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CNO orders far-reaching base, force reviews

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead has ordered internal reviews into the Navy’s long-term basing requirements and strategies, as well as needs for personnel, ships and aircraft, a Navy spokesman said.

The reviews, which probably will not be made public, will produce an “internal working document” that will help Roughead and other top Navy commanders plan into the coming decades, Navy spokesman Cmdr. Jeff Davis said. The findings probably will be incorporated into future quadrennial defense reviews, shipbuilding plans and budget requests, Davis said.

Roughead mentioned his review of the Navy’s basing requirements and strategy — what he called a “force rating” and Davis called a “strategic lay-down” — in response to questions from a House panel in March.

Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., asked Roughead about basing too many Navy assets in too few ports, which he said “brings back memories of Pearl Harbor.”

Roughead responded by saying that he’d ordered a review of the Navy’s strategic lay-down after taking over as CNO last fall.

“Where do we have the ships? What’s the kind of man structure that we have in place? And do we have it in the right place?” Roughead asked during the hearing. “Does it best serve our response requirement? Does it best serve the ... requirement that we may be called upon to perform globally? And are we able to support our people in a way that they’re the most confident? So I have my staff working on that.”

Davis described the four other reviews Roughead requested when he took over:

* Force structure, including the numbers of aircraft and ships.

* The life span of those aircraft and ships.

* The Navy’s personnel requirements, including end strength and skill sets.

* Infrastructure requirements, including details about the physical state of the Navy’s bases.

As for the moves in Florida, local and federal lawmakers, including Crenshaw and Republican Sen. Mel Martinez, have lobbied the Navy to homeport a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Mayport since 2007, when the base lost its previous big ship, the conventionally powered carrier John F. Kennedy. A Navy environmental impact statement released March 27 listed 12 possibilities for future basing at Mayport but made no recommendation.

But Roughead’s review won’t cover the Mayport question, which is set to be decided in January, or the details of moving the carrier George Washington to Japan, to take over for the conventionally powered carrier Kitty Hawk, scheduled for decommissioning later this year. Those processes are already in motion, Davis said, and Roughead’s review will focus on basing needs as far as several decades into the future.