Topics For Discussion

First, thank you for your encouragement and your patience as I continue to learn the best way to run this Blog so that we can have an honest and robust dialogue.

I would now like to hear from you on some topics I choose and on ones that you would like to discuss on this Blog.  I’ve got the topics already mentioned by Heretic, AW1 Tim, Benjamin Walthrop and others, but I know that there are many more out there.

Sustaining Our Essential Warfighting Capabilities

I share AW1 Tim’s and Heretic’s concerns regarding our ability to sustain ASW capability; we are investing heavily in systems as well as tactics, training, and procedures to ensure our ASW capability keeps pace with the proliferating and improving threat, but ASW is just one very important piece of the broader warfighting picture facing us.

For the past 60 years, our Navy has been the most technologically advanced, well-trained, and most complete and capable naval force in the world.  Since the end of the Cold War, other nations have not been able to compete with us militarily or economically.  But as Bob Dylan said, “The times, they are a-changing.”

We are now in a time where a terrorist group like Hezbollah can not only acquire a cruise missile, but also train, launch and hit an Israeli Sa’ar 5 corvette – a capability once possessed by only a handful of militaries.  This type of capability (once the purview of the nation-state, now within the reach of many non-state extremist and criminal organizations) requires us to take a hard look at all of our warfighting capabilities and how we man, train, and equip. It is no longer just about ensuring that we do not allow our traditional warfighting capabilities to atrophy - we must be able to deter and when necessary, fight and win against ALL those who seek to do us harm, including those that do not fight under a nation’s flag like terrorists, cyber-hackers, and pirates.

What are some of your ideas concerning how we ensure our warfighting capabilities like ASW / BMD / Strike, etc. keep pace with the threat, while we also ensure we are prepared to combat “irregular” threats like terrorism, cyber-hackers, and piracy?  And how do we best accomplish all this during a time when the great pressure on our budgets will not allow us to just “buy our way” out of the problem?

New U.S. Fleet Forces Command Blog

Today, I took command of U.S. Fleet Forces Command. Over the past few years, I have come to appreciate Blogging as a form of communication not just to disseminate information or hold forth on a particular subject, but to get valuable feedback from a broad audience with a wide variety of perspectives.

I have been particularly impressed with the 10th Mountain Division’s Blog started under Major General Oates. It is very much a Command Blog, not just a Commander’s Blog, where the whole 10th Mountain family can learn about and discuss issues which are important to them. My goal is to emulate that environment here at USFF.

I plan to use the USFF Blog to help increase meaningful two-way communication throughout our organization. What I will need from you are straight-forward comments (positive and negative) about specific topics that will help us all learn, grow and accomplish our assigned missions.

I welcome all perspectives, and my first thread will be to ask for ideas from you that you would like me to address in future posts. I will not be able to respond to every post we receive in the Blog, but I will read them and do my best to respond appropriately to the issues that arise.