We are, first, American fighting men and women. We take ships and submarines to sea, fly aircraft, land on foreign shores, stand watches around the clock and around the world and, when required, engage the enemy at sea and ashore. Our naval forces consist of capable men and women who provide the element of will against adversity, who supply essential creativity amid the uncertainties of conflict, and who combine inspiration, reason, and experience to achieve our national objectives in peace and in war.
Every day, dedicated Sailors and Marines make countless sacrifices while supporting our national objectives. At the heart of this selflessness are core values that drive personal standards of excellence and moral strength. Our nation places special trust and confidence in these men and women while giving them the sobering responsibility of properly exercising military power that is greater than any in history. This trust is warranted by our continued competence in carrying out roles, absolute integrity in actions and relationships, and personal courage that overcomes moral dilemmas and physical obstacles through an unyielding sense of duty and commitment. This professional ethic, shared by every member of our naval forces, enhances cohesion and promotes teamwork. It establishes an environment in which we are able to share and delegate responsibilities in working toward a common goal.
Naval forces reflect the partnership among their active, reserve, and civilian components. Our planning is predicated on each component contributing its part in day-to-day support operations, mobilization, and force augmentation. Our reservists and civilian employees share the same sense of dedication and purpose, and fill critical positions in carrying out our operations. Working and training together, the active, reserve, and civilian components permit naval forces to maintain readiness to respond effectively to a wide array of demands on short notice.
Naval forces have been organized for fighting at sea - or from the sea - for more than two thousand years. The qualities that characterize most modern naval forces as political instruments in support of national policies are the same as those that define the essence of our naval Services today. These qualities are readiness, flexibility, self-sustainability, and mobility. They permit naval forces to be expeditionary - that is, being able to establish and maintain a forward-based, stabilizing presence around the world. Naval expeditionary operations are offensive in nature, mounted by highly trained and well-equipped integrated task forces of the Navy and Marine Corps, organized to accomplish specific objectives. Naval expeditionary forces draw upon their readiness, flexibility, self-sustainability, and mobility to provide the National Command Authorities the tools they need to safeguard such vital national interests as the continued availability of oil from world producers and maintenance of political and economic stability around the globe. Through these qualities, naval forces reassure allies and friends, deter aggressors, and influence uncommitted and unstable regimes.
A Ready Force
To be effective instruments of power, our naval forces must be available and credible - not just when crises occur but daily, wherever our allies and friends rely on our presence and wherever potential adversaries must perceive our firm commitment to defend our interests. Since the early 1800s, the United States consistently has made naval forces readily available to defend its vital interests abroad by maintaining a forward naval presence. Naval forces first deployed to South America, the Mediterranean, the Far East, and the Caribbean to protect our sea lines of commerce from pirates. Even today, our national economic interests are still tied directly to sea-based commerce, and the United States accepts certain responsibilities with respect to the health of the global economy. Our ready force promotes regional stability and safeguards the flow of resources among trading partners, helping preserve our national well-being.
We are operational; in keeping with the National Military Strategy, forward-deployed naval forces help deter conflict and attain a rapid, favorable end to hostilities if conflict should occur. A strength of our naval forces lies in their immediate availability to respond to contingencies through tangible readiness. Our deploying forces certify their proficiency in their advertised capabilities by carrying out specific tasks and missions prior to departure. They have established their readiness before they enter their theater of operations. When they do arrive, they are trained and organized to operate as a cohesive force. It is no coincidence that naval operations in war - especially in supporting roles such as construction, medical functions, and logistics - are similar to peacetime operations. To maintain our readiness, we design many peacetime operations to parallel wartime operations as closely as possible.
Operating in forward regions of the world enables us to maintain a situational awareness that is critical in gaining the upper hand during any conflict's early stages. By training in the places and climates where we expect to fight, we also gain familiarity with the operational environment and its effects on our people and equipment. Because the transition from peace to conflict in an unstable theater can occur quickly, the Commander-in-Chief's assets in the region are likely to form the core of the initial response. The readiness and presence of deployed naval forces provide the Commander-in-Chief the enabling force he needs to respond decisively and without the limitations of lengthy transit times.
Operating forward from the sea has long been a characteristic of the Navy-Marine Corps team. With limited overseas basing, naval forces become especially relevant in meeting national forward presence requirements. National policymakers rely upon forward presence to display U.S. commitment and resolve to allies and friends. This presence is called upon to deter aggression, to participate in regional coalition-building and collective-security efforts, to further regional stability, to promote U.S. access and influence over critical areas, and to provide initial crisis response wherever necessary. Forward deployed naval forces, including selected Coast Guard forces, demonstrate that the United States is involved and committed to shaping events in the best interests of itself, its friends, and its allies.
A Flexible Force
Naval forces have been on scene as part of joint task forces time and again, assisting those in distress. Since 1945, U.S. naval forces have been involved in more than 280 crises, including 75 since 1976, and 80% of all post-World War II incidents. The flexibility of naval forces enables us to shift focus, reconfigure, and realign forces to handle a variety of contingencies.
We provide our commanders and decisionmakers a wide range of weapon systems and military options, supported by a core of trained professionals equipped as a sea, air, and land team. Capable of adapting to a variety of situations, naval forces can support the many challenges facing our theater Commanders-in-Chief. Our ability to fight other naval forces or land-based air forces, to conduct air strikes, to battle ground forces inland, or to evacuate noncombatants creates uncertainty in the adversary's mind about what our naval forces might do in any given situation. The combination of a robust amphibious ready group integrated with a carrier task force, for example, provides both a perception and a potential for offensive action ashore without committing such forces.
Carriers, amphibious task forces, surface combatants, cutters, submarines, aircraft, and their associated Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard equipment, vehicles, and personnel are the building blocks of our multidimensional operating capability. Naval forces provide the National Command Authorities the tools to respond to a full range of needs, from disaster relief and humanitarian assistance to forcible entry and strike operations. Naval flexibility - as shown in our forward deployed posture, mobility, and self-sustainability - enables us to control the seas and provide diplomatic leverage, in peace or time of crisis.
A Self-sustaining Force
When we operate in forward areas at the end of long supply lines without a significant land-based supply structure, we need the ability to resupply at sea. Consequently, naval forces carry their own ammunition, spares, and consumables - as well as support and repair facilities for use early in a crisis or throughout a protracted conflict. This self-sustainability provides the National Command Authorities critical time to create an environment that will bring success. Our ships are designed to travel significant distances without replenishment. They carry the striking power of aircraft, guns, missiles, and Marine forces that can execute operations ashore immediately, without an assembly period or a lengthy logistics buildup. If conflict should continue over an extended period, naval forces can remain on station through augmentation and resupply by combat logistics ships. With provisions made for on-station replacement of personnel and ships, such operations can be continued indefinitely.
A Mobile Force
Naval forces, with their strategic and tactical mobility, have the ability to monitor a situation passively, remain on station for a sustained period, respond to a crisis rapidly, and maneuver in combat with authority. Naval forces can respond from over the horizon, becoming selectively visible and threatening to adversaries, as needed. If diplomatic, political, or economic measures succeed, our agility permits us to withdraw promptly from the area without further action or buildup ashore.
Mobility enables naval forces to respond to indications of pending crises by relocating rapidly from one end of the theater to another or from one theater to another, independent of fixed logistics. Operational speed is part of our flexibility. Maintaining control of the seas permits us to exercise our mobility in positioning naval forces to meet the crisis of the moment, then moving on to other potential crisis locations. Naval mobility ensures that an adversary cannot take offensive action with any confidence that the expanse of the oceans will protect him from the long reach of U.S. retaliation.
Our mobility makes naval forces difficult to target and severely taxes the enemy's ability to launch a credible attack. Mobility complicates the enemy's efforts to prepare adequate defenses because he cannot be certain of our attack axis. To cover all possibilities, the enemy may be forced to spread his defenses too widely, thus exposing vulnerabilities.
Mobility is a key to decisive naval operations. The ability to maneuver ships into position to strike vulnerable targets, or to threaten amphibious assault at multiple locations along an extended coastline, is a significant tactical and operational advantage. After we have launched our strikes, our ships can press the advantage, maneuver out of range, or reposition themselves for the next strike phase. In amphibious operations, we place troops in a position to attack the weakness of the enemy while avoiding his main strength. A landing force's ability to maneuver from attack positions over the horizon through designated penetration points without a slowdown or loss of momentum - could be critical to the success of the landing. When the Marines have accomplished their mission ashore, they can backload to await the next contingency.
Supported by a rich maritime heritage, the strength of our naval Services continues to reside in our well-trained, highquality people-active duty, reserves, and civilian. They remain at the heart of our force readiness and warfighting effectiveness. As a team, operating at sea and in the world's littorals, naval forces are able to shift quickly from low-profile, passive, forwarddeployed operations to high-tempo crisis response. In this environment, we are expeditionary in character, a force whose readiness, flexibility, self-sustainability, and mobility is capable of deterring and, if necessary, winning regional battles, resolving crises, or serving as the naval component of joint task forces to protect our national interests.
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