Brookings Institute: Admiral John Richardson, Chief of Naval Operrations Discussant

The discussion was held at the Brookings Institute, Washington, DC on January 28, 2019.  It was to include plans for the future and an assessment of its maritime current activities.

Now I know that the navy has an especial role in the conduct of a military theater and that it can take advantage of its particular geographical placement: it is water-based; and that means it can travel on seas and its reach stretches across all kinds of land terrains. Nor is its fire power constrained to the sea.  Its drones and planes hop around nimbly on land masses!  The Admiral admitted the navy plans are limited to a 5-year cycle--after which results are evaluated and assessed, I would imagine.

The navy's mission in peacetime involves patrolling international sea lanes and cable networks under the sea to protect them from any threat of interference in the conduct of commerce and trade.  At the meeting, questions from the audience came up about China's patrolling of the South China Seas; but the Admiral did not take up the issue of whether the United States felt China was doing a responsible job in assuring passage of ships and vessels on that waterway. Nor did the Admiral have anything to say regarding the United States' response to the Russian recent detaining Ukrainian sailors and seizing their ships in an open sea separating Ukraine from Crimea.  Ought NATO to have become forthwith involved in responding to that seizure?

I came away from the presenation with puzzling questions about current plans the navy is undertaking for growth.  But one fundamental question has emerged as a central concern, viz., whether the navy is really taking advantage of its unique position as a maneuverable resource--readily placed in a locale, then moved to another locale--in carrying forth its field operations on the myriad of waters that circumnavigate the world. 

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Note-taking of the discussion by Kyla Roberts, Catholic University Graduate Student
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The odyssey continues....about plans it may have cast into current projects....
What could the US Navy be doing amid all that water?  What wondrous 'sins' are being wrought? 

The Russians have escounced themselves in Syria and taken over one of its warm-water seaports.  They also are anticipating China to build a deep-sea port in the Crimea for them.  And China itself is developing military installations in the China South Sea area.  We are also aware that England, currently in the throes of Brexit, once ruled the seas. May it again assume a dominating role in sea power?