By Calvin Biesecker
The Navy and its Defense Department partners in the maritime domain this week issued a new operations concept document aimed at describing how they will carry out the core concepts of the nation’s maritime strategy.
The Naval Operations Concept 2010: Implementing the Maritime Strategy “describes when, where and how U.S. naval forces will contribute to enhancing security, preventing conflict and prevailing in war in order to guide Maritime Strategy implementation in a manner consistent with national strategy,” the document says in the introduction. The new concept document replaces one issued in 2006.
On the surface, the key differences between the new operations concept and the previous one include a maritime focus rather than a strictly naval focus, Rear Adm. David Woods, director of the Navy’s Strategy and Policy Division, told reporters yesterday. The 2006 document was signed off by the Navy and Marine Corps whereas the 2010 installment includes the Coast Guard, he said.
Also, Woods said, the 2006 document was aspirational, describing “how we wanted to operate in the future,” whereas the current concept is “less aspirational and more focused on describing the ways the we provide the means that are contained in our…maritime strategy.”A criticism of the Maritime Strategy, which was issued in 2007, was that it defined the end goals and the core competencies of the nation’s maritime forces but that there was no description on how those ends would be carried out, he said.
The Naval Operations Concept is divided into a number of chapters, including descriptions of the core competencies laid out in the Maritime Strategy, as well as chapters describing how the sea can and is used as maneuver space globally, and a final chapter that discusses future force structure.
That force structure is essentially the same as it is today. It includes aircraft carriers, which are at the heart of carrier strike groups, carrier and Marine air wings, amphibious ships, maritime prepositioning, attack and ballistic missile submarines, large and small surface combatants, combat logistics ships, command and support ships, Navy and Coast Guard patrol craft and major Coast Guard cutters, and icebreakers.
The force structure also includes joint high speed vessels, which the Navy is currently developing requirements for. Such vessels would move forces and material quickly between regions.
Woods said that the release of the new concept document was delayed to ensure that it aligned with the DoD Quadrennial Defense Review issued earlier this year.
As for how the core competencies outlined in the 2007 sea power strategy would be executed, the concept document provides a “good articulation of how the maritime forces can be brought to bear,” Woods said.
For example, regarding the core competency of power projection, the new document describes what forces must accomplish in operations in permissive, uncertain and hostile environments. To gain and maintain operational access requires having the full spectrum of capabilities, including lethal, non-lethal, conventional and special, the concept document says.
To operate and maneuver in the littoral environment of other nations requires different types of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, which in turn helps keep Naval forces beyond the range of many of the threats they would face closer to shore, the document says.
Woods also said that during the creation of the new concept documents there was consultation with the U.S.’ international friends and allies.
“It’s fairly apparent how we partner with our sister services but once we start to talk about capacity and capability of our friends and allies, this is going to help to articulate that,” Woods said.