Global Force Manager
Adm. Jonathan Greenert meets worldwide demands
of operations with a trained and capable fleet
As commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, Adm. Jonathan
W. Greenert’s most visible responsibility is to serve as the Navy’s
global force manager, providing Navy forces to meet the commitments for combatant commanders around the world as the naval
component commander for U.S. Joint Forces Command.
He also supervises the operations of Navy forces in the Atlantic area
and serves as supporting Navy commander and joint force maritime
component commander for U.S. Northern Command for homeland
defense and in support of civil authorities. Greenert determines and
advises the chief of naval operations on current and future needs in
readiness and capabilities for the fleet.
HARRY GERWIEN
A nuclear submariner, Greenert served in four attack, research and
ballistic-missile submarines, and commanded an attack submarine, a
submarine squadron, U.S. Naval Forces Marianas and the U.S.
Seventh Fleet. These assignments and various fleet-support and
financial management positions, including deputy chief of naval operations for integration of capabilities and resources and deputy com-
mander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, prepared him to manage and lead the Navy’s fleet. Greenert discussed his wide-ranging responsibilities with Managing Editor Richard R. Burgess. Excerpts follow.
What are the top challenges you face as commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command?
GREENERT: Our most pressing challenge is to support
the governance and the institutionalization of our
individual augmentee [IA] process. IAs are those individuals we provide to the global war on terror
[GWOT], as opposed to a unit provision, who serve
worldwide and have special skills in the joint interagency area.
This challenge includes supporting the organization, training and equipping these IAs, supporting
their families, providing a predictable and consistent
accession process and integrating the IA process into
their [community career paths], as well as balancing
our IA requirements with our Navy core requirements.
A subset of that is balancing the manning and rotation-
al deployment process of our Fleet Response Plan with
our IA requirements.
Next is the execution of ship depot maintenance, particularly for aircraft carriers and attack submarines [SSNs].
We need to get the ships done on time, on schedule, on
budget, without impacting subsequent availabilities in the
shipyards and within the current and future capacity of the
shipyards. The key issue in our SSNs is just sustainability,
getting them on time. Our primary focus is our nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. If a carrier is taking more time or
effort [than planned], the SSNs tend to pay that price
because they require many of the same skill sets.
Third is assuring that our overall training continuum delivers units and people ready for tasking with the
capabilities to meet the deployment requirements to
our Navy component commanders in all theaters.
