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CNO Says Navy Posturing to Give President Options

Navy Newsstand

Story Number: NNS030617-08

Release Date: 6/17/2003 3:13:00 PM

By Chief Journalist Walter T. Ham IV, CNO Public Affairs

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The Fleet Response Concept (FRC) will increase the Navy's operational availability by changing the way it deploys, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark told the Defense Writers Group at a recent breakfast meeting.

"Our objective is to be able to deploy five or six [battle groups] any time he [the president] wants to," Clark said. "We have been a Navy that has fundamentally been a rotational force. We will continue to be a Navy that is a rotational force, but we will also be a Navy that is a rotational and a surge force. So we are building a construct that will allow us to do what we just did [in Operation Iraqi Freedom] with little notice."

The CNO also addressed concerns revolving around the possibility of increased at-sea time for Sailors as a result of the FRC, saying he is still committed to the same deployment standards the Navy believes in. ".you might be in a surgable window, and that doesn't mean you're going to surge. We'll surge you, if the nation needs us to surge."

Clark added that the ability to surge several battle groups will send an even stronger message to potential adversaries than the current "heel-to-toe" rotational deployments by single battle groups.

The CNO said the Navy will be re-cocked and able to provide, at a minimum, the level of ready forces the fleet has been able to provide over the past few years. "We're ready to do that this morning."

The CNO said many changes are required to prepare the fleet to surge in a time of crisis, and to maintain the Navy's culture of readiness.

"How do you get there? You get there by changing your thinking, changing the way you work up, changing your training cycles, and also changing the way you maintain these [assets]."

The end result of these changes will be a more responsive, persistent and combat credible Navy, capable of taking the sovereignty of the United States of America anywhere, anytime, without a permission slip, Clark said.

The CNO said the fleet is "way down the road on re-cocking the force. We've laid out a new approach. The Fleet Response Concept is designed with this in mind: how can the United States Navy provide better and more options for the President of the United States? That's what it's about. We are going to increase our operational availability by a factor of maybe two or three."