The United States Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard are releasing a new comprehensive maritime strategy that will maintain superiority in an increasingly contested maritime environment. Titled “Advantage at Sea,” the document provides a framework for how the services plan to prevail in day-to-day competition, crisis, and conflict for the next decade, emphasizing deeper tri-service integration, aggressive force modernization, and robust cooperation with allies and partners.
Furthering this, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael M. Gilday, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David H. Berger, and Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl L. Schultz voiced the need for a unified naval force in unison. They added, “Our integrated Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard must maintain clear-eyed resolve to compete with, deter, and, if necessary, defeat our adversaries while we accelerate development of a modernized, integrated all-domain naval force for the future.” They pegged that the actions taken this decade will determine the maritime balance of power for the remainder of the century.
The strategy places particular emphasis on the growing maritime assertiveness of China and Russia. That their efforts to dominate key international waters and to reshape the international order pose a threat to American interests and global stability is what the strategy underlines. “China’s and Russia’s revisionist approaches in the maritime environment threaten United States interests, undermine alliances and partnerships, and degrade the free and open international order.”
Emphasized is the importance of the maritime domain to America’s security and prosperity, and to that of all nations, considering global markets, resources, and societies are becoming increasingly interconnected, hence the need for expanded cooperation with international allies and partners. As Adm. Gilday said, “Sea control, power projection, and the capability to dominate the oceans must be our primary focus. Our forces must be ready today, and ready tomorrow, to defend our nation’s interests against potential adversaries at any time.”
The strategy provides a guide for the services to be agile and aggressive in adopting approaches to enforce force modernization and experimentation. It is envisioned that the fleet of the future should embody resources around legacy assets and new smaller ships, lighter amphibious ships, modernized aircraft, expanded logistics, resilient space capabilities, and optionally manned and unmanned platforms. It invests in the development of warfighters through innovative training and education to ensure that the nation’s naval services remain the world’s premier maritime force.
Gen. Berger underscored the Marine Corps’ role in this transformation: “The Marine Corps is in the midst of a sweeping force design transformation to fulfill our role as the Nation’s expeditionary force-in-readiness while at the same time modernizing the force consistent with the operating environment as described in the National Defense Strategy and the tri-Service maritime strategy.”
As the services continue to seek a more integrated approach across all domains, they will work with allies and partners to build capability and interoperability, creating unity of effort. The team to establish sea denial and sea control where and when required; project power; and hold critical adversary targets at risk. Adm. Schultz pointed out that the role the Coast Guard plays is unique in its being the only military service under the Department of Homeland Security, providing an intelligence capability with unique, multi-mission, capabilities to complement the ability of our Marines and Navy to protect our national interests when necessary and deliver lethality across the globe.