On 18 September the US Navy’s 33rd CNO, Admiral Lisa Franchetti released the Chief of Naval Operations Navigation Plan for America’s Warfighting Navy 2024.
Her foreword follows:
In January 2024, I released America’s Warfighting Navy to convey my unifying vision for our service: who we are, what we do, and where we are going. This Navigation Plan is my strategic guidance to the Navy, building on that vision and picking up where the 2022 Navigation Plan left off.
As any navigator knows, to get where we want to go, we must first understand where we are. At sea, that starts with taking a fix. There are many ways to establish your position on the open ocean. Mariners of the old world used dead reckoning, the sun, and the stars. Today, technology has allowed us to use space-based capabilities to achieve pinpoint accuracy anywhere on the globe. But no matter how you do it, your first step in navigating is learning your true position.
In much the same way, I have spent my first year as the 33rd Chief of Naval Operations taking fixes across the Navy. The last Navigation Plan outlined 18 critical lines of effort to point us towards warfighting advantage. After visiting every fleet, I am filled with confidence—we have made significant progress since the last plan we filed. I could not be more proud of the hard work done by our team, our active and reserve Navy Sailors and our civilians, to give us that advantage. But as with any long journey, we must also be prepared to adjust course and speed. In some cases, we are behind our projections. In others, the world has forced us to reevaluate our chosen path.
The initiatives outlined in prior guidance must continue with purpose and urgency. Based on my fix, however, I can also see seven areas where we need to accelerate. Those areas, what I call my “Project 33” targets, are where I will invest my time and resources to put my thumb on the scale. These targets focus on my North Star of raising readiness across the force by 2027 to be ready for crisis or conflict. But in a broader sense, my targets are really waypoints on a journey that will continue long after my time at the helm. In that spirit, we must think, act, and operate differently today so the leaders of tomorrow have the players, the concepts, and the capabilities they need to fight and win.
Executing the Navigation Plan. This Navigation Plan drives toward two strategic ends: readiness for the possibility of war with the People’s Republic of China by 2027 and enhancing the Navy’s long-term advantage. We will work towards these ends through two mutually reinforcing ways: implementing Project 33 and expanding the Navy’s contribution to the Joint warfighting ecosystem.
Project 33 is how we will get more ready players on the field by 2027. Project 33 sets my targets for pushing hard to make strategically meaningful gains in the fastest possible time with the resources we influence. The seven Project 33 targets are:
- Ready the force by eliminating ship, submarine, and aircraft maintenance delay.
- Scale robotic and autonomous systems to integrate more platforms at speed.
- Create the command centres our fleets need to win on a distributed battlefield.
- Recruit and retain the force we need to get more players on the field.
- Deliver a quality of service commensurate with the sacrifices of our Sailors.
- Train for combat as we plan to fight, in the real world and virtually.
- Restore the critical infrastructure that sustains and projects the fight from shore
Project 33 sets new targets but we do not need new levers to reach them. This is core to my guidance. We will deliver results using the tools and resources we have to gain ground without losing speed.
We will expand the Navy’s contribution to the Joint warfighting ecosystem. An ecosystem is a layered network of interconnected systems with shared dependencies. Those who cooperate in the ecosystem create compounding, outsized effects over those who do not. The warfighting ecosystem operates much the same – a system in which the layered capabilities of each of our military Services enable and are enabled by each other – and no one has more experience in a Joint warfighting ecosystem than the US Joint Force. Because of this ecosystem, our carrier air wings can strike targets thanks to cyber and space effects delivered by Air Force and Space Force capabilities. Our destroyers can shoot missiles against ships detected and tracked by Marine Corps, Army, Special Operations Forces, or Allied sensors. In this ecosystem, Information Warfare delivers effects on par with those of aircraft, ships, and submarines. Our physical maneuver on the battlefield relies on our ability to blind, deceive, distract, and disorient the adversary, as well as our ability to counter the adversary’s attempts to do the same to us. I will continue the work already underway to expand the Navy’s contribution to this ecosystem, including better aligning the work of the Navy staff to the needs of our warfighters and our warfighting fleets.
Modelling on the Past
‘Few of my predecessors have assumed office without first observing that the Navy was facing heavy seas and our country difficult times. Today is no exception. Dynamic changes are at work in our nation and abroad – changes that serve only to emphasize the need for a determined military posture built upon a solid foundation of powerful Naval Forces.’
Those were the words of Admiral Elmo Zumwalt upon assuming the post of CNO in July 1970. They still resonate. As we developed this guidance, I thought often about leaders like Zumwalt who navigated the Navy through earlier shoals. We must now marshal the same strategic discipline, courage, and unity that our predecessors modelled—and I am confident we will prevail. Agility comes from good thinking done in advance and there is no time to waste. See yourself in this journey, whether leading from the deck-plate or Chief’s mess, in the wardroom, ready room, or boardroom, or on Capitol Hill, Wall Street, or Main Street. We need every person on this team to engage and row together in the same direction, hard and at pace. Let’s stop talking and get stuff done.
ALL AHEAD FLANK!”
The 30 page Chief of Naval Operations Navigation Plan for America’s Warfighting Navy 2024 can be downloaded at: https://www.navy.mil/Portals/1/CNO/NAVPLAN2024/Files/CNO_NAVPLAN_2024_50Sat.pdf?ver=wcI10aP6LiEoojJZz-2qXA%3d%3d
