Brent is a great honor and published the work of the day the chief of Naval Operations come as a very interesting period in our nations history we are facing unprecedented risks right now with an ongoing war in ukraine to set the context for a threat in a decade that could be very perilous. Especially when you look at what is happening the last few weeks around taiwan in the western pacific china. This will be a very contested decade. Navy, has been for generations the preeminent deterrence wars of the United States force 79 states and has made of the night states maintaining peace for generations. This will be for the navigation plan, a term owners are from mariners are familiar with. In this case course of the future of the navy as we move forward in the decade. We will focus in on that, what the navy needs and what the nation will have to supply in order to get the fleet the country needs in this very contested decade. I invite chief of Naval Operations admiral Michael Gilday to join me on the stage. [applause] brent now that i am in my seat i want to give the rules of the road for tonight before i hand the stage over to the admiral for a few prepared comments on a 2022 navigation plan. Ill be moderating throughout the team evening. The reason that this event is even possible is because of folks like you, media, academia, think tank world, active duty, retired members as world as well and all those online as well. You will have a chance ask questions, you have a chance to think about those. Please keep it short. Michael i appreciate the opportunity to talk about where we are headed as a navy. I think it is best to open up what is really influencing our decisions on the path we are taking. The path we are navigating. In a word it is china. If you take a look over the past couple of decades you see a force that has tripled in size. Significant investments in their Nuclear Capability both in terms of their capabilities, but also the breath of those capabilities. You see an increase in their ability to leverage the space domain. There satellite constellations that allow them to find us and potentially target us. We see a heavy investment in weapons with longrange and we also see a big investment in sensing systems, netted sensing systems. Terrestrial and maritime. They are a significant adversary. As the out inches well aware there behavior in the western pacific has been fairly aggressive. I think the reaction from their neighbors on a daily basis is testimony to that assertion. That led the United States navy to take a look at ourselves in terms of, how would we face this adversary, not only to deter them. But if we potentially had to face in combat. We decided we have to pay somebody different way than the means we have been operating the past 25 to 30 years. Anymore distributed manner. Spreading out force in mass effects across all domains from the seabed to space. That would be leveraging the United States marine corps from the island chain to the pacific. That led us to think about what kind of fleet we need to actually deliver those kinds of in a distributed and are. Manner. The fleet that we have today we have too much capability that is focused on to view platforms few platforms. To give us a distributed force we looked at what types of attributes those force that force would need to be effective in combat. Without about the fact, i talked about a need to be a distributed fleet. It needs to combat and adversary like china across multiple factors in all domains simultaneously. Need to have the attribute of distance. Weapons with range and speed that could hold and adversary at bay. We have to have sound defensive systems forceful four fleet survivability. Investments in areas like hypersonics, Laser Technology, highpowered michael wave defenses. We had microwave defenses. We have to think about deception, stealth, how we apply those technologies. We had to think about decision advantage. We have a project ongoing that we think will put us in a position to actually move information to the tactical edge faster than we have before to put our commanders and tactical actions officers in position to deliver effects and make decisions faster than their opponent. That influence in the us in thinking about the force of the future. It will take 20 budget cycles to get a hybrid fleet of 335 manned and 150 unmanned. Every single study we have seen, washington and beyond, weather has been done inside the pentagon whereby think tanks like this concluded that we need a navy of at least 335 manned vessels and 150 unmanned. That is not a perpetual and stage. We continual end stage. We continue to learn through exercises, wargames, we will be at a war college next week for today wargames with Senior Leaders that will influence how those numbers change. Probably more portly how the composition and exit the navy changes with capabilities we need for the future. With that as a table setter, i open it up to your questions. Brent thank you very much, admiral. I have a question from the audience and i have one as a moderator discretion that it will hold for right now. I will go to the audience. First. [indiscernible] michael so we are expanding those capabilities. What we private industry, what we owe industry the ship repair business is a stable and predictable vision of what kind of fuel eat fleet we will have in the future. We are decommissioning ships of a rate that is higher than we would like. That adds a degree of instability in their ability to predict what size workforce they need. What type of infrastructure we need that our shipyards. At our shipyards. If i give them credit for making decisions based on the signals that we are giving them. Where i would like to get with the surface ship older or example to give stability in example of fleet size. I use the plan that we have as an exemplar. For about 20 yards years we are in a case to deliver to attack boats and one ballistic submarine a year. That is a high predict abilities between industry that delivers those vessels. On the point of the repair sizes gives us a higher degree of fidelity of what repair requirements will need during that period. On the server side i would like to get to that same place with our production side with our resupply ships so we could then have numbers that are fairly stable and predictable and give the repair yards a target to shoot at with a high degree of confidence. Brent before we go to the next question i would like to take one from online. While they get that i do have one question, i will take moderators prerogative. The navigation plan you mentioned 350 manned ships, 150 unmanned, 3000 aircraft arriving somewhere the 20 40s. The dangers right now, we have had several people come and speak at heritage, they all say china is making preparations for a showdown or at least a contest this decade. How are you preparing or how is the fleet postured to address the more immediate dangers i have . At hand . Michael our priority seven readiness, arbor day station has been readiness, modernization, capacity. We need a lethal capable navy more than we need a bigger navy that is less lethal less capable less ready. What is that boil down to . You have to have ships out there today on point deployed into the western pacific, arabian gulf, eastern mediterranean, high north that are properly manned and that those crews are properly trained for combat. That is Mission Number one. The second is that they have adequate supply parts. When things write down they can pair them themselves break down they can repair them themselves or turn into port and repair them quickly. Thats be sustained in that capability has to exist today. There magazine has to be filled with ammunition. We cannot be a hollow force. Lastly, maintenance. It has been an imperative for us to drive down the leg days on private shipyards 20. We are not to zero. We are not satisfied were we are now, industry is not working closely with us to get to that point. To answer your point we have to be ready to fight tonight. We have to be ready for that 2027 scenario that the previous indo paycom commander laid out a couple of years ago. We have to be ready to fight left without mark. At the same time we had to be modernizing the fleet. 60 to 70 of the navy we have today will have a decade from now. We do not ignore modernization. Capacity is last, the force we have cannot. Be cannot be a hollow force. We need a bigger navy, as i mentioned a few moments ago every study that has been done says we need at least 355 and ships, no question we need a bigger navy. As i said in my navigation plan, we cannot, simultaneously modernize the fleet we have and grow to a larger fleet without 3 to 5 growth above inflation. That means at least another 9 billion, 10 billion in our budget each year. Short of that i will maintain readiness as our number one priority. We need a ready navy to respond whatever comes up. Brent thank you, i might come around to the key regions later. It is a region of question. How is our allies contribution in the South Pacific and has that tie in the future naval plan and how do you think of the contribution of the allies in that region . Michael when people ask me about asymmetric advantages of versing a talk about is sailors. These the first thing i thought about is sailors. The second, the number of allies and partners we have knitted together in the pacific as a likeminded source. Last week i was in the United Kingdom for three days and i spent time in spain as well. We spent signed an agreement a year ago with australia and u. K. That is a strategic stroke of brilliance for all three countries. That puts all three countries working in lockstep with advanced capability to put us in a position where we are not just interoperable. We are interchangeable. I will give you an example of another ally, the french. We did not have a carrier in the middle east. The french carrier filled in for the u. S. Carrier under the tactical control of the fifth fleet commander in bahrain. Think about of the power of that we can have another ally or partner fill in for you when you have other priorities in the western pacific, mediterranean, red sea. We have other allies and partners that are significant as well the specific. The japanese, south koreans, i mentioned the australians. New zealand, of course, singapore is key for. Us in terms of access. There are a number of. Allies and partners that we work with on a daily basis. India, ive spent more time on a trip to india than i have in any other country. I consider them to be a Strategic Partner for us in the future. The indian ocean battle space is becoming increasingly important to us and quite friendly the fact that india and china currently have a bit of a skirmish along their border i think it is strategically importance with respect to india that they now force china to not only look east to the South China Sea and the taiwan straight. They know how to be looking over their shoulder at india. India is a key partner for us and absolutely essential going forward. I would tell you, the um, framework that we have with the u. S. Fifth fleet in bahrain. We have a coalition of 34 navies that we operate on a daytoday basis basis has been powerful. We finished a exercise in the pacific, the third fleet commander said the contract we had in the middle east it would not be bad if we could import that to the western pacific. He is absolutely right. I remain bullish on allies and partners keeping those relationships strong and leveraging them daytoday. I will finish up saying somebody once told me, mark armies meeting conflict and navies meet daytoday. We do not just operate in the military length. The United States military has an effect an economic and double medic lanes as well. Historically has been important for the country as well. Brent if you havent alreadys question if you have an audience question lees raise your hand away for the macron. In the navigation plan you mentioned the importance of key regions. What is your number one, as you look across the world, where the threats and opportunities are greatest and made your second. Your top two key regions. You also mentioned a focused on the numbered fleets, ensuring that they are postured and equipped appropriately. We look at that and look at these key regions is there a mismatch for how the fleets are structured today and with the evolving global threat from china that you might be thinking there could be some modification the way the fleets are being distributed . Admiral broadway, when he was the secretary of the navy mentioned first flight. Michael i will talk about reasons in just a second. My two highest priorities would be the pacific and the atlantic. The indian ocean is a close third. In terms of opportunities in the future we absently have look at the arctic. As the icecap continues to receipt, think about reseed, think about trade routes between europe and asia fundamentally changing. I made a trip to iceland, they are member of the nato alliance, they do not have a military they have a coast guard. They have a key position that week typically thick about in a transatlantic passion. Think about it in a transatlantic passion. Think about it in a transpolar fashion. With i see opportunities in the high north we need to operate with allies and partners. Iceland is an example, they have been gracious to allow us to do rotational performance of our maritime aircraft up there. We continue those rotational deployments. With respect to the size and scope of the battle space and do we have adequate coverage with the fleet headquarters right now i think it is worthy of debate. I think we need to continue to have that debate. I would tell you i would prefer to focus any money that i have on capabilities and more ships rather than more headquarters. What i have done, what we have done come what our navy has done as an example of the newly formed u. S. 2nd street second fleet out of norfolk we have used as a expeditionary. A light agile headquarters that is operated out of iceland. They have traveled out of norfolk to operate on a command control ship in the mediterranean and the high north in norway. They have gone down to North Carolina and operated with the marine corps. My point there, we have enough fleet headquarters to go around . One could argue that we do not. One of the great things that the navy brings to bear, our headquarters included is glover global maneuverability. Brent we have a question over here. Prior to the, until the ukraine war, the publications i was reading was focused on russia as the threat in areas as the hypersonic missiles. You have not mentioned them at all within your scheme of planning. Were they over in these capabilities . Or are they just not. Michael thank you. There is significant concern. Russia and china are both developing those capabilities and will be fielding those capabilities charlie. When shortly. When i mentioned defense of the fleet, that is why our investments in Laser Technology to defend against weapons like hypersonics as well as highpowered microwave continue to be high on our priority for research and develop it. We have deployed Laser Weapons on board some of our navy ships. They are on track to deliver that give ability across more ships in this decade. From a defensive nature, a defensive standpoint we are focused on a threat, we are not ignoring it. In terms of offense of capability the navy and army are working very closely on the same hypersonic missile. The army will deliver the capability, they will yield it next year in 2023 in a mobile fashion. The navy will put you on our stealthy destroyers beginning 2025. In 2028 we will have it on our front line virginia class submarines. Theyre the best, legal, most stealthy submarines in the world. I hope that answers your questions. Brent from the online audience, fred, back to you. Sir there had been a few questions about recruitment and retention. How the recruitment scenario nowadays has been very challenging. What are the challenging problems you are seeing with agreement and the challenges with retention . They specifically mention high skilled officers. Michael let me talk probably about recruiting. We are definitely focused on retention. We retained that the navy as a family and we serve as a family. Under this sector of the navy we are increasing our funding for family focused childcare centers. Mental health capacity. Education would be some of those examples. In terms of recruiting, during covid we took a step fairly early in 2020 and went completely virtual in our recruiting efforts. You do not see any navy commercials on tv anymore. That is not worthy demographic is we try to recruit to the navy. We have gone to every social media platform we have been allowed to go on in terms of getting our message out. We have also done it through the eyes of sailors. If you see our stuff online, is not slick, media stuff that we are pushing out. It is United States navy through the lens of a sailor. That is what is attractive young people. It is authentic and incredible. We are trying to tell a story out there of excitement, opportunity, of operating in areas of cyber Quantum Community computing. Ai, robotics, the chance to gain a skill set, a 21st century skill set. The education opportunities. I would say the key, i was aboard two navy ships last week. When asked sailors why he joined the navy the key reason continues to be to serve my country. You can never downplay the patriotism element is the most important. It is the most important aspect, i think, in our recruiting message. When we try tell the story of the navy through the eyes of navy sailors, that really rings through. I think it sends a message that what they are doing is important. They are important of a part of a important worldclass elite team. One of the other things we have done is leveraged, kind of popular doityourself venues online. Venues like youtube. We will take a Navy Musician and he will be in a drum contest with a famous band drummer andy in a famous band. We will take a Navy Construction force and have them with an engineer talking about what they do for a living in the western Pacific Building of a structure on remote islands. We try to make it real authentic, keep it real. That has been successful. The navy has been eating recruiting goals this year meeting recruiting goals this year. We know we are in a pinch we are not resting on our laurels. We continue look for ways to get our message out in the eyes of sailors. Brent a question f