In May 1992, then Secretary of the Navy, H. Lawrence Garrett, Dl and the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Frank Kelso, ll, signed the United States Navy Policy Book. This publication provides a single reference for the Navy’s Vision, Building Principles and Strategic Goals.
With the spirit of that document in mind, the Executive Steering Committee of Naval Facility Whidbey Island developed, during a three day TQL Retreat, the Pacific Integrated Undersea Surveillance Systems (PACruSS) Strategic Plan for the year 2000.
Acknowledging the enormous changes in the world social, economic and military orders that occurred in recent years, orders that are still changing, the mission of russ had to be changed and redefined to meet the needs of its customers, both new and prospective, bead on, and to tackle the challenges posed by these changes.
Through over four decades, russ, under its almost unparalleled cloak of secrecy, was vigilant in identifying and reporting subma-rines, naval surface vessels and aircraft to various fleet users. The needs of these customers were defined by the Cold War. As the Eastern Bloc dissolved and the Soviet Union was apparently not going to last, the role of russ was momentarily uncertain. The alleged disappearance of the traditional threat brought new attention to the long ignored potential threat posed by the quite extraordinary numbers of Rest of the World submarines. Many nations own and/or are building diesel submarines and are operating them in areas of U.S. and Allied concern where regional conflict is a real and ever-present danger. The potential threat posed by these combatants has been known but not as aggressively pursued as the threat posed by nuclear powered units. The role and mission of russ had to change to provide the best service to its customers, now concerned about the “new” threat. In addition to the technological and operational changes occurring to the System to meet the diesel threat, IUSS has recruited many new customers providing us with many non-traditional roles such as scientific research and law enforcement. These new roles have only recently been identified and are providing new and exciting challenges to the men and women in IUSS.
As our vigilance in both our traditional and newer roles continues, the Strategic Plan and Goals, incorporated into System-wide use, provides a more focused framework than the USN Policy Book for our daily operations.
Our Vision
The PACJUSS will remain the world’s premier initial cuing network for submarines in a potentially hostile global maritime environment. It will employ a high quality flexible force designed to meet a variety of the most likely contingencies. No submarine commander in the Pacific theater of operations will be able to operate without threat of imminent detection by PACJUSS.
In order to respond to the volatile and unpredictable nature of the world-wide threat, the PACJUSS must provide deterrence through highly effective tactical cuing. In an environment of increasingly limited manpower and fiscal resources, this will be accomplished by consolidating naval facilities while retaining system flexibility and redundancy. We will continue to work toward commonality, more secure facilities, and more reliable communications.
We will continue to develop systems and procedures which will provide information in form, accuracy and timeliness specified by our customers.
These and other supporting services, including operations, training, maintenance, logistics, administrative and fiscal support will be of a uniformly high quality because our leadership accepts responsibility for continuous improvement.
Our Goals
- Evolve into a strategic deterrent to potential adversaries
- Provide global, tactical cuing
- Broaden application of existing passive/active acoustic capability
- Achieve total commonality with operating forces
- Meet user needs and requirements
- Improve communications
- Maximize employment of resources
With the Strategic Plan and Goals in the forefront of our collective mind, the men and women of russ are meeting the challenges posed by the phenomenal changes that have confronted us in recent times and are meeting the needs of their new customers with unparalleled enthusiasm and efficiency.
