STATEMENT OF
RADM MARK P. FITZGERALD
DEPUTY CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS
DIRECTOR, AIR WARFARE
BEFORE THE
HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE
PROJECTION FORCES SUBCOMMITTEE
ON
NAVY CAPABILITIES FOR CONDUCTING
CONVENTIONAL LONG RANGE STRIKE
MARCH 3, 2004
Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the Projection Forces Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss how naval forces contribute to our national long range strike capabilities. Developing capabilities to sustain access forward is a primary emphasis for the U.S. Navy. Your Navy is on call, forward deployed, surgeable, standing ready to project power every day, around the clock, around the world.
Why Navy Deep Strike?
As a global power in a maritime world, the oceans are the "Great Commons" that connect America to the world. We must be free to operate in the world's oceans so that our vital national interests are protected. Our Navy-Marine Corps team's core mission is control of the seas, maintaining the free flow of commerce throughout the world. Over 80% of the world's population lives within 200 nautical miles of the sea. 99.7% by volume of all international trade travels by sea and over 32% of the world's maritime trade in oil travels through one vital choke point, the Strait of Hormuz. Should we fail in this vital endeavor, the world economy would be gravely impacted and our way of life would be altered immeasurably. Therefore, our ready forward naval forces are the key joint enabling force, as well as a decisive force, particularly in areas that deny basing rights or access to our Army and Air forces. Naval power projection forces are critical members of the joint power projection deep strike team providing speed of response to an emerging crisis from forces that can be immediately employed from within a region by national policy makers, without host nation restrictions, even as we might begin to employ others toward it.
Nowhere has this core capability been better demonstrated then in the events immediately subsequent to September 11. On that day, USS ENTERPRISE was returning from deployment when satellite television provided the first pictures of the attack on our soil. Within minutes, ENTERPRISE reversed course and proceeded north at flank speed. By the next morning, ENTERPRISE was prepared to conduct deep strike missions within Afghanistan. The "Big E" was quickly joined by USS CARL VINSON Battle Group, which steamed at high speed to the scene, her strike aircraft and Tomahawk cruise missiles at the ready. Other naval forces, including USS PELELIU's Amphibious Ready Group, en route from Australia, and USS KITTY HAWK, destined to serve as an Afloat Forward Staging Base for joint special operations forces, got underway from Japan.
As Commander of the THEODORE ROOSEVELT Battle Group during Operation Enduring Freedom, I truly appreciate how our Navy/Marine Corps' team provides our nation with unparalleled asymmetric advantages resident in the Sea Basing of our Naval Forces. The inherent mobility, security, and flexibility of naval forces which is enhanced by Sea Basing the joint force, reduces operational dependence upon fixed and vulnerable land bases, and offers joint force commanders increased freedom of action to deploy, employ, and sustain forces. Navy carrier aircraft ranged up to 800 nautical miles into Afghanistan twenty-four hours a day for over eight months in an unprecedented sea based operation against the Taliban. Over 80% of those sorties were launched without the aircrew knowing where the target was located. As noted, the flexibility of our Naval Forces included three aircraft carriers projecting deep strike power into Afghanistan, Marines and SEAL forces inserting deep behind enemy lines, and the USS KITTY HAWK acting as an Afloat Forward Staging Base for the basing of Army and Air Force special operations forces that were utilized to conduct long range strike missions into Afghanistan.
Navy carrier-based aircraft, Marine Expeditionary Units, SEALs, Special Operations personnel, Seabee Construction personnel, and Tomahawk cruise missiles led the Joint force team in the early stages of the war. At times, Navy Special Warfare (NSW) forces constituted the majority of the unconventional warriors in central Asia. Forward deployed Naval forces opened the door for our Coalition Force in the early stages of the war, and throughout OEF comprised the vast majority of striking power available to the Coalition Commander.
Sea Basing will expand on capabilities demonstrated in OEF and OIF by providing greater dynamic access, speed of response, flexibility, and persistent sustainment capabilities necessary to execute combat operations ashore. By exploiting the maneuver space provided by the sea to conduct joint operations at the time and place of our choosing, we will better be able to influence events in the littorals or hundreds of miles inland.
Ship to Objective Maneuver (STOM), will project the Expeditionary Strike Group's combined arms assault force from ships at sea directly against operational objectives-some of which may be located far inland. This represents the application of enduring concepts from the Marine Corps transformational "Operational Maneuver from the Sea" doctrine. Future Marine Forces will be able to maneuver in tactical formation from the moment they depart the enhanced sea base, a series of stable-in-theater afloat staging centers located outside the Joint operating area, until they reach their key objectives. STOM will reduce Naval Forces' historic beachhead vulnerability, since the sea base will provide the primary support for Marine operations. In this way, STOM greatly increases Naval expeditionary forces' tactical flexibility, capacity for increased operational tempo and ability to project power deep inland.
Combat operations from Desert Storm to Iraqi Freedom provide further insight into the Navy-Marine Corps team's capabilities as key players in joint, precise, long range strike operations. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Navy Tomahawk missiles were launched from the Mediterranean and Red Sea as well as the Persian Gulf. Navy and Marine Corps' strike aircraft (both active and reserve) utilized both organic and non-organic tanking to fly missions at extremely long range, providing unprecedented persistence and precision to fast moving ground forces. The surveillance and reconnaissance capability provided by this distributed air power, in addition to the precision weapons delivered, enabled the ground scheme of maneuver.
During OIF, our nation deployed joint combat forces across the globe with greater speed and agility than we have ever done in the past. The Navy-Marine Corps' team delivered more than 60,000 combat-ready Marines ashore in Kuwait in 30 days, and seven carrier strike groups to support simultaneous global operations. Those Marines then projected power at great distances from the sea in their record drive to Baghdad.
Today's Navy Long Range Strike
The Navy and Marine Corps' continued success in providing long-range precision strike is due to determined investment in flexible, multi-role platforms with ever-improving capabilities. The development of F/A-18 and F-14 strike fighters and Tomahawk cruise missile are evidence of this foresight. Furthermore, development of joint, precise munitions, such as the Joint Direct Attack Munition and Joint Standoff Weapon, have significantly increased lethality, accuracy, and aim point prosecution while reducing collateral damage. Today's metric is "targets per aircraft" vice "aircraft per target."
Our deep strike forces, now and in the future, will be organized into a flexible force structure composed of both Carrier Strike Groups (CSGs) and Expeditionary Strike Groups (ESGs). Our current CSGs include a full Airwing, along with surface and subsurface Tomahawk platforms, both capable of long-range precision strike. ESGs, consisting of an Amphibious Ready Group and augmented with strike capable SSNs, destroyers and cruisers, are capable of projecting power far inland.
F/A-18E/F
Truly multi-mission and combat proven, the F/A-18E/F is a significant step forward in improving the survivability and strike capability of the carrier air wing. The Super Hornet provides a 40 percent increase in combat radius, 50 percent increase in endurance, and 25 percent increase in weapons payload over our older Hornets. Three Super Hornet squadrons deployed during OIF as Fleet transition of the F/A-18E/F continues. The latest squadron to stand up is now based with the carrier air wing forward deployed in Japan. The Super Hornet has used a spiral development approach to incorporate new technologies, such as the Advanced Electronically Scanned Antenna (AESA) radar, Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System, Advanced Tactical Forward Looking Infra-Red (ATFLIR), Shared Reconnaissance Pod System (SHARP), and Multifunctional Information Distribution System (MIDS) data link.
EA-6B
This is the only Airborne Electronic Attack platform in the United States' inventory and a key enabler to joint long-range strike capability. The EA-6B Prowler provides electronic attack support to U.S. and Coalition forces worldwide. In Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Prowlers were primarily focused on communications jamming in direct support of conventional and special operations ground forces. Their disruption of enemy command and control was instrumental in the many successes enjoyed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. In the early stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Navy Prowlers provided air defense suppression for both conventional and stealth aircraft, quickly shifting to a communications electronic attack focus once air defenses were defeated. The Prowler's flexibility in OIF provided the coalition with precise, tailored, and timely non-kinetic fires that disrupted, confused and disabled the enemy, enabling the swift defeat of the Hussein regime.
Surface
Combatants
The TICONDEROGA (CG 47) class guided missile cruisers and ARLEIGH BURKE (DDG 51) guided missile destroyers operate independently or as part of CSGs and ESGs. 22 CGs and all DDGs are equipped with the Mk 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS), giving them a significant surface fire capability with the Tomahawk Land-Attack cruise Missile (TLAM). Over 1900 Tomahawks have been fired in anger since Operation Desert Storm in 1991. The culmination of the deep strike capability available from surface ships was most recently demonstrated during Operation Iraqi Freedom when 21 CGs and DDGs launched over 800 Tomahawks (almost half in one day) contributing significantly to the "Shock and Awe" campaign.
SSN
Of the five military domains (land, sea surface, undersea, atmosphere and space), undersea operations are the least visible and therefore the stealthiest. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Submarine Force played a critical role. Their stealth, endurance, agility, and firepower provided the Combatant Commanders with unlocatable, close-in, persistent presence in support of multiple missions which included firing one-third of all Tomahawks launched in both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Tomorrow's Deep Strike Platforms
The foresight required to develop today's very successful sea based deep strike platforms is once again at work. CVN-21, DDX, SSGN, and JSF are all part of the Navy's vision for executing long-range strike far into the future.
As the replacement for the NIMITZ Class nuclear aircraft carrier, CVN 21 will be the centerpiece of tomorrow's Carrier Strike Groups and a contributor to the future Expeditionary Strike Force, as envisioned in Sea Power 21. CVN 21 is a nuclear powered ship optimized for high sortie strike operations and capable of accepting technologies of the future including directed energy weapons and high bandwidth communications. This new aircraft carrier will increase the sortie generation rate by 20 percent, increase survivability to better handle future threats and will have a maintenance cycle that will support an increase of up to 25 percent in operational availability. CVN 21 will be the centerpiece of our nation's long range striking power with enhancements such as a future air wing that will include the Joint Strike Fighter and Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems. CVN 21's transformational command centers will combine the power of FORCEnet and flexible open system architecture to support simultaneous multiple missions, including integrated strike planning, joint/coalition operations and Special Warfare missions. The CVN 21 based strike group will play a major role in Sea Shield protecting United States' interests, while deterring enemies and reassuring allies, and providing the United States the capability to quickly project combat power anywhere in the world, independent of land based support.
SSGN
Our SSGN will provide covert conventional strike platforms capable of carrying 154 Tomahawk missiles. The SSGN will also have the capacity and capability to support Special Operations Forces for an extended period, providing clandestine insertion and retrieval by lockout chamber, dry deck shelters or the Advanced SEAL Delivery System. SSGN's will be arrayed with a variety of unmanned vehicles to enhance the joint force commander's knowledge of the battle space. The large capacity of these hulls will enable us to leverage future payloads and sensors for years to come. We expect our first SSGN to be operational in 2007.
Future
Surface Combatants
DD(X) is a multi-mission surface combatant that brings with it the capability to provide volume fires and precision strike in any theater. DD(X) is a key enabler for movement of Joint Forces ashore and Ship to Objective Maneuver. DD(X) will test and field advanced technologies including: an Advanced Vertical Launch System, Tumblehome Hull (reduced electronic, acoustic, magnetic and infrared signatures), and two 155MM Advanced Gun Systems (capable of firing the Long Range Land Attack Projectile out to 100NM). It will use stealth, reach, speed and lethality to provide a time sensitive range of offensive options to the naval, joint or combined commander.
JSF
The Joint Strike Fighter, with a mission radius of 762 miles in the CVTOL and --- in the STOVL variant, enhances our precision deep strike, battlefield surveillance, reconnaissance, and persistence capabilities with unprecedented stealth and range as part of the family of tri-service, next-generation strike aircraft. It will maximize joint and coalition commonality and technological superiority while minimizing life cycle cost. The JSF replaces the Navy's F-18A/C variants and the Marine Corps' AV-8B Harrier and F/A-18A/C/D aircraft while complementing the Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The JSF, the multimission strike fighter of the future, remains vital, and the Navy is extremely committed to it.
EA-18G
The EA-18G will replace the EA-6B Prowler in carrier based Electronic Attack aircraft squadrons and represents a cost effective means of legacy aircraft replacement. Leveraging existing production capabilities at Boeing and Northrop Grumman, the Navy is using the F/A-18E/F multi-year contract to buy an additional quantity of 'F' Aircraft which will be converted to EA-18Gs. Northrop Grumman's Improved Capabilities (ICAP)-III Airborne Electronic Attack (AEA) system - currently in production for the EA-6B - will be installed in F/A-18F airframes to produce the EA-18G. This allows us to deliver a quantum leap in Airborne Electronic Attack capability at reduced cost and in the shortest possible timeframe. The EA-18G will enter operational service in FY-09.
E-2 Advanced Hawkeye
A critical enabler of transformational intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), the E-2 Advanced Hawkeye (AHE) program will provide a robust overland capability against current and future cruise missile-type targets, as well as a more precise and longer range air picture. AHE will modernize the E-2 weapons system by replacing the current analog radar and other system components with digital technology. AHE ensures open ocean and overland ISR capability by adding transformational surveillance as well as theater air and missile defense capabilities.
V-22
The FY 2005 budget includes $918 million for eight MV-22s and $304 million for continued testing and evaluation. The V-22 Osprey program resumed flight-testing in May 2002, flying in excess of 1100 hours. Very successful flight-testing has continued on high rate of descent flight envelope expansion and icing system development. The V-22 is satisfying the threshold levels for all its key performance parameters to include its reliability and maintainability metrics. In July 2003, OSD directed the Services to reduce the aircraft procurement ramp to no greater than 50 percent, and to use the savings accrued from the production adjustments for reinvestment into program interoperability improvements and cost reduction initiatives.
Deep Strike Weapons
Tactical Tomahawk
The FY 2005 Budget requests $256.2M for 293 missiles, an increase of $64 million and 75 missiles over the amount projected for FY 2005 in the FY 2004 budget. Tactical Tomahawk represents a tremendous improvement over the successful Block III Tomahawk cruise missile. The state-of-the-art components allow reduced response time, multiple pre-planned outcomes, improved lethality and navigation improvements. The Full Rate Production decision is on track for June 2004. Additionally, we are in the final stages of our second remanufacture program; converting all available older Tomahawk airframes to the latest Block III configuration. This effort will be complete in May of this year and will yield an additional 454 missiles.
The FY 2005 budget requests $27.0M for RDT&E for continued integration of the JASSM air launched cruise missile on the F/A-18E/F aircraft. Since this weapon provides the longest standoff of all air to ground precision weapons, its successful entry into the F/A-18E/F inventory enables standoff operations beyond enemy defenses as well as extending the reach of the Hornet in deep strike attack.
JSOW
JSOW is a low cost, survivable, air to ground weapon for attacking from outside enemy point defenses during day or night and adverse weather conditions. Three JSOW variants use a common air vehicle for dispensing munitions or target penetration warhead. The three variants, JSOW-A, B, and C, are used for soft area interdiction, massed combat vehicles, and hard targets respectively. Withdrawal of the USAF from the JSOW program increases unit cost and reduces the number of weapons procured.
Deep Strike Concepts
The Navy is committed to using its deep strike assets in transformational ways that will provide greater firepower and flexibility to the Combatant Commander. The Fleet Response Plan, (FRP), is a key element in providing rapid, surgable combat power to the fight at the right time. The FRP resets the force in a way that will allow us to surge about 50 percent more combat power on short notice. It enables the Navy to consistently and quickly deliver six Carrier Strike Groups (CSGs), plus two additional CSGs in 90 days or less. This FRP capability is commonly known as six plus two.
Tactical Air Integration (TAI) is another of these transformational changes and has been referred to by OSD as the model transformational plan. TAI is an innovative way for the Navy and Marine Corps to develop interchangeable Strike Fighter units that provide for enhanced operability and greater combat effectiveness to both Carrier Strike and Expeditionary Warfare Groups.
Many other new operational concepts and systems are being developed by the Navy and Marine Corps in order to enhance our ability to influence events on the modern multidimensional battlefield. Clearly, this is not an inclusive list of our transformational initiatives: merely a few illustrative examples. I am excited about the opportunities that exist when we think creatively - indeed transformationally - about the challenges ahead.
Summary
Your Navy-Marine Corps' team is a critical part of our joint long-range deep strike force. Constantly seeking better ways to influence the enemy in the far corners of the earth in support of National policy, your Navy is ready today and will be ready in the future. That's the power of being there-a timely application of the full spectrum of effects that provides the power to shape regions of interest, securing access for our economic, political and military interests overseas. Thank you for this opportunity to speak with you today.
2120 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
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