Navy Expeditionary Forces Help Prevent Wars, Build Global Partnerships
Navy NewsStand
Story Number: NNS080318-20
Release Date: 3/18/2008 3:07:00 PM
By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class (SW/AW) Jen Smith, Navy Expeditionary Combat Command Public Affairs
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va (NNS) -- An exposition in Virginia Beach, March 11-13, highlighted how the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) enables a unified Maritime Strategy, which highlights the fact that "preventing wars is as important as winning wars."
For the first time in the history of the United States maritime forces, the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard have come together to create a unified maritime strategy: Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower.
While attending the Naval Expeditionary Forces Symposium and Expo, NECC's commander, Rear Adm. Mike Tillotson spoke of the relevance of expeditionary forces in building and strengthening partner relationships and capacities throughout the world.
"The Navy is going to continue using carrier and expeditionary strike groups at sea," Tillotson said, "and we're going to continue using submarines and military aircraft. But a lot of those things are not ideal for dealing with building partner capacities. When it comes to working with those smaller nations, you need capacity that is not overpowering.
"An aircraft carrier is pretty overpowering. In some nations, a frigate is overpowering because [many partner navies] are using coastal patrol craft that are more similar to our Coast Guard."
He maintained that many nations' navies around the globe are more closely aligned with those in the U.S. Navy's expeditionary force, which operates in the littorals, harbors, ports, inland waterways and rivers and inland near-shore regions. Expeditionary Sailors ensure sea lines of communication remain open to the last tactical mile. Tillotson continued to say in order to build partnerships around the globe, it must be done at commiserate levels.
"Those on-par forces that can be geared toward those types of missions belong to the expeditionary forces of NECC," he said.
Often, Sailors working side-by-side with their counterparts in foreign countries help foster enduring relationships.
"When you think about preventing wars," said Tillotson, "it's about understanding the people you're working with and understanding their limitations – figuring out what type of capability they need to protect their own areas and to provide governance and economic development and shore up those areas."
To this end, warfighters around the world have employed NECC forces, specifically Maritime Civil Affairs Squadrons (MCAS) and the Expeditionary Training Command (ETC). MCAS and ETC teams have been deployed to Central America through the Global Fleet Station (GFS) initiative and western Africa through Africa Partnership Station (APS).
According to Tillotson, these initiatives will be key in preventing wars.
"With GFS, it was persistent presence," said Tillotson. "It was establishing relationships. It was working in their ports with the training they require in their language."
Civil affairs professionals are enabling forces who work closely with civilian authorities and civilian populations to lessen the impact of military operations imposed during peace time, contingency operations and periods of declared war. Maritime civil affairs teams -- each one trained in cultural and language skills for a specific region -- assess and evaluate a situation and tailor a plan to get the right capabilities in place to make the plan reality.
According to Capt. Ken Schwingshakl, the commander for Maritime Civil Affairs Group (MCAG), "trust and cooperation cannot be surged. It's something that requires a relationship that is well-established and maintained.
"Current planning for regional engagement often misses the mark. We tend to end up performing 'random acts of kindness.' While random acts of kindness are good things, the desired effect is a longer lasting partnership with the nations we visit."
ETC delivers timely, focused, tailored and standardized training to designated host nations. Mobile training teams develop curricula based on host nation requirements, specifically providing military-to-military training in the host nation's languages. Topics include leadership and professional development, small boat maintenance, construction, anti-terrorism and force protection, maritime combat operations and weapons.
"We are helping to build partners' capacity and capability so they can help prevent war with their own forces," said Lt. Cmdr. Scott Chafian, ETC's executive officer. "Having our expeditionary ability out front and building strategic partnerships increases their ability to prevent war."
ETC missions have been completed in Central America and Senegal, Ghana, Gabon and other nations in Africa. In addition to returning to Central American, training teams are preparing for missions in Panama where they'll conduct diver training and Columbia and Brazil for riverine training.
As stated in the maritime strategy, preventing wars is important, but when necessary, the sea services must be prepared to win wars decisively. NECC forces are involved in all phases of military operations – whether shaping operations, major decisive operations or stability and transition operations. Currently employed around the globe, NECC directly supports the six core maritime capabilities vital to the success of the maritime strategy: forward presence; deterrence; sea control; power projection; maritime security; and humanitarian and disaster relief.
As one of the Navy's type commanders, NECC centrally manages the current and future readiness, resources, manning, training and equipping of approximately 40,000 expeditionary Sailors – including individual augmentees – who are currently serving in every theater of operation. These capabilities include naval construction, dive and salvage, and explosive ordnance disposal, which have been a part of the Navy for several decades. Not only did NECC bring some existing forces together, they also introduced and restructured new capabilities, such as maritime civil affairs, expeditionary intelligence and expeditionary training.
For more news from Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/necc/.
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