Power Projection and #WARFIGHTING

This is the third of five entries looking at Navy #Warfighting by Rear Adm. Michael Smith, Director, Strategy and Policy Division (N51).

“It is the function of the Navy to carry the war to the enemy so that it will not be fought on U.S. soil.”
Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz

Power projection is the ability of a nation to apply elements of its national power outside of its territory to respond to crises, contribute to deterrence, and protect national interests. Naval power projection involves influencing events on land from the sea, and requires a full spectrum of lethal, non-lethal, conventional, and special capabilities applied in concert to gain an advantage.

With our Navy we have the unique ability to help influence events overseas by being continuously forward deployed and operationally ready to respond to events quickly and effectively. In short, power projection is the Navy’s ready, versatile offensive punch, employed across a broad spectrum of military operations to deter or defeat aggression and, if required, enable the introduction and sustainment of follow-on forces.

In cooperation with our allies and joint force partners, the Navy is able to apply the inherent lethality, flexibility, and reach of our naval forces across all operational domains: sea, air, land, space and cyberspace. Power projection capabilities include cruise missiles, naval aircraft, naval surface fires, electronic warfare, amphibious forces (employed in concert with our Marine partners), SEALs, and other naval special warfare units.

While the Navy is capable of overcoming many geographic challenges, naval forces today face increasingly capable anti-access/area-denial threats that make power projection in some critical areas of operation more risky. The Navy therefore remains constantly engaged in the development and implementation of new capabilities and techniques designed to address such threats.

I hope you will share your thoughts on power projection with me, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Jon Kaskin

I recommend that you specifically add strategic sealift as a power projection capability that enables the Joint Force.
Anonymous

– Responding on behalf of RDML Mike Smith –

Rob Densmore -

Thanks for your comment. I agree that land-based counterinsurgency (COIN) is not among the Navy’s core functions. That said, it is important to note that the Navy does not have, nor should it have, its own service strategy (COIN-based or otherwise) for operations in Afghanistan or elsewhere. Rather, we operate in accordance with the President’s strategy, whose U.S.
military component is carried out by the Secretary of Defense and the Commander, United States Central Command (CENTCOM), together with our International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) partners within Afghanistan.

Among the Navy forces supporting allied operations in Afghanistan are:

- Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Construction Battalion (“SeaBee”) units conducting operations on the ground, along with Navy Corpsmen and Chaplains attached to Marine Corps units.
- Navy aircraft flying from carriers in the Arabian Sea to conduct strikes in support of allied ground forces.
- Navy personnel known as Individual Augmentees (IAs) embedded with various allied forces around Afghanistan in a variety of roles, ranging from intelligence to electronic warfare, countering improvised explosive devices (IEDs), commanding Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs), and more.

In short, as the above list reflects, Navy has a solid record of applying our expertise and capabilities in support of Combatant Commander warfighting requirements far from our home shores. Our operations in Afghanistan illustrate well the inherent flexibility of naval forces and their role in power projection. We can affect events ashore by flying from ships hundreds of miles from the battlefield, we can deliver and support expeditionary forces ashore as part of a ground campaign, and we can quickly reorient our forces as needed to respond to events in other theaters. Last year, for example, we seamlessly supported operations in Afghanistan while simultaneously providing forces to address unfolding events in Libya, all
while rapidly responding to the combined earthquake tsunami and nuclear crises in Japan.

It is important to remember that our tasks in support of CENTCOM reflect only one aspect of regional and global naval operations. At all times, Navy forces are operating forward to ensure access on, under, and above the seas; and, when required, to project power and influence at sea and ashore – including engagement with international allies and partners to foster
cooperation, promote stability, deter aggression, and respond to a full spectrum of crises when necessary. Seen from this larger perspective, the Navy’s real and enduring “force-wide mandate” has been — and will continue to be — to provide ready maritime forces capable of defeating adversaries, deterring aggression, responding to crisis and maintaining freedom of the seas.

- RDML Mike Smith

Power Projection and #WARFIGHTING

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