CNO At The Surface Navy Association

My final report from SNA concerns last night's banquet speech given by the CNO. A couple of quick thoughts before I get to his remarks:

1. SNA inducted 7 individuals into the Surface Navy Hall of Fame last night, including RADM Wayne Meyer (the Father of AEGIS) and VADM Jim Doyle (the guy who programmed to money Meyer needed). As most of you know, Meyer was wrapped up in AEGIS or its forebears for oh--I don't know--twenty years or so. Additionally, Doyle was the DCNO for Surface Warfare for 5 YEARS--from 1975-1980. Together these two changed the Navy, forever. The fleet out there now was Doyle's Fleet with Meyer's help---and I cannot conclude that their longevity in office was anything but helpful to getting big things done.

2. The Hall of Fame induction included a video capturing the exploits of all the inductees. SNA should put it on YouTube---it is wonderful.

3. I put 21 years in the Navy and when I go to SNA, I can't swing a dead cat without running into a dear friend. As I watched the CNO walk about last night, I couldn't help but think about his emotions as he saw old friends from 40 plus years of wearing the Navy uniform. He seemed genuinely thrilled to be there, as if he were drawing energy from the people around him. Good for him.

Now, onto the speech.

There were no newsworthy statements or revelations, but then again, that's not CNO's style. It was well crafted and well delivered, a serious speech about serious things. There were the standards of any CNO speech (praise Sailors, the people in the room, contributions, etc), but what caught my ear was the language of "responsibility" I heard throughout. At one point, the CNO even referred to his "care free" (or was it "free-wheeling"--one of the two) days as a Fleet Commander, in contrast to his tasks as CNO. He used the phrase "responsible acquisition", he spoke strongly of total ownership cost and affordability, and he asserted that our plans must reflect fiscal reality.

Of course, all of this is unremarkable coming from a CNO. What caught my ear though was the way the themes were repeated...as if he were subliminally messaging the audience, perhaps in an unintended way. Others may disagree here--and state that what he said last night was pretty boilerplate stuff. They may be right. I got the feeling though that he was preparing the way for whatever news the QDR may bring for the Navy's fiscal future. He did repeat the 313 ship as a floor statement, something I think he wouldn't do if that weren't likely to remain the case coming out of QDR. The question is how the mix of ships will change, and I think that could be very interesting.

Another item that caught my ear was his determination to focus on "capacity" as he assessed that we had a wide "capability" gap over our competitors--though he did warn about keeping a "weather eye" on the gap in BMD and ASW. This is a subtle shift, but potentially an important one. Does it mean an increased focus on low-end, modestly appointed ships? I read it that way, but then again, I'm on record as wanting more low-end modestly appointed ships, so there's likely a bias there.

ADM Roughead is a serious man, and his speech last night was a serious speech. I'd be interested to read how others viewed it.

Note: a commenter asked about transcripts, and I really do not know--I would direct that question to SNA

Bryan McGrath