It is a bright and exciting future for all of us in the submarine force

Since 03-08-04

From NSL Update 03-05-2004

Cassias' Focus: 'Alignment'

By JO1 Jennifer Spinner, "The Periscope" Staff, Naval Submarine Base, King Bay, GA

Since assuming command of Submarine Group 10 in January, Rear Adm. Jeffrey Cassias has visited a number of the commands aboard NSB Kings Bay and met many of the Sailors and civilians who work here. Recently, Cassias spoke about the direction of Group 10, his philosophies, and the important role of the submarine force in light of a dangerous and ever-changing world.

Cassias arrived at Kings Bay from a tour in Singapore as commander of Logistics Group Western Pacific, commander of Task Force 73 and commander of Task Force 712. It is a command that is literally on the other side of the world and its scope, in terms of sheer geography, is massive. ''My wife, Teri, and I are happy to be back in the United States, and it's great to be back with the submarine force again,'' he said.

When asked about Group 10's direction, Cassias mentioned alignment as one area he would like to continue to focus on in the coming months. Cassias explained that when Adm. Vern Clark, chief of Naval Operations, first came into office, he articulated his top five priorities: manpower, future readiness, current readiness, quality of service and alignment. ''Those are all great priorities. The one I really want to focus on here first is alignment,'' he said.

Cassias explained, as the military transforms, alignment takes on added importance in ensuring that lines of authority and responsibility remain clear and consistent, especially since updates to instructions and publications tend to lag transformational efforts. ''I want to make sure we continue to understand what our responsibilities are while ensuring that we continue to provide all required services,'' he said. ''We need to hold the right people accountable both within and outside the chain of command. More changes are coming and we need to make sure we understand how they affect alignment and understand who is responsible for every aspect of our operations.''

An example of one of these transformational changes is the activation of the Naval Submarine Support Center - a new command that starts up March 5 and gives the Group 10 and Submarine Squadron 16 and 20 commanders more time to focus on the operational readiness of their submarine crews. The responsibilities of upkeep, material readiness and administrative supportive functions move to a single support command.

''NSSC shows we are truly committed to meeting the challenging goals that the CNO has charted for us. It is a smart, effective and more efficient way to do business,'' he said. ''The CNO is committed to building a Navy that can maximize the capability of our people and minimize the total number on the payroll. The NSSC does all of that and more. And we need to make sure that during the stand up of the NSSC, we provide better services while also making sure that this transformation is transparent to the customers.''

NSSC is part of a long transformation that has occurred at Submarine Group 10. ''Transformation doesn't necessarily have to be instantaneous,'' said Cassias. ''It can take place as part of an evolutionary process. That's what happened with Group 10. We've made the command a lot more streamlined and we've saved a significant amount of manpower and money doing it,'' he added.

Cassias said even though changes have occurred at Submarine Group 10, its overall mission remains the same - deterrence. ''Our Tridents remain the most vital and survivable leg of the nuclear triad,'' he said. ''As we witnessed on Sept. 11, 2001, the world is still a dangerous place and our SSBNs are a national insurance policy against potentially hostile nations and groups with unpredictable interests and resources. These Tridents send a message to any potential threat - the United States is vigilant and prepared to defend its national interests.''

Cassias also pointed to the transformational SSGN as a powerful future platform for operational commanders. The SSGN will maintain the Trident infrastructure, maintenance system and two-crew concept adding the capability of spending more than 14 years of their remaining 20-year-lives forward deployed. ''Imagine the awesome capabilities of a platform armed with up to 154 Tomahawk or Tactical Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles,'' said Cassias. ''A platform able to carry and support a team of 66 special operations force personnel for more than 90 days. A platform able to perform clandestine insertion and retrieval, all enhanced with an Advanced Seal Delivery System. Those are just some of the capabilities SSGNs will soon deliver to operational commanders.''

When it comes to more immediate issues, such as mission accomplishment and operations, Cassias has a very simple philosophy. ''We succeed or fail as a team.'' ''I'm a big believer in common sense. If something doesn't make sense, we don't want to put a band-aid on it,'' he said. ''If we're going to do something, let's think it through from the beginning to the end and have a concept of operations so we know from the very start what to expect and what we want to accomplish. We can't charge off and say we are going to do something if we have no intention of ever doing it.''

Cassias said he looks optimistically at the future of the submarine force, but for now, he thinks 2004 is itself an exciting year. ''You might call this the year of the submarine - and for good reason. We have a number of high level events occurring just about every month,'' he said. He mentioned an upcoming Ice Exercise, the submarine force birthday, a memorial funeral for the Hunley crew, and the 50th anniversary of the USS Nautilus commissioning. In addition, this year will witness the christenings for the Seawolf Class submarine, USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23), the commissioning of the USS Virginia (SSN 774), the first of the Virginia-class subs, as well as keel layings for the Virginia-class submarines USS North Carolina (SSN 777), USS Texas (SSN 775), and USS Hawaii (SSN 776).

''It's a bright and exciting future for all of us in the submarine force,'' he said.