Surface Navy Association Symposium Remarks

Good afternoon, Surface Warriors.

It's powerful to stand in this room-filled with the people who generate combat credibility for our Navy every single day. From wardrooms and watchfloors to shipyards, depots, and maritime operations centers, you are the leaders who turn strategy into readiness, and readiness into deterrence and combat power.

Thank you to the Surface Navy Association for bringing us together once again. And to our Sailors, civilians, families, and industry teammates-thank you for your commitment to a mission that never turns off.

Yesterday, it was great to hear from the Secretary of the Navy. His message could not have been clearer-and we are completely aligned.
The Secretary and I are unified in a fundamental truth of history and strategy: to be a superpower, one must be a great seapower.
That belief is not rhetorical. It is the organizing principle behind how we think about deterrence, warfighting, shipbuilding, readiness, and the role of the Surface Navy in the decades ahead.
This room represents 250 years of surface warfare excellence. Generations of Sailors who have stood the watch, fought the ship, fought the enemy, and adapted faster than any adversary believed possible.
From wooden hulls and canvas sails to nuclear propulsion, integrated combat systems, and distributed fires, one truth has remained constant: Surface Warriors have never been defined by platforms.
We have always been defined by people-trusted early, empowered decisively, and expected to lead when there is no one else around to help.
That legacy matters. But I did not come here to admire our past. I came here to talk about our momentum. Because the Surface Navy is not celebrating its history-we are sharpening for the fight ahead.
And let me be absolutely clear about that fight: it will be faster, more distributed, more lethal, and far less forgiving than anything we have faced in our lifetimes. There will be no rear area. There will be no sanctuary. There will be no "time to figure it out later."
The opening minutes of the next fight will be decisive, and our obligation is to be ready on day one.

Let me start with a simple statement: the United States Navy must operate on a wartime footing.
A wartime footing means decisions are driven by combat effectiveness-not convenience, not comfort, and not process for process' sake. It means speed matters more than bureaucratic perfection. It means we accept prudent risk now so that we do not pay catastrophic risk later. And it means leaders at every level are empowered-and expected-to act with initiative, creativity, and urgency.
We do this not because we want conflict, but because deterrence only works when it is unmistakably credible. And credibility is built on readiness, lethality, and the proven ability to fight and win at sea.
In August, I laid out my priorities for the Navy: Foundry, Fleet, and Fight-with Sailors First at the heart of all three.
Sailors are our decisive advantage. They are not an accessory to combat power-they are our combat power. They are our primary weapons system. They are the heartbeat of our Navy. And they deserve a standard of service equal to the unlimited liability they accept on behalf of this nation.
That is why we moved with urgency on Sailors First initiatives.
We had another record year in recruiting. In July, we met our recruiting goal of 40,600 three months early. By the end of the fiscal year, we exceeded that goal by nearly 3,500-bringing in more than 44,000 future Sailors.
We drove down "No Sailors Live Afloat" because the dignity and quality of where our Sailors live are not luxuries-they are readiness multipliers. We reduced the number of Sailors living aboard by thousands, concentrated largely in Norfolk and San Diego, and we are still driving that number down. Submarine Sailors do not live on the submarine. Aviators do not live in the hangar. And going forward, our surface Sailors should not live on the ship unless they are deployed or in an operational duty status that demands it.
This decision was not complicated. It was about listening, readiness, and trust. When Sailors are well rested, fit, and supported, they perform better at sea. That is what Sailors First looks like in practice-identifying friction points that hurt readiness and fixing them fast.
We also rebranded Ready Relevant Learning into the Career Training Continuum-because learning in the Navy cannot be episodic. It must be continuous, individualized, and career long.
The CTC is about relentless improvement, technical competence, and tactical mastery. It delivers modernized schoolhouse training, hands-on learning, and realistic simulations-giving Sailors multiple reps and sets with the systems they will operate.
This means Sailors are no longer learning once and hoping it lasts a career. They arrive more prepared, train more realistically, and build mastery over time. That translates directly to safer operations, faster decision-making, and greater lethality when it counts.

The Foundry is the foundation of everything we do-our people, our material, and our infrastructure. It generates and sustains the Fleet.
For too long, the Foundry has been the billpayer for the rest of the Navy. That era is over.
When we under-invest in maintenance, infrastructure, and Sailors' technical skills, the bill always comes due-and it comes due at sea, in the middle of the fight, when you can least afford it. Rebuilding the Foundry is about restoring trust with the Fleet: when a ship enters maintenance, it leaves on time and ready to fight.
We embraced new ways of doing business-AI and machine learning, additive manufacturing, and advanced analytics. Over the last year, we placed nearly 120 additive manufacturing parts into development, installed 20 of those parts, and eliminated more than 1,400 cumulative days of delay. That is not a science project-that is combat credibility gained back from the jaws of inefficiency.
I also directed the stand-up of Surface Intermediate Maintenance Activities in Norfolk and San Diego-building Sailor skills and enabling more repair and refit capability forward and at sea. Self-sufficiency is a warfighting attribute. It means you can keep fighting when the logistics tail is contested.
At the same time, we continued to invest in quality-of-life infrastructure-expanding childcare capacity, improving unaccompanied housing, and addressing the places where Sailors live and work. Lethality starts at the human level.
Foundry generates the Fleet. And the Fleet is where our differentiated value becomes visible.

The Fleet, comprised of our people, platforms, and payloads, is our Nation's most decisive instrument of power-and is presented as our differentiated value to the Joint Force.
In 2025, as we marked the Navy's 250th birthday, our Sailors and Marines demonstrated that power on a global stage. From the Naval Strength Demonstration in Norfolk observed by the President, to the Amphibious Demonstration at Camp Pendleton observed by the Vice President, we executed complex operations under tight timelines-even in the midst of a government shutdown. That is what a ready Navy looks like.
We delivered more platforms to the Fleet-getting additional capability into the hands of operational commanders. It is not happening at the pace any of us are satisfied with, and I am pressing hard with the Secretary to accelerate deliveries in 2026 and beyond. I want more hulls in the water, and I want them there faster.
From a readiness standpoint, we continue to drive toward 80 percent Combat Surge Ready and improved Global Maritime Readiness. Large Scale Exercise 2025 marked the first operational employment of the Global Maritime Response Plan-spanning 22 time zones, six combatant commands, and every maritime operations center. The lessons we learned are already being folded back into execution.
Today, our Battle Force stands at roughly 290 ships, with about 100 deployed worldwide on any given day. They support real-world operations and strengthen partnerships through exercises like UNITAS, which brought together nearly 8,000 personnel from 25 nations. In the Indo-Pacific, our forces integrate, train, and operate across the South China Sea-deterring an increasingly aggressive China and assuring our allies that the United States will be there.
Which brings me to the Fight-because, at the end of the day, that is why we exist.

For me, how we fight comes down to three things: people, decisions, and effects.
In response to Presidential direction to defend the homeland, naval forces surged to NORTHCOM and SOUTHCOM in Operation Southern Spear-disrupting illicit trafficking and securing our maritime approaches. Carrier Strike Groups and Amphibious Ready Groups are operating forward right now, postured to provide options to our nation's leaders.
In the Middle East, our forces protected global shipping, defended our allies, and delivered decisive combat power. Our carrier strike groups expended millions of pounds of ordnance against Houthi targets while successfully defending against dozens of attacks. A Navy SSGN recently participated in a long-range strike operation that once again demonstrated the unmatched reach, surprise, and lethality of naval power.
And in Venezuela, Sailors with Marines operating from the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, as well as from the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group-played a central role in Operation Absolute Resolve, showcasing our Navy's persistent combat power, operational excellence, and seamless integration with the joint force.
These operations reinforce a simple fact: no other navy in the world can do what the United States Navy does-every day, across the globe, under sustained pressure.
But the operational pace is demanding, and it is not slowing down. That reality drives our imperative to be ready on day one, while building the force required for tomorrow's fight.

Nothing we do is accidental. Every ship, every aircraft, every missile, every round out of a five-inch gun is the result of years of training and decades of engineering and investment. The primary job of the Chief of Naval Operations is to organize, train, and equip a Navy that is fit for the needs of today and tomorrow's Fleet Commanders.
That means the CNO needs a clear vision of what the Navy is designed for, how it deters conflict, and how it fights as a Fleet when called to arms.
The Navy Warfighting Concept gives that vision purpose. It tells commanders how we intend to fight, where we will accept risk, and where we will not. It is not meant to sit on a shelf; it is meant to be executed by Fleets, squadrons, and ships at sea. It should live rent-free in the minds of Commanders at every level.
The central idea is Expanded Maritime Maneuver-using the global maritime maneuver space, across domains and time, to gain and exploit sea control and impose sea denial. It leverages asymmetric options and non-traditional attack vectors to impose costs, deny objectives, and force adversaries onto the back foot.
Practically, that means four things for the Fleet:
Global maritime unity of effort. The next fight will not be neatly divided by combatant command boundaries. Naval forces must synchronize effects across a global maritime battlespace-integrating actions across theaters to present a unified problem to the adversary.
Seizing and maintaining the initiative. We are not waiting to absorb the first blow. We induce missteps, force reactions, and keep pressure on across the spectrum of competition, crisis, and conflict.
Asymmetric maritime operations. We generate disproportionate effects by exploiting vulnerabilities-through deception, distribution, clever basing, and operational creativity-not simply by matching capability for capability.
Prevailing in protracted conflict. This concept assumes endurance matters. Fleet persistence, sustainment, and the ability to remain combat effective over time are decisive advantages-not afterthoughts.
That is how we fight as a Fleet.
But on any given day, in every domain around the world, our naval forces are also engaged in something else: deterrence.

Although warfighting is what we are designed to do, it accounts for only a fraction of our daily operations. I would argue that deterrence-shaping adversary behavior short of armed conflict-accounts for nearly 90 percent of what we do.
We have a Navy Warfighting Concept that defines how we fight. What we also need is a Navy Deterrence Concept that defines how we deter.
Of all the white binders in your workspaces, I would wager there is not one that gives you a clear, formalized approach to what deterrence at sea really means and more important - how to achieve it through campaigning, posture, and investments. The Navy Deterrence Concept is how we take that task on.
It will formalize a deterrence kill chain and codify it into doctrine. It will tell us who we are deterring, what we are preventing them from doing, and how we create space to shape adversary behavior long before conflict begins. It will connect posture, signaling, maneuver, and integration across domains into a coherent, repeatable approach.
We still have work to do, and my staff is ironing out the details-but you can expect to see a new Navy Deterrence Concept hit the streets soon. And when it does, it will sit alongside the Navy Warfighting Concept as a paired set: one for how we fight, one for how we deter.
Both are essential. Both drive how we design, posture, and employ the Fleet. And both underpin the next idea I want to discuss: our Hedge Strategy.

Each of these concepts becomes a critical enabler for what will soon become our Navy's Hedge Strategy.
In peacetime, our forward presence deters adversaries, assures allies, and guarantees the free flow of global commerce.
In crisis, that same presence protects sea lines of communication, blunts adversary initiatives, and creates diplomatic and economic leverage.
And in conflict, the Fleet delivers immediate combat power-maneuvering, striking, and sustaining operations at sea to seize the initiative and impose dilemmas the adversary cannot resolve.
That is the foundation of the Hedge Strategy. I will outline this in more detail when I formally release the U.S. Navy Fighting Instructions. That document will be my strategy for the Navy going forward, and it will explain how I view the Navy as the Joint Force hedge for achieving our vital national interests.
Hedge is how we assure and deliver our Navy's differentiated value-the value proposition for why our Navy matters-to the Nation and the Joint Force. It will guide Navy investments, posture, and operations for years to come.
The Hedge Strategy accepts fiscal, industrial, and operational realities-and still demands a Navy that is lethal, agile, responsive, and flexible. It balances cost-effective, scalable, risk-worthy mass with the most advanced multi-mission platforms we can build and sustain.
At its core, our Navy is already a collection of hedges. Naval Special Warfare is our hedge against low-intensity and irregular warfare. Our ballistic-missile submarines and E-6B Mercuries are our hedge against nuclear conflict and strategic attack. And when crisis erupts or conflict breaks out, the Navy is the Joint Force's ultimate hedge-able to move fast, stay forward, and deliver sovereign options from the sea.
What Hedge avoids is a brittle, single-purpose force that is either over-built for the high-end fight and under-used day-to-day or optimized for low end crisis and overmatched when it counts. Building a Fleet to cover every specific scenario is not only cost- and risk-prohibitive-it is a disservice to the taxpayer and less effective opetionally.
Hedge is not a point solution to a single crisis. It is a prescriptive effort to buy, field, and posture ready capabilities that can be used across the spectrum of conflict.

As you heard from the Secretary, we are working to deliver the Golden Fleet-the Fleet we build today that will serve our Nation well into the future.
The character of war in the 21st century is different and rapidly changing. This demands a fundamentally different force. The Golden Fleet initiative marks a decisive shift in how we build, equip, and sustain our Fleet to win across the spectrum of conflict.
For too long, we have relied on procuring a small number of exquisite assets and expecting them to do everything. That approach must evolve.
The Golden Fleet will make critical industrial base investments and deliver the largest Fleet by tonnage in U.S. history-eclipsing even the Fleets of World War II. This expansion will dramatically increase lethality by integrating manned and unmanned systems, exquisite and proliferated assets, and redefining how they are employed across the Navy and Marine Corps.
The platform mix will balance capabilities across high and low, manned and unmanned, enabling modular, adaptive, and resilient force packages that can respond to multiple threats simultaneously. This is exactly aligned with the Hedge Strategy.
We are not replacing the current Navy with the Golden Fleet. The Golden Fleet is an "and" initiative, not an "or" wish list. Throughout the fall, the Secretary and I worked with the Administration to develop new platforms with modern, threat informed concepts of operations that will complement our current Fleet and make it far more lethal going forward.
You have seen these initiatives rolled out: from the new battleship to the small surface combatant or frigate, to the new medium landing ship. These platforms will join our aircraft carriers, destroyers, submarines, and other amphibious ships.
The battleship will anchor maritime fires and sea control in the most contested environments-massing durable combat power and absorbing punishment an adversary cannot match. The frigate will give us agile, distributable, lethal surface combatants in volume-hunting, screening, escorting, and surging in ways that change the geometry of the fight.
Together, they expand maneuver space, complicate adversary targeting, and strengthen deterrence by making our lethality visible, credible, and undeniable.
The Golden Fleet will give our Combatant Commanders and our President what they need for the fight of the future. It will also give our Sailors the warfighting tools they deserve for the fights they may have to wage.
However, none of this happens without our industry partners. We need industry aligned to outcomes-not just contracts. We need speed, reliability, and transparency. And we need a shared understanding that readiness delayed is deterrence denied.
Industry is not a vendor. You are warfighting partners. Your performance shows up forward-in steel, in software, in combat systems, and in the hands of our Sailors when it matters most.

As we mark 250 years of Surface Warfare, we do so with humility-and with resolve.
We inherit a legacy built by Sailors who fought through uncertainty, adapted under fire, and never lost sight of the mission. Our obligation is not to preserve tradition for tradition's sake. Our obligation is to leave the Surface Navy more lethal, more ready, and more credible than we found it.
To our Sailors-thank you for choosing the hard path and standing the watch. To our veterans and retirees-thank you for the foundation you built. To our families-thank you for your sacrifice and strength. To our industry teammates-thank you for standing with us as partners in sustaining our Navy of today and building the Navy of tomorrow.
The Surface Navy is ready.
We will stay ready-because the Nation expects it, our Sailors deserve it, and the fight-if it comes-will demand it.
Thank you.