality. Last month, as I named USNS Robert F. Kennedy at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, I was reminded of a George Bernard Shaw quote that Robert Kennedy often used, There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not? When I became Secretary of the Navy in 2009, there were a lot of things I encountered that begged the question "why not? At the time, openly gay Americans were not allowed to serve in the military. Why not? In the Navy, women were not permitted to serve aboard submarines or in riverine squadrons or in the Navy SEALS. Why not? In the Marine Corps, women were not accepted in ground combat roles. Why not? On the campuses of Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and Yale, NROTC had not been present for decades. Why not? 5
In every case as is always the case with such questions there was no good answer. So I strongly supported the repeal of don t ask, don t tell, and I led the implementation of open service in the Navy and Marine Corps. I also opened service on submarines and in riverine squadrons to women, I called for an increase in female mids at the Naval Academy, and I advocated for opening all combat specialties to women across the Navy and the Marine Corps, which happened this past January. Working with the presidents of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia we brought Naval ROTC back to their campuses. At the same time, we established ROTC units at Rutgers and Arizona State, our country s two most diverse colleges. A diverse force is a stronger force. It s a dangerous thing for a military force to become too predictable. A predictable force is a defeatable force. Every time we ve opened the services, every time, we ve become stronger. It is also dangerous when there is too wide a gap between the protected and those doing the protecting. Our pursuit of diversity in thinking, diversity in experience, and diversity in background gives us strength and guarantees our Navy and Marine Corps are both reflective and representative of the nation we defend. However, as we have opened up opportunities for everyone to serve, in no case are we lowering standards required to qualify to serve. Lowering standards is unacceptable unacceptable under the law, and unacceptable to me, because it would endanger not only the safety of Sailors and Marines, but the security of our nation. But just as there is no good argument to lower standards, there is also no good argument to bar anyone who has met those standards from serving alongside his or her fellow Sailors and Marines in every clime and place. If a person qualifies in every way for service, how can we possibly say that they cannot share in the honor of defending this country because of the shape, or the color their skin, or because of who they love? We cannot. We should not. And now, we do not. *Anectode* Recruiting a diverse force must be followed by retaining, developing and advancing that force. So we implemented the most sweeping reforms to personnel policies since CNO Zumwalt s tenure in the post-vietnam era. Seven years ago we were losing too many people, especially women, because we weren t doing all we could to uphold a healthy working environment; Sailors and Marines often had to choose between service and family; rigid career paths stifled professional development; time in service was the primary determinant of advancement; and, our op-tempo was not only high but unpredictable. 6
So we ve taken deliberate steps under my 21st Century Sailor and Marine Initiative to foster a professional, supportive and inclusive workplace. We are absolutely committed, from the deckplates to senior leadership, to combating the crime of sexual assault, which is why I created the only Secretariat-level Sexual Assault and Prevention Response Officer, who reports directly to me. We ve increased protections for Sailors and Marines suffering from PTSD and TBI or other mental health conditions and we are actively addressing the tragedy of suicide. Taking a holistic view on health, we ve revamped physical assessments, making them more realistically aligned with the jobs we do, and we have promoted healthier lifestyles through better nutrition and a culture of fitness. Part of taking care of Sailors and Marines is making it easier for them to take care of themselves and their families, so we ve made career paths more flexible. One example, which has been dramatically expanded, is the Career Intermission Program a program that allows Sailors and Marines to leave active duty to raise a child or care for an ailing family member or for many other reasons. When they return, they aren t penalized, but rather, they compete with others who are similarly qualified and experienced. For others, we ve extended child care availability by two-hours on both ends of the work day at all Navy and Marine Corps facilities and we now provide 24-hour care at three Fleet concentration areas. I also tripled paid maternity leave from 6 to 18 weeks, although DoD later reduced all services to 12 weeks, and I expanded co-location policies to provide more stability to dual-military couples. Increased stability and career path predictability also enables Sailors and Marines to pursue the types of professional development opportunities we need to drive innovation. Athenian General, Thucydides, is attributed for having said, A nation that draws too broad a distinction between it's scholars and it's warriors will have it's thinking done by cowards, and it's fighting done by fools. To guarantee we don t suffer that fate, we added 30 graduate school slots through our Fleet Scholars Education Program and we are sending high-performing Sailors on SECNAV Industry Tours to great American companies like FedEx and Amazon. There, they learn private sector best practices that can be applied when they return, and as representatives of our Navy and Marine Corps, they help bridge the growing civil-military divide. To tap into that innovative culture and to revitalize the creativity inherent in the Navy and Marine Corps, we established Task Force Innovation, an initiative focused on drawing good ideas from deckplate Sailors and field Marines through our online crowdsourcing platform and then funding and rapidly moving those ideas throughout the Fleet. And we are better able to recognize those who contribute because we have removed zone stamps from officer promotion boards and our Commanding Officers are now empowered to meritoriously promote more Sailors and Marines. 7
All of this is aimed at one thing attracting, developing, retaining, and advancing the most talented Sailors and Marines that America has to offer and getting them out to lead at sea and overseas where we need them most. So my time is coming to an end. I leave after this tal to begin a series of visits to our fleet concentration areas and our shipyards to Groton and Hampton Roads, San Diego and Mayport, Washington State and Great Lakes, Lejeune and Pendleton. This is to see the people who have done the work, made the changes, built the ships to give them a BZ. I do this and I will depart in a few months knowing that this Administration has taken the necessary steps to assure that our Navy has never been stronger. We are getting the right number of the right kind of platforms to meet our mission; our disciplined and deliberate use of energy has made us better warfighters; we represent the greatest America has to offer, the absolute best in the world; and we continue to provide presence - around the globe, around the clock. A foreign head of Navy once told me that the difference between Soldiers and Sailors is that Soldiers, by necessity, focus on boundaries and obstacles. They are constantly looking down at the ground. Sailors, on the other hand, look out. They look to the open sea and see no boundaries. Sailors look to the horizon and see only possibilities. So looking to the horizon, looking ahead, I am confident that the policies we ve enacted, the decisions we ve made and the priorities we ve set guarantee that our Navy and Marine Corps will remain the greatest expeditionary fighting force the world has ever known for as far into the future as the eye can see. That is the strength of our link in the cable, and it will bear any strain that tests it. From the Navy, Semper Fortis, Always Courageous. And from the Marine Corps, Semper Fidelis, Always Faithful. Thank you. 8