Responding to global challenges under the leadership of the CNO and guided by the precepts of “Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority” the U.S. Naval Surface Force has developed its “Surface Force Strategy” which describes the return to sea control and implementation of Distributed Lethality.
The objective of the Surface Force Strategy is to achieve and sustain sea control at the time and place of our choosing in order to: protect the homeland from afar, build and maintain global security, project the national power of the United States, and, if necessary, win decisively. It is essential to U.S. nation’s security and prosperity that we maintain the ability to maneuver globally on the seas and to prevent others from using the sea against the interests of the United States and U.S. allies. Additionally, sea control is the pre-requisite to achieving the Navy’s other objectives of all domain access, deterrence, power projection and maritime security.
The strategy describes the return to sea control and implementation of Distributed Lethality as an operational and organizational principle for achieving and sustaining sea control at will. Distributed Lethality reinforces fleet initiatives that drive collaboration and integration across warfighting domains. Distributed Lethality requires increasing the offensive and defensive capability of surface forces, which guides deliberate resource investment for modernization and for the future force. Providing more capabilities across surface forces yields more options for Geographic Combatant Commanders.
In order to achieve the desired outcome of this strategy, U.S. Navy must rededicate the force to attain and sustain sea control, retain the best and the brightest, provide advanced tactical training, and equip our ships with improved offensive weapons and hard kill/soft kill options. Pursuing these ends will enhance U.S. Navy capability and capacity to go on the offensive and to defeat multiple attacks.
By providing a more powerful deterrent, U.S. Navy can dissuade the first act of aggression, and failing that, U.S. Navy will respond to an attack to compel the adversary to cease hostilities by rendering it incapable of further aggression.
Surface forces provide U.S. with credible combat naval power at and from the sea in order to control the sea at the time and place of our choosing for the Joint Force to project power. U.S. Navy will do this by providing Navy warships with the tactics, talent, tools, and training to deceive, target and destroy enemy forces, and by instilling this warfighting ethos in the crews that fight our warships. The strategy serves as U.S. Navy call to action to build, organize, train, and equip surface forces that can fight and win today, tomorrow and beyond.
