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‘State of the Surface Force’ address focuses on vision for the future

Posted at 10:36 AM, Jan 16, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-16 18:24:02-05

ARLINGTON, Va. - The 2019 Surface Navy Association National Symposium is underway this week in Arlington.

It brings together leaders from the Navy, government and private industry to talk about issues critical to the Navy's surface community.

This year's theme is "Ready, Agile, Focused: Own the Fight!"

Vice Admiral Rich Brown, Commander of Naval Surface Forces, kicked off the symposium Tuesday with his "State of the Surface Force" address.

“The urgent demands of a renewed Great Power Competition require us to drive toward a culture of excellence — a culture that recognizes that standards are the baseline; a culture of rapid innovation, of creativity across all ranks, and of outcomes that favor our strategic needs,” he said. “We must instill toughness and trust in our Sailors as the foundation for this culture of excellence.”

Vice Admiral Brown used the address to urge the fleet to turn readiness into lethality.

Related: Testimony: Navy faces manpower and readiness challenges in the years ahead

“2018 was about being the best!” he said. “It was a year of building readiness, but we don’t build readiness for ‘readiness’ sake. We must turn that readiness into lethality. And we do that through an unrelenting pursuit of excellence over compliance.”

You can follow live coverage of the Symposium here.