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CNO serves as panelist at Sea-Air-Space Exposition

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS080318-26
Release Date: 3/18/2008 7:56:00 PM

By MC2 (SW) Rebekah Blowers, Chief of Naval Operations Public Affairs

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead was a panelist at the Navy League's 2008 Sea-Air-Space (SAS) Exposition for a seminar entitled "Seapower and America's Security" on March 18.

The SAS Expo is the largest maritime exposition in the world and provides the Navy and other services an opportunity to interact and meet with national and international industry providers working with the latest in sea power technology. This year's theme, "Global Maritime Security," complements the new national cooperative maritime strategy and advances public understanding of the critical importance of sea power for America's security and prosperity.

Following the panel discussion, CNO emphasized the need for partnership between the Navy and industry.

"We have to collaborate with industry. Industry has great insight into what it takes to build our ships and airplanes. If we have that constructive dialogue, I think we can get a lot more for the resources that we put in toward our Navy today," Roughead said.

He said it's not just top Navy leadership that benefits from the exposition.

"Industry gets an opportunity to talk to our young operators who are out there actually doing the work, so they (industry) learn what they should be thinking about in the future," Roughead said. "These are great opportunities to come together and learn from one another so we can look to the future and see what our opportunities are. That is very valuable."

Roughead said the Navy must work with industry to achieve a balanced fleet of ships.

"In order to achieve a fleet of 313 ships we have to make sure that we define the types of ships that we need. Once we do that we have to ensure that we don't put more on them than what we need to do the job…and to operate in the types of environments that we expect in the future," CNO said.

Specifically CNO spoke about the importance of the new combatants including the littoral combat ship (LCS) and its role in executing the maritime strategy

"The LCS addresses our maritime strategy in many, many ways. It gets to our global presence because it can be deployed around the world, it can operate in areas that we do not have the ability to operate in right now. It's shallow, it's fast, it can get in close to shore, it can move around islands," Roughead said. "It covers many areas of the maritime strategy and I believe the LCS is going to be the work horse of the future."

The Navy League's Sea-Air-Space Exposition features more than 150 defense industry exhibits and professional seminars with top civilian and military leaders from the U.S. Department of Defense, Homeland Security, Maritime Administration and the defense industry who provide up-to-the-minute developments on policy and programs of the maritime services.

For more news from the Chief of Naval Operations, visit www.news.navy.mil/local/cno/.