“I just want to start off with today, we had the opportunity to listen to our new Allied Supreme Commander, General Grynkewich, who spoke to about 2,000 people this morning. It was wonderful for him to express how important the joint force is, the combined force is in the plans that he has set. I think it’s the first time in probably 60 years that they have executable plans to move forward.
Most importantly, he listed air missile defense as the number two priority over fires for his command here in the U.S. He’s setting the pace. We have historically, me personally, and MDA personally, the Navy has always been in front of this, in front of IMD, in front of missile defense, certainly because there was an ABM treaty that was put in play that restricted a lot of services being able to do much. Navy exploited that, especially in the late 1990s.
With Admiral Meyer, as they were able to do things that weren’t allowed to be done in the treaty, I believe, and to be able to really create the best 360-degree IMD capable platform in the world today. There’s nothing like it, nothing in the world like it, to be able to shoot all the way down from the sea all the way up to space. It’s been step by step.
It’s been a great development over the past 20 years. We were certainly part of this with Daniel Inouye and helping create that PMRF, Pacific Test Range, where most of this development was tested out of there. We’re seeing how important the Aegis BMD Navy ship is for the defense of our land. We can start right off here in Europe. We can start right off in Rota, Spain, where there have been four ships assigned to the defense of Europe. Certainly, those ships have been a big part of defending Israel.
Israel, Europe, and we see the two Aegis Ashore Sites here in Europe, defending Europe on land. You can move right over to the United States. We know the North Combatant Commander has the right to pull in any ship he wants, if he has to, on both coasts. And then you go right into Guam. Guam today has ships assigned, I believe, to defend Guam. And then you go into Japan and the Japanese Sea, we’ll put ships in there to defend against North Korean missiles.
So the Navy has been absolutely prominent in land defense and advancements on their ability from C-RAM all the way to SM 3 Block II to shoot things down in space on that. We have seen the Golden Dome unfold. We’re all watching it.
We’ve seen huge movements by Space Force, by the Air Force, by the Army on it, but we’ve noticeably not seen Navy step up. Maybe that’s a culture and that’s kind of what I want to explore. What is the Navy’s role with Golden Dome? Why have they been so quiet with this? Or is it assumed that they’re going to be doing the same roles that we’re doing? We certainly know that some of the weapons will be used in commodities. Some of these SM-6s and SM-3s will be used. But that’s where we’re at.
This is our 80th virtual Congressional Roundtable. Very fortunate to have all three of our guest speakers, Navy, all three of our speakers, captains of Navy ships, two of them are BMD ships. So, we are very qualified to lead this off and get into this.”
Closing Remarks:
“I think this was a great discussion because you clarified why Navy is not involved, and they don’t need to be up front like the Space Force or the Army or the Air Force. So that was a great perspective. And if everything goes to hell, yes, they’ll be there on top of it. But certainly the requirement of Navy skill sets over the last 30, 40 years need to be part of the build on Golden Dome. That expertise, whether you go MOD SIM , C2, the whole thing, they still got to be, I believe, an integral part on Mike Guetlein’s team. But a great education for all of us to understand the Navy’s role with Golden Dome, and I think it’s, there’s no argument.
I think everybody’s in agreement that they’re going in the right way, in the right direction until Mike decides what he wants from the Navy, as he decides on every service, to pull that in and he has the authorities to do that. So I think we’re in a great position. Thank you all for being very informative on the Navy deep dive on missile defense. Thank you.”
Mr. Riki Ellison, MDAA Founder and Chairman
Speakers:
Mr. J.D. Gainey
Former Senior Analyst, USINDOPACOM and National Security Affairs and Advanced Technologies
Rear Admiral (Retired) Tom Druggan
Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense, MDA
Rear Admiral (Retired) Mark Montgomery
Former Director of Operations, U.S. Pacific Command
Mr. Riki Ellison
MDAA Founder and Chairman
