A rare assemblage of America’s maritime service chiefs on Thursday triggered vows to rebuild and modernize their forces to deter a host of potential foes, from crafty terrorists to rising state rivals.

Moderated by retired Navy Adm. James Stavridis, the town hall featured Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller. The event capped West 2017, the annual gathering of many of the military’s top brass at San Diego’s downtown convention center.

During the Thursday panel, all three flag officers agreed that the United States has returned to an era of great power competition, something Richardson said had disappeared with the fall of the Soviet Union more than two decades ago.

“That’s a long off-season,” said the career submariner, who pledged to get the Navy “back fit to fight.”


Neller called the moment a “back to the future” event, similar to the Cold War rivalry with the Iron Curtain states but now involving weapons designed to be deployed in space and along cyber networks. While he predicted his Marines would “quickly adapt” to the new global challenges, Neller conceded that they “have some work to do.”

Zukunft’s Coast Guard, part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security since 2004, urged the audience to consider the far-flung mission of his agency and the challenges that it faces.

He pointed to refugees fleeing northward from Central American states because of destabilization and crime triggered by the United States’ demand for narcotics, which are smuggled through their homelands. He also talked about increasing commercial and military rivalries in the polar north, where melting ice is opening new pathways for ships.

Zukunft said a lack of icebreakers handicaps American security operations in the Arctic, rendering the United States mere “bystanders.”


“Russia has 40 icebreakers. I have two,” Zukunft said. “Our one heavy icebreaker (Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star, commissioned in 1976) is a real national asset. It’s now returning from breaking 65 miles of channel over 10 feet thick. And every evening, I’m getting an update on if she’s gonna break done. Is she going to get back.”

The Coast Guard intends start buying a new line of breakers in 2020, but Zukunft groused that it takes a dozen years to deliver a ship to the fleet because the procurement process is tangled in red tape.

With the new administration of President Donald Trump pledging to broker an end to the so-called “sequestration” budget deal of 2011 that slashed military spending, the maritime leaders have scribbled spending wishlists.

Finding a replacement for the Ohio-class submarine is important, Richardson said, but so is the urgent need to fix “readiness right now.” That means more money for fuel, spare parts and weapons so sailors can train more to deter future wars. Richardson compared the promised budget boon to giving a “first bottle of water to a dehydrated athlete.”


Zukunft said the Coast Guard is already cleared to buy the entire line of 58 Sentinel-class fast response cutters, but his Coasties crewing inland river patrol boats also need bigger and more modern vessels — with the replacements retailing for about $25 million each.

Noting that Marines remain on the battlefield in Iraq and Afghanistan — a reality despite their official roles of handling the noncombat roles of training and advising Iraqi and Afghan security forces — Neller said the operational tempo during 16 years of war has worn down the career force along with the weapons systems they use. He promised to spend money to “get the bench deeper and stronger.”

Neller also staked out the Marines’ position on a free press.

In a pair of tweets sent last week — one that was later deleted — Trump called many of the leading American news outlets “fake” and claimed they were “sick” and the “enemy of the American people.”


On Wednesday at West 2017, retired Navy Adm. William McRaven, a career SEAL commando, urged everyone to challenge this sentiment because it was possibly the “greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime.”

Saying that he aligned with McRaven’s views, Neller told the audience Thursday that an “active, vibrant press that reports things” was vital to a democracy and that commanders had an obligation “as Americans” to be “open, transparent and straight up,” just as journalists share a similar burden to “report things accurately.”

“With 1 percent of the population serving in the military, why would we not want to let people know what we’re doing so that they understand that this is their military? It belongs to the American people,” said Neller, a combat veteran who served in Somalia, Panama and Iraq.


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