Most Significant Maritime Security Threat

"What Is The Most Significant Maritime Security Threat Facing Your Nation And How Do Your Sea Services Address This Challenge?"

Rear Admiral David Ledson

Chief of Navy, New Zealand:

This appears on the surface to be such a simple question—and one for which you would expect a Chief of Navy to have the answer on the tip of his tongue at every moment. However, I have found it a challenge to get my head around providing a useful answer.

I have, therefore, resorted to answering it from two perspectives—one looking at the near horizon of New Zealand's EEZ—and the other looking at the distant horizon beyond.

In the near waters, the most significant security threat relates to the ocean itself. Of course, its resources are important in themselves, but key to the management and sustainability of "the bounty of the ocean" is comprehensive knowledge of the oceanic environment—and for vast and far-reaching corners of our EEZ there are knowledge gaps. The task of coloring the gaps is perceived by many to be solely a scientific activity. There is, though, a clear security benefit that can be extracted out of the science.

The Royal New Zealand Navy is in a small way starting to explore how it can contribute to the national oceanic knowledge base through innovative use of the fleet.

If we are to be serious about playing our part in the provision of government products and services at the lowest net cost to the nation, then the navy's ships need to be operated in the context of being available to provide national capacity for national maritime tasks in the broadest sense. This allows us, too, to leverage off a characteristic of ships that they are able to concurrently carry out multiple tasks for multiple purposes—while training for military activities they can collect scientific information.

Looking further afield, the most significant threat is actually the lack of a tangible—to many of our sailors and the majority of our citizens—significant threat. Without a threat that has definition and "realness," there are significant challenges in developing and maintaining credible—but expensive—military capabilities, equipment, and personnel. It seems to me, too, that there are also challenges in maintaining the skill required to wield sea power as the scalpel it is. Sea power is not a blunt instrument, and to optimize its utility requires knowledge (within historical and contemporary contexts), skill, and practice.

Our strategy for addressing this challenge is for the navy to develop the capability and capacity to provide the many pebbles that can be thrown into the national pond to spread ripples of knowledge across every inch of its surface.

The original article can be found at Proceedings http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/story.asp?STORY_ID=1808

ENDS

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