Our Navy wants to go forward ... to
As the world becomes more complex and the oceans less secure, we are compelled to move beyond the GMP initiative and forge a “Global Network of Navies.” The value of a Network of Navies is that it provides an open and adaptive architecture for facilitating both long-term cooperation and spontaneous, short-lived collaboration. This network can allow countries with converging interests in the maritime domain to form mission-focused—often temporary—goal-oriented associations to address common maritime-security challenges. Whereas close partnerships can take years to develop, a network can rapidly support multiple “coalitions of the willing” and react quickly to changing circumstances, while simultaneously providing an enduring backbone for the growth and development of deeper cooperation.
Individual navies can “plug in” to nodes of the network when it serves their interests, and then expand, contract, or otherwise alter their participation when it suits them. An advantage of a network is that the individual participants immediately gain the benefit of capabilities and capacities of all the other members of the network, and can rapidly leverage the resources of the network to provide force multipliers and extend the reach of their own capabilities. As such, the Global Network of Navies provides the opportunity for countries to more effectively meet the challenges of insecurity in the maritime environment in spite of resource constraints. The only requirements are a willingness to collaborate and the creation of a network that is scalable, durable, responsive, flexible, and interoperable. This makes the Global Network of Navies key to the collective future security of all maritime nations.
When we wanted long-term partnerships to forge a fleet of a thousand ships around the globe to work with our fleet as the core of that notional fleet, I wrote that we should focus instead on building a thousand-ship American Navy by using Modularized Auxiliary Cruisers to supplement our Navy in peace and war missions:
Our Navy defends our nation within the incompatible and unforgiving boundaries formed by the tyrannies of distance and numbers. We struggle to build enough ships both capable of deploying globally and powerful enough for fighting first-rate opponents. Operating within a network-centric Navy, auxiliary cruisers could once again play a valuable role in projecting naval power. Using modular systems installed on civilian hulls, auxiliary cruisers could handle many peacetime roles; free scarce warships for more demanding environments; add combat power within a networked force; and promote the global maritime partnership.
Our Navy is surely superior to any conceivable combination of potential foes, alarmism notwithstanding. Yet as a global power, our sea power cannot be narrowly defined by our superb warships able to win conventional sea-control campaigns. We have many objectives at sea. Modularized Auxiliary Cruisers could provide the numbers we need to achieve our maritime objectives. The tyranny of numbers matters to the United States Navy.
Building a network in our Navy that others can plug into seems to make it even easier for my notion of plugging American Modularized Auxiliary Cruisers into our fleet.
Our Navy keeps saying that numbers matter for our fleet and complaining that they need more money. But they keep trying to get them by any means but picking a number and building the types of ships we can afford to reach that number within the construction budget they are likely to get.
While a global network of navies is fine for diplomatic purposes to lay the groundwork for alliance work in case of wars, in the day-to-day matter of meeting maritime security challenges, I think American auxiliary cruisers would provide better and more reliable contributions to the fleet.
