Our Navy’s strategic direction, focused on Great Power Competition, is sound. This Fragmentary Order is written for senior Navy leaders to simplify, prioritize, and build on the foundation of Design 2.0 issued in December 2018. We will focus our efforts toward Warfighting, Warfighters, and the Future Navy, expanding on the momentum we have gained as a Navy over the past two years guided by both the National Defense Strategy (NDS) and the National Military Strategy (NMS).
Mission One for every Sailor – active and reserve, uniformed and civilian – is the operational readiness of today’s Navy. Our nation expects a ready Navy – ready to fight today – and our commitment to the training, maintenance, and modernization that will also ensure a Navy ready for tomorrow. We will deliver this Navy. Modern naval operations are in rapid transition, demanding the integrated, multi-domain capabilities of our fleets. We will respond to this transition with urgency. Our fleets will be ready to fight and win at sea – keeping that fight forward, far from the homeland. Underpinned by resilient reach-back/ reach-forward and logistics capabilities, we will deliver a combat credible maritime force, ready to conduct prompt and sustained combat operations at sea. We must also succeed in sustained, day-to-day competition, winning future fights before they become kinetic. Together with the United States Marine Corps, our Navy is the bedrock of Integrated American Naval Power, a force capable of fulfilling the mandate of the NDS and NMS. We will remain steadfast in our alliances and partnerships, which remain indispensable in any future fight. We will apply time, effort, and resources to grow naval power and think differently to find every competitive advantage. We will focus our efforts on Warfighting, Warfighters, and the Future Navy.
Warfighting
End State: A Navy that is ready to win across the full range of military operations in competition, crisis, and contingency by persistently operating forward with agility and flexibility in an all-domain battlespace. Our Navy must be the best when the nation needs it the most. On a daily basis, our objective is to have our fleet sustainably manned, trained, equipped, and integrated into the Joint Force. Deployed forward, we will be ready to meet requirements directed by the Secretary of Defense, the tasking of Combatant Commanders, and be prepared to surge with the Joint Force in crisis. Our fleet will be a potent, formidable force that competes around the world every day, deterring those who would challenge us while reassuring our allies and partners. Joining with the Marine Corps, we will deliver decisive Integrated American Naval Power when called.
Warfighters
End State: A world-class naval force though recruitment, education, training, and retention of talented American men and women – a force that also empowers Navy families through the initiatives under the Navy Family Framework 3.0. To do this, we will: Accelerate Ready, Relevant Learning (RRL). To retain our competitive advantage, I expect that every U.S. Navy Sailor be trained better than his or her Chinese or Russian counterparts. Sailors who enlist today are learning in vastly different ways than in the past. RRL is the Navy’s answer to this cultural reality. From the waterfront, to traditional brick-and-mortar schoolhouses, to mobile devices at home, RRL’s agile learning methods provide what operators need on the deckplates and the flight line to be ready to fight. At the heart of this effort, we will empower Sailors.
Future Navy
End State: A Navy fully prepared to fight and win. Our Navy will be equipped with the right capabilities and numbers to execute our operating concepts. In order to maintain the maritime competitive advantage envisioned in our fleet design, we will ensure the wholeness of combat capable and lethal forces maximizing the benefits of Distributed Maritime Operations, Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations, and Littoral Operations in a Contested Environment. We will develop and field affordable, lethal, numerous, and connected capabilities. We will use experimentation, exercises, and wargames to determine what is required to operate forward – firepower, capacity, command and control, and logistics; build the fleet to match; and train together until we achieve seamlessly integrated combat power across the naval and Joint Force.
Conclusion
I am confident that we will maximize the Navy we have today while delivering the Navy that our nation will rely upon tomorrow. We will do so with urgency. As we focus on the future, we will value and celebrate our heritage. Our Core Values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment and our attributes of Integrity, Accountability, Initiative, and Toughness will always guide us. They underpin who we are as members of the profession of arms: united by our common oath, dedicated to our special standards of ethics and character, and constantly honing our unique expertise in the art and science of naval warfare. We will continue to challenge our assumptions. As we do so, we may find areas to adjust within these priorities. I will update this FRAGO when necessary to ensure our efforts remain aligned. We have much to do. Your tenacity, drive, and initiative will take us where we need to go - and do so at a flank bell.
M. M. Gilday
Admiral, U.S. Navy
Chief of Naval Operations