Service, Industry Leaders Offer
Insights on Programs, Operations
The Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition again this year featured a series of five professional
development seminars, where top military, government and industry leaders addressed a wide range of
topics, including international and maritime security,
renewable energy, foreign military sales and shipbuilding April 11-13 at the Gaylord National Resort &
Convention Center, National Harbor, Md.
Presentations and briefings also were given at the
Navy League booth, as well as at the booths of Naval
Air Systems Command and Naval Sea Systems
Command, and some industry officials gave program
briefings to media covering the show. Excerpts from
Seapower’s coverage of these events follow. Visit
Seapower Expo Online at www.seapowermagazine.org
for complete coverage and photos of the event.
Service Leaders Discuss
Global Presence, Industry
Top officials from the nation’s four sea services kicked
off the professional development seminar series by
tackling the topic “Seapower: International Security
and America’s Future.”
On the panel were Maritime Administrator David T.
Matsuda; Coast Guard Vice Adm. Robert C. Parker, com-
mander, Atlantic Area, and commander, Defense Force
East; Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., assistant commandant
of the Marine Corps; and Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert,
vice chief of naval operations. All four service leaders
remarked on how truly global their engagement is and
how intertwined the services are on that global stage, and
noted the importance of having a frank, transparent dia-
logue with industry about what the requirements are and
how they can best be met.
Matsuda said the Maritime Administration’s chal-
lenge “is to maintain a commercial fleet and American
Merchant Marine so that it meets the needs of both the
U.S. military and our economy. And those needs are
continually evolving. So we need to be joined at the
hip with our Department of Defense [DoD] partners to
help them fight or prevent the next war.”
Parker said Sailors and Marines are deployed
“throughout the globe defending our freedoms, and
Administrator Matsuda’s Maritime Administration is vital
to international shipping, which transports 90 percent of
the world’s commerce. It puts food on our store shelves
LISA NIPP
Maritime Administrator David T. Matsuda speaks during
the Service Chiefs’ Panel April 11 at the 2011 Sea-Air-Space Exposition at the Gaylord National Resort &
Convention Center, National Harbor, Md. To his left are fellow panel members Vice Adm. Robert C. Parker, commander, Atlantic Area, and commander, Defense Force
East; Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., assistant commandant
of the Marine Corps; and Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, vice
chief of naval operations.
and gas in our cars, and thus the safety and security of
maritime commerce literally impacts every American.”
He noted that the Coast Guard, “in addition to
being everywhere you’d expect us to be, we’re also
everywhere the nation needs us to be, deployed around
the world, lending our unique capabilities to our DoD
and other partners, and taking steps to protect our
homeland far from our shores.”
Marines, Dunford said, “are engaged and coming from
the sea.” The Marine Corps “has not just been a second
land army, but we’ve absolutely been doing those things
from the sea that we have historically done. In fact, over
the past year, we’ve conducted about 160 exercises in 50
different countries. We’ve been decisively engaged in
every single combatant command,” he said.
The budget environment, Greenert said, reflects our
national concerns.
“It’s about debt, it’s about deficit and it’s about doubt
in the form of unemployment.” Overcoming the past
six and a half months operating under a continuing
resolution that funded the services at 2010 levels “will
be difficult,” he said.
