The Naval Imperative.

• Author: Wicker, Roger

The global maritime system has begun to fray and tatter. American leadership wove together the threads of this fabric--international laws, accepted norms, mutual security and free trade--following World War II. Now, after a generation of unchallenged U.S. maritime preeminence, things have changed. American maritime interests have evolved beyond simply protecting freedom of navigation. Resource exploration and securing undersea "critical infrastructure" have made the maritime domain more important than ever. Threats to those interests have also evolved, and are multiplying rapidly in number and sophistication. The United States faces not one, but two emerging naval powers--Russia and China--challenging its maritime dominance.

Unfortunately, the United States has increasingly failed to uphold its maritime interests. The Navy battle fleet is the primary instrument used by the United States to secure and, if necessary, defend them. Yet the fleet's size and condition reveal serious shortcomings. On the most basic level, the fleet averaged 740 ships in the post--World War II era but currently stands at only 282 ships. Though our sailors and Marines remain second to none, the condition of the fleet has deteriorated as the need for naval power has far outstripped the supply of available ships. The results of this supply-demand mismatch are longer deployments; hundred-hour workweeks; and deferred, delayed and canceled maintenance and training. This long-term downward spiral in combat readiness has contributed to avoidable incidents such as the USS John S. McCain and USS Fitzgerald collisions that recently resulted in the deaths of seventeen sailors in the western Pacific.

American maritime interests, threats to those interests and responses to those threats have changed and created a new context in which the United States must rebuild its naval power. The White House, the Pentagon and Capitol Hill need a renewed appreciation for America's interests at sea and the seriousness of the emerging threats to them. Simply put, the United States must engage in a long-term, aggressive campaign to build a larger and more capable battle fleet in order to deter rising competitors, head off a potential arms race and prevent a destabilizing of the international environment. It is U.S. law that the Navy achieve its stated minimum force-structure requirement of 355 ships. The United States should meet this benchmark within ten years.

Maritime interests are so embedded in our nation's history that policymakers and the public often take them for granted. Even the vastness of the world's oceans has seemingly diminished, given the ease of today's ait travel and an internet that can connect far-flung places. Yet it is important to remember the significance of the oceans and inland freshwater Great Lakes for America's economic prosperity. 39 percent of Americans, nearly 125 million people, live in counties that directly touch oceanic shorelines. Three million jobs are directly tied to the oceans or Great Lakes, and those jobs contribute $352 billion to the nation's economic output. Nearly 80 percent of U.S. export trade by tonnage moves over water, and 90 percent of general cargo moves via container ships. The national maritime transportation system carried $1.5 trillion in cargo to and from American ports last year. America's allies and partners also heavily rely on seaborne transportation. About 95 percent of the globe's total commerce flows over the seas.

Protecting freedom of navigation is thus a paramount U.S. interest. This core interest--manifested in unimpeded transit in international waters and access to foreign ports for commercial trade--has endured since the republic's founding. In fact, the abridgement of this core interest served as a predicate for both the American independence movement and the subsequent first defense of the new nation during the War of 1812. The United States was, then and today, a commercial trading nation.

Although freedom of navigation remains central, our maritime interests have evolved beyond simply securing the seas for commercial transportation. The seas are also at the center of resource exploration that has expanded in scope over time.

During the colonial era and into our first century, fishing and whaling were major sources of national income. Since then, technological improvements have opened new doors, allowing the United States to access more of the resources found in the ocean's previously impenetrable depths. Today, energy and mineral resource exploration operations are conducted far off the nation's shores in exclusive economic zones, which represent 3.4 million square nautical miles of ocean space. Drilling and bottom mining rigs now routinely operate thousands of feet below the surface, taking the nation's interests outward and downward with them.

In addition to new sources of resource wealth, the bottom of the ocean has become layered with "critical...