We are also refining our capabilities that enable access to areas that may be denied to conventional forces. Modernizing our maritime mobility platforms is one such investment. In fact, our teaming with maritime industries has never been stronger. We have introduced three high-performance surface combatant craft into our fleet to serve across the spectrum of maritime operations. They include the Combatant Craft Assault, which replaced the NSW 11-meter rigid-hulled inflatable boat, the Combatant Craft Medium, which replaced the Mark V Special Operations Craft, and the new Combatant Craft Heavy.

With a global presence operating in more than 35 countries on any given day, we provide significant and effective impacts.

SOF undersea mobility provides a uniquely capable, clandestine means to access peer/near-peer locations. To that end, we are putting two new multi-mission sub-surface combatant craft into operations. And I am especially excited about the modernization of one of our dry deck shelters. We’re extending its length and remotely controlling its hatches so that we can reduce risk to our divers.

My fundamental challenge is to man, train, and equip the force to be better positioned to support our nation’s defense needs while supporting the theaters’ operational requirements. Our efforts in innovation, force optimization, interoperability with the Navy along with initiatives supporting the long-term health of our people are game-changing priorities that will help drive us to become the force our nation needs in the future.

How does/should NSW prepare for a reemergence of interstate strategic competition?

The challenges facing U.S. forces today are numerous, and made more difficult by adversaries who have continuously been investing in their own militaries’ capabilities and their defense against U.S. capabilities. Additionally, these interstate competitors today have more opportunity to invest in, and exploit, accelerating technologies at a pace matched with global industry that is no longer separated by America’s dominance in the technology sector. We will continue to hunt terrorists, disrupt networks, and face violent extremist organizations, while the battlefield expands and becomes more complex and chaotic. Today, our most pressing security concerns involve the aggressive, coercive, and disruptive actions of near-peer competitors and rogue regimes. This changing character of warfare — exerting power by fighting below the level of armed conflict — favors our adversaries to the point that they are gaining advantages that threaten America’s national security.

My fundamental challenge is to man, train, and equip the force to be better positioned to support our nation’s defense needs while supporting the theaters’ operational requirements.

The NDS addresses these challenges head on, making it clear that we will continue to face the threats of the last decade while developing counter-strategies for new or reemerging adversaries. The national guidance reprioritizing strategic adversaries truly allows us to break our existing paradigms and reinvigorate our innovation efforts well beyond just technology. We are relooking at all our capabilities, our structure, and our processes to achieve the goals set forth in the NDS and to ensure we can maintain our capability overmatch, avoid operational and technological surprise, and provide our nation with unique capabilities to its hardest security problems in new and future operating environments.

Additionally, while NSW offers forward commanders a variety of options to employ against near-peer competitors, these options must be part of a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach to the problem. Military actions need to be integrated into a joint, multi-lateral interagency campaign to effectively challenge our adversaries and any illegitimate expansion they may attempt to execute.

In the past, you have mentioned the integration of new technologies into NSW. How do you view the contributions of AI, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR)? What about unmanned/robotic technologies?

Great question. My first comment is to caution that innovation is not only about technology, but also about the disciplined process clarifying the problem statement, and then, through creative thought, identifying effective solutions or pathways to solutions to those redefined problems. In some cases, it is about the creative use of technologies in adaptive manners and our ability to effectively ideate, explore, experiment, and then rapidly assimilate the technology for our advantage. Additionally, the accelerating pace of global commercial development of technologies not only makes them available to us for our use, but also to our adversaries. At the headquarters, we are focused on our ability to rapidly understand the accelerating technology landscape and ideate on operational concepts for overmatch and vulnerabilities.