The Maritime Strategic Imperative

The US naval services are facing a strategic imperative. The US Navy is no longer the most numerous in the world, nor does it hold the technological edge in all maritime domains; yet, measured by individual warship capability, it remains supreme. Nevertheless, that metric may be less important in the face of adversary numeric superiority and the presence of disruptive, merging technologies. As we see a resurgence of great power competition and new technologies that can be employed to gain advantage across the spectrum of conflict, James Wirtz, Jeffrey Kline, Phillip Pournelle and Mie Augier argue that the US naval services need to capture opportunities to employ disruptive technologies and to think through how to adapt to the changing security environment.