On April 18 and 19, representatives from 52 of our 76 corporate members attended this year’s exclusive event for Corporate Members in Falls Church, VA. The event is
held each year to provide a frank forum for Navy leadership to share their current thinking with our Corporate Members. The participants find that this is always a valuable way for government and industry to exchange information and understand concerns.
The participants heard from VADM Joe Tofalo, Commander, Submarine Forces, and RADM Fritz Roegge, Commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet. From the Chief of Naval Operation’s staff, RADM (Sel) Bill Merz, Director, Undersea Warfare, addressed the group. They also heard from RADM Michael Jabaley, PEO Submarines and VADM Dave Johnson, former PEO Submarines and now Principal Military Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition. The first day’s presentations ended with a briefing from ADM Frank Caldwell, Director, Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.
On the second day, the group met for breakfast and heard from RADM Dietrich Kuhlmann, III, Director, Programming Division (OPNAV N80). His presentation was followed by thoughts and insights from Dr. Eric Labs of the Congressional Budget Office.
Each of the presenters invited questions at the end of their talks and addressed issues of concern. The Q&A time also allowed some in the audience to provide suggestions.
Highlights of Flag Officer Briefs
• There is no other military that can match the capability of today’s U.S. Navy, and we must work hard to keep it that way.
• It is a national calling to be the best because the price of being second-best is unacceptable.
Discussion of the technical challenges we face:
• There is a demand signal for capability and speed in a technically demanding, growing environment.
• Extraordinary engineering and manufacturing skills will be needed.
• NAVSEA is increasing the size of its engineering work- force.
Discussion of the economic environment we face:
• We must build the Navy we need with the budget we have.
• Continuing Resolution funding has an impact on the Sub- marine Force.
Discussion of the challenges we face around the world:
• The Commander in Chief of the Russian Navy has stated, “The nuclear submarine fleet is the priority in the Navy shipbuilding program.”
• China’s ambitious naval modernization has produce a technologically advanced and flexible force.
Discussion of Industry’s role:
• Supplier quality is important to meet requirements.
• The supplier base will need to grow to meet requirements.
• Industry will need to invest in people and world-class facilities.
• Industry must attract, develop and maintain a cutting edge, technically superior workforce.
• We must find ways to meet the submarine building rates that will be needed to achieve the Navy’s new Force Structure Assessment of 66 attack submarines (an increase from 48).
• Our suppliers must ask themselves if they are doing every- thing they can to meet the challenge to keep our capabili- ties the best in the world.
Highlights from Dr. Labs’ Remarks
Dr. Labs made clear that his remarks were to be regarded as his own thoughts and not to be construed as an official opinion of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In his view, there is generally strong support for a larger navy because it may be more important for U.S. foreign policy to be backed up by the military. Once again there is competition among great nations and most of them have maritime capability.
But the segmented membership of Congress will make it difficult to change the Budget Control Act (sequestration) and using the Continuing Resolution as a budget process is crippling. Dr. Labs stated that the need to fund non-discretionary entitle- ments (e.g. Medicare and Social Security) will continue to reduce the discretionary funds available for federal agencies, including the Defense Department, assuming there are no tax increases. This is a theme the members of the NSL have heard from several speakers in recent years.
The procurement needed over the next 30 years to build and maintain a 350 or 355 ship navy is significant, and a trained workforce will be required. Dr. Labs announced that a CBO report was to be released the following week. That report, titled “Costs of Building a 355-Ship Navy,” is now available at https://www.cbo.gov/publication/52632.
