Submarine Technology Symposium

The U.S. undersea force is in the midst of a global competition with both China and Russia. China continues to outpace the United States as the largest navy in the world, making the Western Pacific and beyond more challenging every day. Russia continues to prioritize and invest in its undersea forces even while fighting a protracted land war, producing highly capable platforms with the reach to challenge our undersea force and that of our partners in both oceans. The United States and our partners must be ready for a fight in the near future and must be positioned to win that fight. Success in today’s competition and tomorrow’s fight will require us to provide our force with the tools and capabilities to expand its reach. The seabed and subsea domains pose new challenges and our undersea force will be required to operate in those domains more frequently. U.S. and allied undersea forces must be equipped for the challenges and the pace of the fight. A critical enabler of our force’s success in today’s competition and tomorrow’s fight will be expanding lethality as well as establishing and enforcing access, no matter the theater, no matter the adversary. Additionally, our strategic forces will play a key role in helping to deter tomorrow’s fight through the transition to COLUMBIA. Finally, our partnerships and alliances in the regions affected by today’s competition and tomorrow’s fight will be critical to our success — the U.S. and our allies must have the tools to enable the collaboration that these partnerships provide. The undersea force will be the key linchpin to dominating today’s competition in order to win tomorrow’s fight.