Maritime Strategy--A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower

8/14/2019 Maritime Strategy--A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower

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A Cooperative Strategy

for21st Century Seapower

october 2007


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90% of the worlds

commerce travels by sea;

the vast majority

of the worlds population

lives within

a few hundred miles

of the oceans;nearly three quarters

of the planet

is covered by water.

seapower protects

the american way of life


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A Cooperative Strategyor 21st Century

Seapower represents an

historical frst.Never beore have the maritime orces o the United Statesthe Navy,

Marine Corps, and Coast Guardcome together to create a unifed

maritime strategy. This strategy stresses an approach that integrates

seapower with other elements o national power, as well as those o our

riends and allies. It describes how seapower will be applied around

the world to protect our way o lie, as we join with other like-minded

nations to protect and sustain the global, inter-connected system through

which we prosper. Our commitment to protecting the homeland and

winning our Nations wars is matched by a corresponding commitment to

preventing war.

Our citizens were involved in development o this strategy through a

series o public orums known as the Conversations with the Country.

Three themes dominated these discussions: our people want us to remain

strong; they want us to protect them and our homeland, and they want us

to work with partners around the world to prevent war. These themes,

coupled with rigorous academic research, analysis and debate, led to a

comprehensive strategy designed to meet the expectations and needs o

the American people.

A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower binds our services more

closely together than they have ever been beore to advance the prosperity

and security o our Nation. The demands o an uncertain world and the

enduring interests o the American people require nothing less.

James T. ConwayGeneral, U.S. Marine Corps

Commandant of the Marine Corps

Gary RougheadAdmiral, U.S. Navy

Chief of Naval Operations

Thad W. AllenAdmiral, U.S. Coast Guard

Commandant of the Coast Guard


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Introduction

The security, prosperity, and vital interests o the United States are

increasingly coupled to those o other nations. Our Nations interests are bestserved by ostering a peaceul global system comprised o interdependent

networks o trade, nance, inormation, law, people and governance.

We prosper because o this system o exchange among nations, yet

recognize it is vulnerable to a range o disruptions that can produce

cascading and harmul eects ar rom their sources. Major power war,

regional confict, terrorism, lawlessness and natural disastersall have the

potential to threaten U.S. national security and world prosperity.

The oceans connect the nations o the world, even those countries that

are landlocked. Because the maritime domainthe worlds oceans, seas,

bays, estuaries, islands, coastal areas, littorals, and the airspace above

themsupports 90% o the worlds trade, it carries the lieblood o a

global system that links every country on earth. Covering three-quarters o

the planet, the oceans make neighbors o people around the world. Theyenable us to help riends in need and to conront and deeat aggression ar

rom our shores.

Today, the United States and its partners nd themselves competing

or global infuence in an era in which they are unlikely to be ully at

war or ully at peace. Our challenge is to apply seapower in a manner

that protects U.S. vital interests even as it promotes greater collective

security, stability, and trust. While deending our homeland and deeating

adversaries in war remain the indisputable ends o seapower, it must be

applied more broadly i it is to serve the national interest.

We believe thatpreventing wars is as important as winning wars. Thereis a tension, however, between the requirements or continued peacetime

engagement and maintaining prociency in the critical skills necessary


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to ghting and winning in combat. Maritime orces must contribute to

winning wars decisively while enhancing our ability to prevent war, win

the long struggle against terrorist networks, positively infuence events,

and ease the impact o disasters.

As it has always been, these critical tasks will be carried out by our

peoplethe key to success in any military strategy. Accordingly, we willprovide our peopleour Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmenwith

the training, education and tools necessary to promote peace and prevail

in confict.

Guided by the objectives articulated in the National Security Strategy,

National Defense Strategy, National Military Strategy and the National

Strategy for Maritime Security, the United States Navy, Marine Corps,

and Coast Guard will act across the ull

range o military operations to secure

the United States rom direct attack;

secure strategic access and retain global

reedom o action; strengthen existing

and emerging alliances and partnerships

and establish avorable security

conditions.

Additionally, maritime orces will be

employed to build condence and

trust among nations through collective

security eorts that ocus on common

threats and mutual interests in an

open, multi-polar world. To do so

will requirean unprecedented level o

integration among our maritime orces and enhanced cooperation with

the other instruments o national power, as well as the capabilities

o our international partners. Seapower will be a unifying force for

building a better tomorrow.

Challenges o a New EraThe world economy is tightly interconnected. Over the past our decades,

total sea borne trade has more than quadrupled: 90% o world trade

and two-thirds o its petroleum are transported by sea. The sea-lanes

and supporting shore inrastructure are the lielines o the modern global

economy, visible and vulnerable symbols o the modern distribution system

Because the maritime

domainthe worlds oceans,

seas, bays, estuaries, islands,

coastal areas, littorals,and the airspace above

themsupports 90% of the

worlds trade, it carries

the lifeblood of a

global systemthat links

every country on earth.


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that relies on ree transit through increasingly urbanized littoral regions.

Expansion o the global system has increased the prosperity o many

nations. Yet their continued growth may create increasing competition

or resources and capital with other economic powers, transnational

corporations and international organizations. Heightened popular

expectations and increased competition or resources, coupled with

scarcity, may encourage nations to exert wider claims o sovereignty overgreater expanses o ocean, waterways, and natural resourcespotentially

resulting in confict.

Technology is rapidly expanding marine activities such as energy

development, resource extraction, and other commercial activity in and

under the oceans. Climate change is gradually opening up the waters

o the Arctic, not only to new resource development, but also to new

shipping routes that may reshape the global transport system. While these

developments oer opportunities or growth, they are potential sources o

competition and confict or access and natural resources.

Globalization is also shaping human migration patterns, health,

education, culture, and the conduct o confict. Conficts are increasingly

characterized by a hybrid blend o traditional and irregular tactics, de-

centralized planning and execution, andnon-state actors using both simple and

sophisticated technologies in innovative

ways. Weak or corrupt governments,

growing dissatisaction among the

disenranchised, religious extremism,

ethnic nationalism, and changing

demographicsoten spurred on by

the uneven and sometimes unwelcome

advances o globalizationexacerbate

tensions and are contributors to confict.

Concurrently, a rising number o

transnational actors and rogue states,

emboldened and enabled with unprecedented access to the global stage,

can cause systemic disruptions in an eort to increase their power andinfuence. Their actions, oten designed to purposely incite confict

between other parties, will complicate attempts to deuse and allay

regional confict.

Prolieration o weapons technology and inormation has increased

the capacity o nation-states and transnational actors to challenge

United States seapower

will be globally postured

to secure our

homeland and

citizens from

direct attack and

to advance our interests

around the world.


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maritime access, evade accountability or attacks, and manipulate public

perception. Asymmetric use o technology will pose a range o threats

to the United States and its partners. Even more worrisome, the appetite

or nuclear and other weapons o mass destruction is growing among

nations and non-state antagonists. At the same time, attacks on legal,

nancial, and cyber systems can be equally, i not more, disruptive than

kinetic weapons.

The vast majority o the worlds population lives within a ew hundred

miles o the oceans. Social instability in increasingly crowded cities,many o which exist in already unstable parts o the world, has the

potential to create signicant disruptions. The eects o climate change

may also ampliy human suering through catastrophic storms, loss o

arable lands, and coastal fooding, could lead to loss o lie, involuntary

migration, social instability, and regional crises.

Mass communications will highlight the drama o human suering, and

disadvantaged populations will be ever more painully aware and less

tolerant o their conditions. Extremist ideologies will become increasingly

attractive to those in despair and beret o opportunity. Criminal elements

will also exploit this social instability.

These conditions combine to create an uncertain uture and cause

us to think anew about how we view seapower. No one nation has

the resources required to provide saety and security throughout theentire maritime domain. Increasingly, governments, non-governmental

organizations, international organizations, and the private sector will

orm partnerships o common interest to counter these emerging threats.


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Maritime Strategic Concept

This strategy rearms the use o seapower to infuence actions and

activities at sea and ashore. The expeditionary character and versatility o

maritime orces provide the U.S. the asymmetric advantage o enlarging

or contracting its military ootprint in areas where access is denied or

limited. Permanent or prolonged basing o our military orces overseas

oten has unintended economic, social or political repercussions. The sea

is a vast maneuver space, where the presence o maritime orces can be

adjusted as conditions dictate to enable fexible approaches to escalation,

de-escalation and deterrence o conficts.

The speed, fexibility, agility and scalability o maritime orces provide

joint or combined orce commanders a range o options or responding to

crises. Additionally, integrated maritime operations, either within ormal

alliance structures (such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) or

more inormal arrangements (such as the Global Maritime Partnership

initiative), send powerul messages to would-be aggressors that we will

act with others to ensure collective security and prosperity.

United States seapower will be globally postured to secure our homeland

and citizens from direct attack and to advance our interests around the

world. As our security and prosperity are inextricably linked with those

o others, U.S. maritime orces will be deployed to protect and sustain the

peaceul global system comprised o interdependent networks o trade,

nance, inormation, law, people and governance.

We will employ the global reach, persistent presence, and operational

fexibility inherent in U.S. seapower to accomplish six key tasks, or

strategic imperatives. Where tensions are high or where we wish to

demonstrate to our riends and allies our commitment to security

and stability, U.S. maritime orces will be characterized by regionally

concentrated, orward-deployed task orces with the combat power to

limit regional confict, deter major power war, and should deterrence

ail, win our Nations wars as part o a joint or combined campaign. In

addition, persistent, mission-tailored maritime orces will be globally

distributed in order to contribute to homeland deense-in-depth,

oster and sustain cooperative relationships with an expanding set o

international partners, and prevent or mitigate disruptions and crises.


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Deter major power war. No other disruption is as potentially disastrous

to global stability as war among major powers. Maintenance and

extension o this Nations comparative seapower advantage is a key

component o deterring major power war. While war with another great

power strikes many as improbable, the near-certainty o its ruinous

eects demands that it be actively deterred using all elements o national

power. The expeditionary character o maritime orcesour lethality,

global reach, speed, endurance, ability to overcome barriers to access,

and operational agilityprovide the joint commander with a range

o deterrent options. We will pursue an approach to deterrence that

includes a credible and scalable ability to retaliate against aggressors

conventionally, unconventionally, and with nuclear orces.

Win our Nations wars. In times o war, our ability to impose local sea

control, overcome challenges to access, orce entry, and project and

sustain power ashore, makes our maritime orces an indispensable

element o the joint or combined orce. This expeditionary advantage

must be maintained because it provides joint and combined orce

commanders with reedom o maneuver. Reinorced by a robust sealit

capability that can concentrate and sustain orces, sea control and power

projection enable extended campaigns ashore.

Globally Distributed, Mission-Tailored Maritime Forces

The Sea Services will establish a persistent global presence using

distributed orces that are organized by mission and comprised o

integrated Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard capabilities. This global

distribution must extend beyond traditional deployment areas and refect

missions ranging rom humanitarian operations to an increased emphasis

on counter-terrorism and irregular warare. Our maritime orces will be

tailored to meet the unique and evolving requirements particular to each

geographic region, oten in conjunction with special operations orces

and other interagency partners. In particular, this strategy recognizes the

rising importance and need or increased

peacetime activities in Arica and the

Western Hemisphere.

Contribute to homeland defense in depth.

Maritime orces will deend the homeland

by identiying and neutralizing threats

as ar rom our shores as possible. From

ostering critical relationships overseas,

to screening ships bound or our ports,

or rapidly responding to any threats

Although our forces

can surge when necessary to

respond to crises,

trust and

cooperation cannot

be surged.


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security and awareness in the maritime domain. In doing so, transnational

threatsterrorists and extremists; prolierators o weapons o mass

destruction; pirates; trackers in persons, drugs, and conventional

weapons; and other criminalswill be constrained.

By being there, orward deployed and engaged in mutually benecial

relationships with regional and global partners, maritime orces will

promote rameworks that enhance security. When natural or manmade

disasters strike, our maritime orces can provide humanitarian assistance

and relie, joining with interagency and non-governmental partners. By

participating routinely and predictably in cooperative activities, maritime

orces will be postured to support other joint or combined orces to

mitigate and localize disruptions.

Implementing the Strategy

To successully implement this strategy, the Sea Services must collectively

expand the core capabilities o U.S. seapower to achieve a blend o

peacetime engagement and major combat operations capabilities.

Expanded Core Capabilities

Although the Sea Services conduct many missions, the ollowing six

capabilities comprise the core o U.S. maritime power and refect an

increase in emphasis on those activities that prevent war and build

partnerships.

Forward Presence. Maritime orces will be orward deployed, especially

in an era o diverse threats to the homeland. Operating orward enables

amiliarity with the environment, as well as the personalities and behavior

patterns o regional actors. Mindul o the sovereignty o other nations,

this infuence and understanding contributes to eective responses


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in the event o crisis. Should peacetime operations transition to war,

maritime orces will have already developed the environmental and

operational understanding and experience to quickly engage in combat

operations. Forward presence also allows us to combat terrorism as

ar rom our shores as possible. Where and when applicable, orward-

deployed maritime orces will isolate, capture, or destroy terrorists, their

inrastructure, resources and sanctuaries, preerably in conjunction with

coalition partners.

Deterrence. Preventing war is preerable to ghting wars. Deterring

aggression must be viewed in global, regional, and transnational terms

via conventional, unconventional, and nuclear means. Eective Theater

Security Cooperation activities are a orm o extended deterrence,

creating security and removing conditions or confict.Maritime ballistic

missile deense will enhance deterrence

by providing an umbrella o protection

to orward-deployed orces and riends

and allies, while contributing to the

larger architecture planned or deense

o the United States. Our advantage in

spaceupon which much o our ability

to operate in a networked, dispersed

ashion dependsmust be protected

and extended. We will use orward

based and orward deployed orces,

space-based assets, sea-based strategic

deterrence and other initiatives to deter

those who wish us harm.

Sea Control. The ability to operate reely at sea is one o the most

important enablers o joint and interagency operations, and sea controlrequires capabilities in all aspects o the maritime domain, including

space and cyberspace. There are many challenges to our ability to exercise

sea control, perhaps none as signicant as the growing number o

nations operating submarines, both advanced diesel-electric and nuclear

propelled. We will continue to hone the tactics, training and technologies

needed to neutralize this threat. We will not permit conditions under

which our maritime orces would be impeded rom reedom o

maneuver and reedom o access, nor will we permit an adversary to

disrupt the global supply chain by attempting to block vital sea-lines

o communication and commerce. We will be able to impose local sea

control wherever necessary, ideally in concert with riends and allies, but

by ourselves i we must.

As a declaratory

strategy, this document

challenges the

sea services to

evolve an expanded

range of integrated

capabilities

to achieve enduring national

strategic objectives.


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Power Projection. Our ability to overcome challenges to access and to

project and sustain power ashore is the basis o our combat credibility.

Our advantages will be sustained through properly sized orces,

innovative technologies, understanding o adversary capabilities,

adaptive joint planning processes and the prociency and ingenuity o

our Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen. We will maintain a robust

strategic sealit capability to rapidly concentrate and sustain orces, and

to enable joint and/or combined campaigns. This capability relies on

the maintenance o a strong U.S. commercial maritime transportation

industry and its critical intermodal assets.

Maritime Security.The creation and maintenance o security at sea is

essential to mitigating threats short o war, including piracy, terrorism,

weapons prolieration, drug tracking, and other illicit activities.

Countering these irregular and transnational threats protects our

homeland, enhances global stability, and secures reedom o navigation

or the benet o all nations. Our maritime orces enorce domestic

and international law at sea through established protocols such as the

Maritime Operational Threat Response Plan (MOTR). We also join

navies and coast guards around the world to police the global commons

and suppress common threats.

Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster

Response. Building on relationships

orged in times o calm, we will

continue to mitigate human suering

as the vanguard o interagency and

multinational eorts, both in a

deliberate, proactive ashion and in

response to crises. Human suering

moves us to act, and the expeditionary

character o maritime orces uniquely

positions them to provide assistance.

Our ability to conduct rapid and

sustained non-combatant evacuation

operations is critical to relieving the plight o our citizens and others

when their saety is in jeopardy.

Implementation Priorities

Implementation o this strategy will require that the Sea Services

demonstrate fexibility, adaptability and unity o eort in evolving to meet

the enduring and emerging challenges and opportunities ahead. Specic

initiatives in support o this strategy must be vetted and tested over

At all echelons of

command, we must

enhance our ability to

conduct integrated

planning, execution,andassessment.


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time through experimentation, wargaming, and continued operational

experience, with periodic oversight and unifed guidance provided by the

senior leaders o the Sea Services. While many initiatives must come to

ruition to enable this strategy, three areas will receive priority attention:

Improve Integration and Interoperability. The combatant commanders

increased demand or mission-tailored orce packages requires a more

integrated approach to how maritime orces are employed.

Marines will continue to be employed as air-ground task orces operating

rom amphibious ships to conduct a variety o missions, such as power

projection, but they will also be employed as detachments aboard a

wider variety o ships and cutters or maritime security missions. Sailors,

Marines, and Coast Guardsmen, teamed in various combinations o

security orces, mobile training teams, construction battalions, health

services, law enorcement, and civil aairs units to conduct security

cooperation and humanitarian assistance missions, illustrate adaptive

orce packaging.

Homeland deense is the most obvious example o the requirement or

greater integration. It is not sufcient to speak o homeland deense

in terms o splitting the responsibilities and authorities between the

Navy and the Coast Guard along some undefned geographic boundary.

Rather, the Sea Services mustand willwork as one wherever they

operate in order to deend the United States. Consistent with the

National Fleet Policy, Coast Guard orces must be able to operate as

part o a joint task orce thousands o miles rom our shores, and navalorces must be able to respond to operational tasking close to home

when necessary to secure our Nation and support civil authorities.

Integration and interoperability are key to success in these activities,

particularly where diverse orces o varying capability and mission

must work together seamlessly in support o deense, security, and

humanitarian operations.


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Expanded cooperation with the maritime orces o other nations requires

more interoperability with multinational partners possessing varying

levels o technology. The Global Maritime Partnership initiative will serve

as a catalyst or increased international interoperability in support o

cooperative maritime security.

Achieving the requisite level o integration and interoperability will

demand a high degree o coordination among service headquarters stas

to ulfll their responsibilities o providing, training, and equipping

orces. Furthermore, Navy and Marine Corps component commanders

and Coast Guard unctional commanders will play a central role

in determining how maritime orces are organized, deployed, and

employed. This role involves identifcation o combatant commander

requirements and articulation o how their respective service capabilities

can be integrated in innovative ways to meet those requirements.

Close coordination among, i not outright integration o, maritime

components may be required to do this eectively. At all echelons o

command, we must enhance our ability to conduct integrated planning,

execution, and assessment.

Enhance Awareness. To be eective, there must be a signifcantly

increased commitment to advance maritime domain awareness (MDA)

and expand intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability

and capacity. New partnerships with the worlds maritime commercial

interests and the maritime orces o participating nations will reduce

the dangerous anonymity o sea borne transport o people and cargoes.

Great strides have already been taken in that direction, and the National

Strategy for Maritime Security has mandated an even higher level o

interagency cooperation in pursuit o eective MDA. Maritime orces

will contribute to enhance inormation sharing, underpinning and

energizing our capability to neutralize threats to our Nation as ar rom

our shores as possible.

Critical to realizing the benefts o increased awareness is our ability

to protect inormation rom compromise through robust inormation


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assurance measures. Such measures will increase international partner

condence that inormation provided will be shared only with those

entities or which it is intended.

Adversaries are unlikely to attempt conventional orce-on-orce confict

and, to the extent that maritime orces could be openly challenged,

their plans will almost certainly rely on asymmetric attack and surprise,

achieved through stealth, deception, or ambiguity. Our ISR capabilities

must include innovative ways to penetrate the designs o adversaries,

and discern their capabilities and vulnerabilities while supporting the

ull range o military operations. We must remove the possibility o an

adversary gaining the initiative over orward-deployed orces and ensure

we provide decision makers with the inormation they need to deter

aggression and consider escalatory measures in advance o such gambits.

Prepare Our People. Given the

distributed nature o the orces

executing this strategy, we must

properly prepare Sailors, Marines, and

Coast Guardsmen or the challenges

and opportunities ahead. We are

creating a dispersed orce under

decentralized authority in a world o

rapid inormation exchange. Maritime

orces will normally operate in a

less concentrated manner than they

do today, and junior leaders will be entrusted with a higher level o

responsibility and authority or carrying out important aspects o

strategically important missions. Junior personnel will be required to

interact with a ar greater variety o U.S. and multinational partners

and indigenous populations than their predecessors. Proessional

development and unit training must be rened accordingly. Operations

as an integrated team require improved mutual understanding o

respective service or agency capabilities and cultures, which can be

achieved through expanded interagency teaming o students and

instructors throughout training, education, and sta assignments.

Similarly, i we are to successully partner with the internationalcommunity, we must improve regional and cultural expertise through

expanded training, education, and exchange initiatives.

Signicantly, this strategy requires new ways o thinkingabout both

empowering individual commanders and understanding the net eects

o dispersed operations. Such operations require a broadly shared

responsibility among: the on-scene commander responsible or ensuring

As it has always been,

these critical tasks

will be carried out

by our people

the key to success in any

military strategy.


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actions are in accordance with the commanders intent; the higher

commander responsible or providing intent and guidance to subordinates;

the parent service o dispersed orces responsible or ensuring that units

are trained, equipped, and culturally prepared or the missions they

will undertake; and, nally, the regional commanders responsible or

determining appropriate orce levels and readiness postures.

Conclusion

This strategy is derived rom a thorough assessment o the Nations

security requirements. It does not presume confict but instead

acknowledges the historical act that peace does not preserve itsel.

Looking across the wide maritime domain, it calls or a broad portolio

o core capabilities to support our vital interests, realized by well-trained,

highly motivated and ably-led people.

The strategy ocuses on opportunitiesnot threats; on optimismnot

ear; and on confdencenot doubt. It recognizes the challenges imposed

by the uncertain conditions in a time o rapid change and makes the case

or the necessity o U.S. seapower in the 21st Century.

As a declaratory strategy, this document challenges the Sea Services to

evolve an expanded range o integrated capabilities to achieve enduring

national strategic objectives. Further experimentation, operational

experience, and analysis are necessary, as is sea service commitment to

building upon the ideas that this document puts orward. However, the

Sea Services cannot do this alone. The diverse elements o the greater

maritime community must be inspired and supported as they invest to

secure peace and prosperity across the maritime domain.

The Sea Services commit to continuing the process o collaborative

strategy implementation in the years ahead. United States seapower is a

orce or good, protecting this Nations vital interests even as it joins with

others to promote security and prosperity across the globe.


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united states seapower

is a force for good,protecting this nations

vital interests even as

it joins with others

to promote security

and prosperityacross the globe.

seapower will be

a unifying forcefor building a

better tomorrow.


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To learn more about the Navy, Marine Corps

and Coast Guard , visit:

www.navy.mil

www.usmc.mil

www.uscg.mil

Maritime Strategy--A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower

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