Maritime (Formerly Shipbuilding, Undersea Domain) –
All four pillars of the U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS) - protecting the homeland, promoting American prosperity, preserving peace through strength, and advancing American influence in the world – begin at sea. Economic prosperity depends on the freedom of navigation secured by the U.S. Navy. The resources needed to fulfill the demands of the NSS are increasing as great power competition with China and Russia escalates. Anticipated downward pressure on the U.S. defense budget will compel the U.S. to carefully invest its economic and diplomatic resources to maintain the continued strategic advantage in critical areas of the undersea domain.
Much of the world’s commerce, food production, and communications depend on the ocean environment. More than ninety-nine percent of international communications travel via undersea fiber optic cables. Over ninety percent of world trade relies on maritime transport, and over half the world’s oil supply transits by sea. Ninety percent of crude oil volume flows through a single chokepoint: the Straits of Malacca. Consequently, China, which depends on imports for 70 percent of its oil supply, has a strong incentive to control the South China Sea, through which 15 billion barrels pass per day.
The desire for regional influence has pushed China’s fleet to over 400 ships7 to match the U.S. power projection. The U.S. Navy’s modus operandi – maritime superiority operating across the globe from the littorals to the high seas – remained unchallenged for decades. The primary missions of sea control, power projection, strategic deterrence, strategic sealift, and forward presence combined to form the pillars of international peace and economic stability. That peace drove worldwide prosperity and growth. Challenges to the status quo arising from a resurgent Russia and growing China - formidable countries ruled by autocratic governments - seek to disrupt the current global hierarchy. Although the capability gap between near peers has narrowed in several naval warfare domains, the U.S. Navy retains a paramount strategic military advantage in the undersea. Maintaining undersea dominance preserves the enduring maritime missions of the U.S. Navy as its surface fleet is particularly vulnerable. Its preservation necessitates renewed commitment from all stakeholders. To focus resources in an era of
great power competition, the U.S. must invest in a portfolio of undersea recommendations that considers full cost-spectrum capabilities, protects critical infrastructure, enables new technological gains, and postures industry to maintain an asymmetric advantage.
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