 Thank you, Jamie. I appreciate it very much. It's really an honor and a privilege to be here. So What am I doing in blues? Well, I wanted to kind of look like most of the people here But also I wanted to you know, it's kind of a prop So I wanted to make sure everybody understood that we're here to get business done here and if you don't mind As we get through the tip period we got to roll up our sleeves now If I were wearing whites and I started taking my shirt off and I'm standing up here in a t-shirt You'd say well, what is that all about and it may not go well and my public affairs officer would really be freaking out if that I am I'm really excited about this. We have got to get down to Basics if you will and brass tacks on talking about strategy As Jamie said, you know, I'm a submarine or a nuke and and I have a lot of budget background So I figured well we ought to be able to figure this out. Is it in a book somewhere? Is it laid out? What's the definition and if not, well, let's buy it then I'm sure we can buy strategy You know we'll have somebody just write it up for us neither one is going to work We have we have got to sit buckle down and do this so some time in the winter And I give props out to Robbie Harris and Dick Diamond Robbie and dick who I sat on the lobby and Peter Schwartz who run a strategy discussion group and There's so many of you are there And so I they invite me to come and talk about so what your kind of vision or how do you see the next year going? And I go up to do that and we eat pizza and it's on a Thursday night And I said this is kind of like the Christians, you know getting together in the catacombs You know in a Thursday night kind of huddled in here And I said if there's an opportunity to get this out get the discussion of strategy out Then I read stuff that says the Navy doesn't have anybody that understands strategy Where's the next fill in the blank and I go well wait a minute We're getting through things all right and then the current strategy forum idea came up and I said that does it I'm hijacking this damn thing if I can and I asked the secretary that was okay And he said yeah, I said we're gonna come up to Newport. We're gonna talk about strategy I want as many people different kinds of folks and they got to be Young and I'll tell you why in a minute And we got to talk about strategy and this is just the beginning so of course the weather is gorgeous And it's up in June so everybody came it's great to have you here and everything's good the first time But are you gonna come in February in the next meeting? Are you coming in February? I guarantee the hotels will be cheaper but but So I'm taken to back to kind of a story and Many of you've heard this so I'm sorry to bear with me So two guys are out hunting all right and a guy's got his hunting dog there and this dog is pretty amazing It's a scaring up. You know, it's got the birds up in the air But it's not all that efficient, but it is gregarious. It is it runs hard. It's loyal It's pretty smart actually, but it's running all the place and he said it's an amazing dog What's the name of that dog and he goes commander and he goes really an amazing dog. You got to promote that dog So they get together next year and the dog same dog and he sells the dog and he goes great He said dogs pretty efficient now much smarter It runs around and does things more efficiently knows a lot of other dogs networks very well He's what's the name of the dog. He says I promoted it. It's captain and he goes. That's a good dog So he said you got to think about promoting that dog again So they get together the next year and he said hey man. We're ready to go do some hunting He goes ain't gonna work out. He goes. What happened. He said well I promoted the dog to Admiral and all it does is sit on the porch and bark at the other dogs All right So there's a lesson here ladies and gentlemen If we're gonna get strategy done and ain't gonna get done by the admirals because all we're gonna do is bark at each other and May and say you ought to do it and you ought to do it and you ought to do it It's these other folks out here in the room some of who Jamie stood up that I want to get embedded And it's also those of you who have shown great interest as I mentioned the strategy discussion group We got the War College Foundation your mere presence here in your interest. We got the Naval Institute Institute here Excuse me. We've got bloggers. We've got the Navy League here supporting it and graybeards galore And we got wardrooms and I I encourage all of you. I want to thank you all for coming here very much And it's it's a pleasure to have you here. So we got we got to get down first of all Ted Thank you for allowing us to hijack and for being our host as you may know Ted Carter is We're sending him we're gonna promote he's doing a lousy job So we're gonna promote him and send him up to the upper office he's going on the Naval Academy to be our superintendent and This is gonna be a wonderful job for you As he moves on so good for you Now Jamie Fogo is he's the guy that is kind of masterminding this thing if you like the way the thing came together Jamie got together with Michelle Howard, and I think she gave him some leeway and sort of put that together So you got to get with Jamie if you like what you see or you want to get some changes This was the place to have it. I want to I want to acknowledge some folks who I have deep respect for who are here today ambassadors Middendorf And Peters, thank you all very much for your service through the years, especially you ambassador Middendorf So many times here and there you've given back to your Navy in song and service and of course to your country Thank you very much for that Admiral Hogg is here two generations two full generations, and I consider a generation about ten years of leaders So if you don't like what you see out here Admiral Hogg, you know go look in the mirror Okay, because although you didn't get me I got through before you came and I know you regret that But things happen, but I want to thank you so much two generations of leaders who as director of the strategic studies group not to mention a fantastic career and a man I have deep deep respect for who is really Tamiya a hero and that's a Admiral Hilarino Barrera who is working up here today chief of the Columbia Navy If you want to read about a strategy gone, right and done proper There's a book no lost cause And it is the story of the transformation of the country Columbia And this man here was a part of that working with his president. No lost cause. I guarantee you like that book It's a book on strategy So we're here as Jamie alluded to and as Ted said at and this is the intellectual capital of the Navy That's the proper none, but this is also where we have intellectual capital if you will the common noun up here our bootcamp is kind of the Naval Academy in NRO TC for our officers and we got kind of a C school at the Naval postgraduate school at Thinking about strategy and strategic issues We have of equal significance here today scholars historians students and practitioners It's where fleet experience meets academic theory about that and you know my staff says well That's like iron sharpening iron and I go. Yeah, if it works while it does otherwise It's friction heat and sparks And you don't know what you got but done correctly as you all know we can do this, right? So this current strategy forum is for thought and opinion and pinions my view are very much welcome I would rather I want you to come up and and we're gonna have more of these kinds of sessions and you got to engage I'd prefer that we do that. I don't mind reading about it But when you read about it first of all you got to have to you have to have time to read and you have to Get the right one and I love writing But I also as we develop our strategies would love to have you come in here We got speakers who are strategist scholars and leaders and everyone is a contributor if you are silent then in my view you consent and you that's acquiescence and So we've chosen the invitation list very carefully We'd love to have had more and we'll build from this and remember this is the first iteration So my goals today are to use this strategy forum to initiate a series of discussions We got to hang together We're gonna hang separately as we look out into what is a very very difficult and challenging future It's just kind of getting started and we're gonna have to compromise those of us that have deep Embedded thoughts and we're gonna have to coexist and I'm talking about again the academics the historians and the fleet Who have to go out and get this thing done all aspects and all theories are welcome here at this at this session this series of sessions and I'd like to engender a comfort level where The the naval war college if you will and academics like I said DC and the fleet can all coexist we have to do it the eligibility for for being Part of this and for contributing you have to be active duty or reserve Retired a civilian a contractor or somebody in academia, so you're all here I mean it's it's if I haven't said it enough. I'll continue to say that we really need all of your input So I'll start a dialogue. That's my job here and set some foundation I'll give some remarks be happy to take questions and answers and then we've got a great speaker Following me, so let me talk a little bit about the environment. We face the importance on my view of strategy And a way ahead. I think as we move along in there Challenges what's it like out there today the environment we face is pretty amazing, isn't it? You know a C&O as I look back haven't worked for a few one very close as the vice-C&O and Watch things from out in Asia where I served C&O's get out and about in the different theaters at at different Periodicities and in the past if you you know, it's kind of written if you get to a theater Once a year for a good really good visit. That's pretty good So you multiply that around the different theaters and you're out there maybe five times a year So for what it's worth I've been the Asia-Pacific three times in the last four months six times in the last 13 months Been to Europe four times in the last three months of different areas in the mid east two times in six months And my point is well, what's that? It's a balance of budget That the in Washington DC and what we got to do out in the world today and what I'm telling you is In my view I got to engage a lot more and I've I'm spending less time I have to delegate more to the important issues of budget back there And I got to get out and get overseas and it's about partnerships And there's a lot of that because this is a complex and dynamic world and ladies and gentlemen make no mistake Everywhere I go on all of those trips people look to us to lead and carry this world of ours the free world through the Complexities that we have Symmetric and asymmetric we got competitors They're traditional and they're new and they're in every single domain as I speak today We've got two pretty big undersea challenges We're doing fine, but we haven't had these challenges in quite some time cyber is what it's like a warm war You know you get on to the for me you can get into the certain buildings and every time I go in there I'm inspired and I'm worried about the things going on cyber is going on day in and day out and we are being challenged a Lot of destabilizing forces for both the economy and for the peace and it's it's human Originated, but it's also mother nature. You all are well aware of the climate challenges. We have today I was in the Arctic in March up there in a thing called icex where we take we've done this for decades We take two submarines we go up we exercise and ensure we know what we're doing up there in the Arctic It's run by the Arctic submarine lab very good thing up there about 200 miles north of Dead Horse Alaska, which is about a third of the way between Canada and West and Alaska all the way north up in the Arctic Ocean. It's not at the North Pole, which some people think so What is my point? Really an elaborate well run ice camp and I said we got they do it every three years We got to do this at least every other year We have got to go up and figure out what's going on up there and we're gonna do that at least every other year We may be going annually up there to figure out what is going on up there because it's an issue We have obviously a wide array of issues state driven counter insurgency transnational North Korea Iran Iraq I wouldn't have been implanted at till just recently Pakistan East China Sea South China Sea Narco terrorism it's still running down South in the Caribbean and all around there That's still going on and we're still down there tribal issues Europe is back on the table security-wise It is back on the landscape We were there last week the chiefs of the UK chiefs of the of US We sat down with our respective chairman and talked about the different things we got to do my message out there To my counterparts was we need you back We need you back back where you were before that asymmetric capability that that UK partners bring Especially the Royal Navy we got to get out there the Queen Elizabeth will have a ceremony a naming ceremony We would kind of call it christening ceremony here next month. They are building astute submarines These are high-end and we need them back and we talked about that the Arab Spring is still evolving You all know about that. So what does that mean for our Navy for your Navy out in the future in my view? I believe the nation will need the Navy to be present where it matters when it matters and I kind of cut grab that phrase. I said over and over and over again But a few days ago, fortunately, we had a carrier strike group Where it mattered when it mattered and in a matter of a few days, you know hours the days were where we need to be So we're ready to go just like we're ready to go in Syria Just like we're ready to go in the Red Sea just like we're ready to go Only a little over a year ago when North Korea Kim Jong-un said I think I'm watching ballistic missile Okay, we'll shoot it down if we need to because we can do that because we can be where it matters when it matters Presidents will remain our mandate ladies and gentlemen. I firmly believe that we were just as comfortable being the supported Commander for undersea warfare. That's our gig ballistic missile defense afloat. That's our gig Or if we're supporting things such as strike close air support in Afghanistan, uh-huh still going on We're still doing that and expeditionary warfare with our partners in the Marine Corps Our compass for these decisions for these long-range decisions to be able to do that is a strategy a good strategy a strategy that suits the evolving conditions that we have in this really really complex world So let me share with you my concept and what I believe the importance of a Navy strategy is I don't have this nailed down. These are my thoughts and observations. I need help. We need your help We need your thoughts like I said before Now to sum the concept of strategy is pretty simple But I struggle with it sometimes and what I struggle with is what am I telling my commanding officers And our leaders out there we really need to do in this strategy if they read it and they say What what are these words being? You know, what is this word that we've invented inside the pentagon? Perhaps or in the beltway because that's not my vocabulary or it means something different We have to work on that. My strategy has to be sensible to a commanding officer and a chief petty officer has to be able to read It says Billy Susie come on over here We're gonna talk to you about this and they have to be able to talk about it because if we can't do that We're not communicating so I struggle I struggled with the defense strategic guidance to a point Before we could take that and break that thing down and that's a pretty well-written document in my view So how it translates to commanders and leaders and oh by the way our allies You know, I spent a lot of time over this last period they say so what does this mean? I go well, it's like this So that takes a lot of beer sake wine and tea to sit on and walk this stuff through and we can do better And we have to I need your help at doing that Strategies over you sometimes it's used and they say well you mean your plan your vision your objective or just your tactics What is it is your calling a strategy? So it's different things to people and Sometimes the document is nothing more than well. We got ends ways and means so we got a strategy And you go the ends to what what are those ends and and what are you going to do with them? So where do you go from there if it's what we try to do sometimes in the Pentagon? We say well, let's take This strategy and we'll run it down through an O plan or defense planning strategy And we'll be able to precisely do something and that's very good except it's problem. No, it is precisely wrong So what have we accomplished by doing that and an O plan might be simply what people call the strategy in phase zero What's your strategy? Well, we're doing this which ends up being the phase zero of the O plan say well is that really a strategy I don't know the answer to that But I'd like to ring this stuff out because I think if I think we're confusing our kids because I'm having a heck of A time getting through it we can do better and I know we will when we put our put our minds to it in Washington in the world that I live the budget drives the strategy and that's not all that bad Because money that they give you is our reality and what we can do we buy an employee Navy that we can afford Others say that a strategy is a is a narrative It tells you who we are and it's a message in word and a message out word And it tells the story and that kind of agrees with me kind of agrees with me if we can do that Now at this current strategy forum as I said before we got scholars and it'll help us think about it I just met Sir Lawrence Friedman and he's done a nice job. He's written a pamphlet for those of you strategy and It's it it's actually I don't usually stand around here and and put you know Endorse books, but I I started reading a lot of a lot of this book and It deals in strategy in a whole host of ways if you haven't read his book I would commend it to you, but he actually discusses the the Moses and The Ten Commandments and and the Jews and their plight with the Egyptians and I gotta tell you as a Roman Catholic I've read Exodus a few times and I've seen Cecil B. DeMille's Movie with Charlton Heston, you know and real Brenner, you know, so let it be written so let it be I wish I could do that so let it be written so let it be done and The ten plagues I just never I never had it right, but you read this book You will understand the ten plagues God's strategy with the Pharaoh with Moses and whole thing And if you think I'm kidding I'm not he actually Sir Lawrence Freeman goes through quite a bit But it's called strategy of history. It's good. There's more of one way to look at strategy is this point how has history looked at strategies and good strategies and Strategy is sometimes thought of as the art of creating power as Sir Lawrence Freeman mentions it in his book The art of creating power doing how to create the best that you can with what you have there So for me as we go forward I think our strategy has to ground us has to set our foundation and it has to guide us It'll help us anticipate the challenges. This is important to invest Accordingly to those challenges focus our effort be judicious with what we have that's people money and time That's what we give our commanders. We give them people they have to use them judiciously their time and of course the money that they have and We have to articulate our being what we're about to our allies and our partners and our adversaries as well as I said before I've been through this Hey, tell me about this QDR in this update you did with the DSG with my counterparts in the UK Japan France Canada Republic of Korea Singapore Malaysia and Indonesia just this year where that was an agenda I differ from them. It's very important to our allies. They follow us very closely on what we're going to do with our strategy So it's got to be comprehensive to me There are compulsory aspects of our strategy deterrence strategic nuclear and conventional See control that one's needs a little refinement. What is maritime security? What do we need for undersea dominance and to own that domain power projection? That's clearly a core part of what we do both at sea land and space Maritime security. That's where our allies and our partners come together And all domain access to get where we need to get in every domain The cyber domain the undersea surface air when we need to do it and as long as we need to do it And that's a lot about what airsea battle is about So what do I want done as I look forward in what I tell Jamie Fogo when I'm asking all you all to think about as we go forward We need to approach this thing as a continuum For starters the strategy itself a framework for action It's not necessarily an endpoint and that's what mr. Friedman says in his book also But a lot will say well that strategy has to define an input So tell me fill in the blank testifying or whatever what can this thing do? Well, there's a host of things that can do no no what does it do? Well, that would be again precisely wrong And I don't I don't buy that the chairman doesn't buy that as we thought through the QDR and others You can't do that. I just don't think that'll work and it's it's not going to be helpful But what we do know what we do need is we need process We need people and we need a system for our strategy. We need a process to draft To implement and to evolve it. I don't want to write it put it up here and say well That's that we'll see how that goes until somebody else comes along Some number of years and says this thing's kind of old and dusty or it's sitting on the coffee table. We need people People like you and those that as apostles you will go out and get that are confident in their thought and understanding Strategy have a diversity of thought and are willing to grasp this and take it on We need a system to produce and to nurture strategic thinkers So here's what I want to do one we got to refresh the current strategy and that's in progress. That's part of the process We'll take a look at it. I'll ask you to take a look at it Jamie and the group under Michelle Howard. We've put together a pretty good kind of framework if you will for Doing that. I need it scrubbed by not just the academics I need the junior officers to look at it the mid-grade officers and the senior officers I need all hands on deck to take a look at CS 21 refresh and see if it makes sense and by way This is a sea service in the end signed by the commandant Commandant and the CNO Coast Guard Marine Corps and the Navy So Fogo will he'll give you those in the next two days number two We need to clarify the Navy strategic enterprise. That's the system part of this Organizations and staffs that will develop communicate and assess our strategy So we're taking a look at it in a systematic way not periodically not out here just out there in the blog Is fair or when people get together I want to be more organized in that approach put the talents and the energies in This in a focused manner and make sure that the strategy that we have is able to be connected three I want to reestablish a relationship between the strategy and the budget process. Good luck with that, right? No, I think we can do that because When I asked my staff brings me the proposed budget they say well, here's the shipbuilding plan the aviation plan Here's how many of this is in that some weapons and I go well, what can it do? What can it do? So I say well number one number one Do we have strategic deterrence is that fully funded and how do I know and what am I put et cetera et cetera? So the strategy should be a means of a lens or a filter that we run our budget through to make sure that what we are Putting together we haven't gone outside the strategy and where we want to go and it makes sense That what we've put together will get what we think it'll get get us where we think we need to go So I want to get that connection put back together You see a lot in the budget process. Do you see something printed? It's really popular down in Washington winners and losers and here's what you know Here's how many of these things you bought and how many of those you say but what does all of that mean and What does that get us? So we need to establish that relationship number four We need to nurture a Navy strategic cadre. That's people So we need to educate and build a confidence of the future forces the graduate programs Masters programs at the postgraduate school and at the war colleges and Ted I commend you for what you've done up here in the pilot program the Navy strategic specialty masters program. That's a good start Let's take it from there and move out. We need to position strategic subspecialists carefully Keep them in the mainstream make sure they're moving on and track the maritime strategists and assign them So you're going to get some sort of return on investment Don't plug them in out there and they produce nice things, but they just sit there put them where they best utilized then lastly number five We need strategic mentorship officers and civilians who are interested in strategy given strategists and our young people a hug and talk to them about the strategy because we need your help we need Peter Schwartz's and Robbie Harris's Dick diamonds etc and all you guys out there to continue to do that and nurture and bring somebody around I'm I mean I'm a recovery budget officer and Dave Rosenberg a long time ago put his arm around me and said come on to this meeting On Thursday night. I said I have time on Thursday night. That's when Cheers is on and I I Don't have time for that. You know Fraser and he said no you're gonna have to defer the TV So I went to that and learn so much more. We need to continue to nurture to do that So let's work to them reinvigorate the strategic mindset. We got the talent. We got the energy We got ideas. They're all out there and they're all out there around the fleet We need to focus nurture and align to the future I want to thank you all for coming to this forum very much, but I need you to listen I need you to learn I need you to speak up and I need you to engage and for those of you out there in the whites with The shorter boards. I need you to meet I need you to write and I want you to publish your ideas You are the future you will decide where we're gonna go We'll try to align it and build a framework for it, but but you're that future so for all of you I look forward to your feedback. I thank you very much for listening. I'm ready to take some questions Well, first of all our people the world the free world they do turn to this country I mean I read about it. I mentioned it before and they see it all the time. We can't do it alone There's no way we need and Jamie and I wrote an article about it Somebody may have seen in proceedings in my view We need to continue to pursue a global network of Navies out there to get done what needs to get done you just sweep your hand across You start on a charlotte and you look go to the left of Gibraltar wherever you want to start and you go all the way across To New England and you look at the stuff going on out there in the world and the maritime challenges We need to pull this together at any given day around there in the world. There's about 700 ships Underway in the free world if you will So I don't count China or Russia or some of the other navies That are underway doing a coalition activity some of it is very organized By piracy and counter-terrorism and and smuggling is some of that some of it's not quite some of it's episodic Such as prevention of chemical weapons and the point is we need to nurture and bring together those partnerships in the end and start with the most common foundation and Continue to build it up. I think they are ready to do that I have the the privilege of going to various fora where I meet with heads of Navy, you know, they're international symposia seapower symposium and Capstone event is in this institution We're going to do it in September and we're going to take something like Q is And we're going to we're going to develop that further. We've all we collectively and it's all of us Chiefs have agreed that it is a viable subject that needs needs to go beyond the Western Pacific around the world where we start with simple things like common behavior common networks a standard organization for dealing with a Neo a non-combatant Evacuation order and you know who brought that up the Chinese chief He said we got figure out how to do a neo together all of us He goes I tried to get my people out of Libya. It was a disaster that place was all messed up We had ships from all over the place I was lucky I didn't have a collision trying to get that out trying to get things out of Tripoli Harbor I said, okay, good. Good. Well, will you lead the seminar? He said well, I will and And it goes on like that people who understand a maritime counterterrorism and things of that nature as I mentioned and well a barara and and the folks down in the In the South American navies know very much about counter-drug and counterterrorism and can help us a lot So it's our future Partnerships we have got to buckle down and figure out how to bring it together now There it's going to be fits and starts because we have different political agenda But we got to find the common denominator and there are a few out there and just keep working it and grinding our way through it We've had ups and downs with of their cells in the Chinese Navy It was not all that easy getting that final signature on Q us But you know who brought it home chief of the Malaysian Navy. He said we have got to get this done He put the pressure on the entire ASEAN group and said we have got to bring this thing home He reached over and his Indonesian chief partner said, yep I completely agree with you and and that kind of outside work in partnerships rather than just You know the standard guys kind of pulling our countries pulling it together as what'll make this work Yes, please Admiral I found that to be inspiring actually and it's It's always great to hear what the armed services are thinking in terms of our future Now when I think about grand strategy two things come to mind one is culture and Historically if you look at organizations Apple once had actually a second-rate culture and they became a first-rate culture and all their operational plans Worked because they flowed from a great culture General Motors once had an unbelievable culture and 60% of the world's auto market share But their culture didn't keep contemporary and in fact they victimized themselves and all of these operational problems You see today are the result of a broken culture So I think one Who is the guardian of the culture and as there's some thinking going on to make the culture? vibrant and Contemporary and more like apples evolution and General Motors evolution and the second thing is because you've woven budgetary things throughout your talk a Lot of people wonder With America having the amount of defense spending equal to the rest of the world combined and yet We can see that the services are starved for money in certain areas How did that happen and is there any solution? Well first of all questions, sorry Yeah, that's okay First of all, I'm responsible for the culture because I'm the chief of the naval operations to to bit on the topic at hand I would like this is the intellectual capital for Strategic thought so things come up to here, you know, this is like the Lord of the Rings the although that was a negative connotation, but Where we start, you know that where we bring together and have have the debt that discussion for Thought so we have got to invigorate that culture out of here But it has to to move out there now I will use my my director for strategy and Operations so my N3 five will advise me on that working with the president of the Naval War college But anyway, I'm responsible I will work with or this will be the centerpiece of the location and as I said before They will partner with the Naval Academy We will start chatting with our midshipmen our rotsie people the Naval postgraduate school in certain elements You'll get into like see school you right where you get to fit cyber if it's acoustics You'll get into the details of that The the idea of cost I find it interesting because the cost of a ship in our Navy in our country because of what it costs It's not the same of a cost of a ship in another country I mean it just the labor rates are different the material rates are different what the Quality is very different in the classification in this room precludes you from getting into it But I find we build pretty good tough ships others don't Okay, they're not as tough as our ships. We can argue in Individual classes, but when you when you get to that the gross cost it just doesn't do it for me I've gone through this a couple of times and it just doesn't it's not an apples to apples comparison But the other piece is you know the global Excuse me the gross domestic product, you know what people will invest in there in their armed forces, okay? I got that I'd say the capability What is the capability that somebody is building toward in other words if somebody is building a bunch of stuff very cool Does any of that stuff work together will it hold together? Is it durable? Can it be changed over time and you have the people to man that thing so they know how to use it Those are a lot of questions that some folks again. I'll keep out of the individual specifics of it so We have got challenges. We've got to evolve into the future in some areas We can't spend the way we're spending in some regards if you will because we'll just run out And we have to milk at payloads more than platforms. That's kind of a general panoply of things Thank you Yes, sir over here left if you talk about it openly you cross the line and you unnecessarily antagonize diplomatically you do It's it now seriously. I mean Just just give us some thought. I mean, I'm not going to try and preach to you But give us some thought you you probably have a sense for how much we trade with that country, right? It's astounding the two so if you think about why would we don't want to antagonize it But we look as I said our Who's to say what the problems will be of the future and I'm you know, I thought okay look Europe come on guys It's okay. Well, that's back on the landscape, you know remember ever. I should come on and say really so In a very in a classified nature. We look at all of this I know you've been exposed to some of them there are groups up here that do this full-time and They and they're talking strategies and all that but people say well, we need to talk about it more openly ref a We can't do that. It's it will antagonize it and it will Well, it will unnecessarily muddy waters my view people ask me What are you gonna do about the South China Sea and he said say we're gonna manage it That's what we're gonna do. We're gonna work on Q is I gotta get together Well, I'm leaving for July, you know and everything holds together to visit my counterpart I will who he's invited me and my wife to China my wife and I that's whatever over. That's why I'm a budget officer To China my point is we got to manage through this kiddo That's our job to manage through it. No miscalculation Clarity of where we're coming from freedom of the sea They they understand that like it, but they understand that and we got to figure out how to do that Somebody stand up and talk you got too many hands up. Where's my moderator? Sir, uh, lieutenant Kevero from officer training command and to that's Approach that you're suggesting that we manage the South China Sea problem Doesn't it appear then from a Chinese perspective that it's the second coming of the boxer war that the great Western evil Empire is coming back to Contain and prevent the return of what is a historically righteous place in the world for them Yeah appears that it will destabilize The region if we take an active role in managing what is to them a local problem. Yeah, well, we never left I Mean I forgive me, but we've had 50 ships in the Western Pacific today We have like 51 we've had 50 ships plus or minus two or three for a decade Sailing the South China Sea down to Singapore and we're definitely talking a lot more about it We're exercising more that is the re the rebalance to the Asian Pacific So that'd be one point I'd make and I talked to what Admiral Wu and I talk I say well Look, how often we've been in and out of Hong Kong You know and Shanghai and they invite us and Jing Dao But yes, we are now talking very openly about hey you guys you're being very aggressive out here You're pushing things in some cases your your your commanding officers are Violating the rules of the road. We need a deliberate way to manage our way through this Well, we're gonna have collisions and and we're gonna turn it over to how Let's see. What do you department head? No, sir. I'm a curriculum developer at officer training. Whatever you take you Take you in ten years and you're out there right with 350 people or 200 people on your destroyer And I say okay. Good luck, and you say well you got any guidelines. I say don't screw it up What so and then and then your counterparts over there, too, so we say I'll tell you what let's let's speak English Everybody was good with that Let's here's how we're gonna address so that you know what you're gonna get from that other fellow or gal Which ever how it works and and then you know how you're gonna start your conversations and and how you will Maintain distance you get my point and the same has to to work in aviation. That's a good start So we don't have a miscalculation. I I get your point that people would submit. Okay, you guys are coming over there We look we never left Maritime okay Well, they're not going to be happy here, but okay ma'am two more sir and then ma'am you next Thank You sir You mentioned The Arctic Ocean is your I'm a Canadian and I'm just wondering You're a standpoint on I think we've had a bit of a Disagreement on some of the law of the sea issues up there But we're trying to extend now the the continental shells for the various countries How do you see your foray there in the long-term strategy? certainly, it's a serious issue with the Canadian government and The Arctic Ocean is is our third ocean, but really has not been pushed to any great extent From our countries. I'm just wondering your viewpoint of where you're going up in that region Well, I've asked my staff number one get with industry and find out what is their intent in the well No, I'm sorry now step one when is the ice melting when is it truly passable for non ice hardened hulls so that? You know regular ships can compact because it's just not It's not economically feasible if you don't have okay one so understand the traffic and what year one two Okay, so that if this is the intended traffic what routes will they take okay three Is is there any threat up there or is it sort of like the South Atlantic or other parts where there's just no threat? Okay for Other territorial disputes now we're starting to getting into you know as you kind of alluded to The Northwest Passage a lot of them say Kind of shallow don't see us a lot of traffic and that regard and then then what are the means that we will engage? One we need to stay active in the various fora that are up there The Arctic Council and others to we got to work definitely close with you guys say so what say you three? Well, we're doing there's too many numbers up here We got to get together with a Coast Guard. They are responsible for security. We're responsible for defense We will support them if there's a crisis up there, you know a big accident or something so we got to be ready to respond so When what is the threat? What are the disputes clarify them in English so we can understand them and then go to work with you all meanwhile build systems that are Arctic compatible And work toward how do we work up there getting the exercising part with with partners? So sounds great. I got to take that down to an actionable process ma'am here Thank you, Sienna Jill Ballard up now in nine and in reconciling strategy and budget and planning for our future fleet I Find a struggle with the presence argument in it that it drives so much half capacity, you know, you've mentioned all the demands around the globe And capability requirements and how best to plan for you know 30 years from now for the assets that we're building now. How do you? You have any recommendations on yeah, what kind of word well, I used the term I when I started the watch I used six words because well, that's a limit of my capacity to say it over and over again And I said warfighting is first you got to think of war and it's how you think about things How does that affect war fighting? We're fighting first second operate forward and in third is be ready the operate forward I think some folks think I want everybody leave port and operate forward. That's not what it means It means as much as feasible position forward and and that includes for deployed naval force the Ross just showed up in Rota yesterday. So now we have two destroyers Aegis destroyers frontline in Rota Spain. That's a change recently We will be putting two destroyers two more Aegis destroyers in Japan for deployed naval force That means sailors ships and families the Singapore government's invited us to put four little combat ships by 17 That's forward station in Singapore. So we'll rotate those crews But the ships will be forward for a period of time We are developing ships called joint high-speed vessels those ships will go forward. We'll rotate the crews Similar with a ship you get my point different classes of ships to put them forward then Jill We've got to reconcile. What can we support in rotational deployment now? That's the key at the rate. We're going now It's kind of unsustainable That we have this great global force management lay down out there and then we get and then we step it up some Periodically here and there and we pull somebody who should be getting ready for rotational deployment And we move them over there because we can or because somebody gives us gas money So what I'm saying Jill is we're not all going to run forward But we must reconcile in our strategy what the presence level is that we feel we need Okay, that or the capability and then we'll we'll adjust the capacity of that Based on the budget and the desire of the nation to be forward But I believe we need to reconcile that forward part first that present part because that's what we do Okay, thanks