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Q & A ADM. JONATHAN W. GREENERT, USN
GREENERT [CONTINUED FROM PAGE 57]
So we are looking at that, for hardship duty due to tempo or additional time away. We think they ought to be compensated.
So your sea pay reform will address both? Or are you going with higher sea pay now and studying another payment for high tempo?
The sea pay increase took effect May 15. For the second, we’ve got to adjust accounting rules. I’m shooting for the end of the fiscal year [Sept. 30] to have it in place. But what’s the trigger [in total deployment days] that would make this arduous duty due to tempo? I would like to get that trigger established sooner.
Your greatest concern, you have said, is maintaining the Navy’s strategic nuclear force.
That is my No. 1 priority because it’s about homeland defense. We provide 70 percent of the survivable, reliable nuclear option.
And yet for the Ohio submarine replacement program, the Navy is asking for special budget help because it’s going to be so expensive it will need to be funded outside your normal procurement process. Is that correct?
Yes. Ohio replacement is more than [new submarines]. It’s also the command-and-control system, the missiles, and the people. All must meet the high standards required to be survivable, reliable, and sustainable. Also, we have to have an Ohio replacement under construction by 2021 and be able to go on patrol by 2031 because of the momentum of submarine retirements. The first Ohio replacement in 2021 will cost on the order of $9.5 billion. That’s not in our budget. The second one, about three years later, will cost $7 billion to $7.5 billion and then level off at $5.5 billion to $6 billion in today’s dollars. Considering inflation, it will be more.
Our shipbuilding budget today is $13 billion to $14 billion. You can inflate it out to $16 billion. But that $9 billion [for Ohio replacement] is not found in that future. I’m making that known by saying, “We have a problem, folks.” If we take it out of our shipbuilding account, it will clobber it.
How did we get to a point of having a problem this large given all your other budget issues? Does the mind-set of Congress with regard to defense spending have to change to address the Navy’s singular needs?
It isn’t as if they didn’t know or ask to understand it. It’s in our 30-year shipbuilding plan that’s provided annually. We certify within this plan that, over the next five years, we have adequate funding. And if we don’t, what have we done to deal with that. So it’s been well-known. Ohio replacement is now in my peripheral vision. In two years, it will be in our center vision.
There’s political gridlock in Washington, D.C. Democrats won’t give on entitlements, and Republicans won’t give on raising taxes. Will it ever come to a point where the Joint Chiefs say, “You’re got to start compromising because defense of the country is at risk.”
We endured one year of sequestration. It was pretty hard. I detect that members of Congress see the impact coming up. In my own budget, the idea of retiring George Washington with 25 more years of life on it has caused quite a bit of conversation.
When I talk to members of Congress ... no one wants this. They are in a system I don’t presume to know a lot about. But I will leave you with this: The worst part is the unknown, our inability to plan and lay out a path for our defense and our people. If you talk to sailors, anxiety is pretty high. We need to get away from sequestration. We need the bigger budget proposed to [be able to] do what we need to do.
How has sequestration affected recruiting and retention, the decline in quality of service, and the perceived decline in quality of life if military compensation growth is slowed?
Recruiting right now is fine. It takes some recruiters maybe into a second week or a third week of the month to make goal. They did it in the first week three or four years ago.
Retention overall is fine. There are issues we have to keep a close eye on, such as pilots. Mid-grade cyber [warfare] people are being coerced to go elsewhere. Mid-grade SEALs too are tired by hard and arduous duty, though some actually want more action and don’t see it ahead after Afghanistan.
We need to keep our eye on these sentinels for retention. As I said, any savings from compensation reform will go into improving quality of work, including special and incentive pays for arduous and critical skill sets.
MO
— Contributing Editor Tom Philpott writes the syndicated weekly news column “Military Update.” His last feature article for Military Officer was “Evolving Mission,” December 2013.
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