U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard Issue New Maritime Strategy

The U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard have today issued a new maritime strategy providing strategic guidance for their plan for facing adversaries at sea over the next decade.

The strategy, called Advantage at Sea, places particular focus on China and Russia due to their “increasing maritime aggressiveness, demonstrated intent to dominate key international waters and clear desire to remake the international order in their favor,” the Services said in a joint statement.

“Our integrated Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard must maintain clear-eyed resolve to compete with, deter, and, if necessary, defeat our adversaries while we accelerate development of a modernized, integrated all-domain naval force for the future,” wrote Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael M. Gilday, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David H. Berger, and Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl L. Schultz in the strategy’s forward. “Our actions in this decade will shape the maritime balance of power for the rest of this century.”

“China’s and Russia’s revisionist approaches in the maritime environment threaten U.S. interests, undermine alliances and partnerships, and degrade the free and open international order,” the document states. “Moreover, China’s and Russia’s aggressive naval growth and modernization are eroding U.S. military advantages.”

The strategy directs the Services to pursue “an agile and aggressive approach to force modernization and experimentation,” envisioning a future fleet that will “combine legacy assets with new, smaller ships, lighter amphibious ships, modernized aircraft, expanded logistics, resilient space capabilities, and optionally manned and unmanned platforms.”

The full Advantage at Sea strategy can be found here.