CNO Puts Warfighting First in Navy’s Five-year Plan

Posted by Eric Haun July 22, 2015

CNO Adm. Greenert holds an all-hands call with service members, civilians and their families at Naval Support Activity Bahrain where he discussed the current status of the Navy and presented U.S. Naval Forces Central Command with the Navy Unit Commendation for meritorious service in the performance of assigned missions from June 2010 to June 2015. (US Navy photo by Nathan Laird)

U.S. Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Jonathan Greenert on Monday highlighted the U.S. Navy's intended track and investments in a document that outlines the Navy’s navigational plan for the next five years.

"This year's navigation plan highlights our Navy's key investments, which support missions and functions outlined in the defense strategic guidance (DSG)," said Greenert in the document released Monday. "Our mandate is to be where it matters, when it matters, ready to respond to crises and ensure the security that underpins our global economy."

Greenert's 2016-2020 Navigation Plan, released to the Navy's senior leaders and distributed on the its social media properties, defines how the Navy will use its resources to safely and effectively pursue the vision detailed in Sailing Directions.

Each year since Greenert released the Sailing Directions, the Navigation Plan has described the annual Navy's budget submission for the future years.

In the plan, Greenert explains the requirement to the four enduring functions around which the Navy has historically organized, trained and equipped: deterrence, sea control, power projection and maritime security, as well as capabilities related to a new fifth function, all domain access. This plan highlights how investments will support Navy missions through the lens of the three tenets: Warfighting First, Operate Forward and Be Ready.

Greenert emphasizes in the document that everything sailors and civilians do must be grounded in the responsibility of warfighting first. He says the Navy must have the capability and capacity to conduct war at sea and win decisively. He provided a list of capabilities that center on this objective and followed with a comparable list of items that support operate forward and be ready.

Additionally, the Navigation Plan summarizes the six programmatic priorities that guided the Navy's budget planning for the future of the fleet: maintaining a credible, modern and survivable sea-based strategic deterrent, sustain forward presence, distributed globally in places that count, develop the capability and capacity to win decisively, focus on critical afloat and ashore readiness to ensure our Navy is adequately funded and ready, enhance the Navy's asymmetric capabilities in the physical domains as well as in cyberspace and the electromagnetic spectrum and sustain a relevant industrial base, particularly in shipbuilding.