The U.S. ambassador to Norway, retired Navy Adm. Kenneth J. Braithwaite, drew bipartisan praise in his Armed Services Committee nomination hearing for secretary of the Navy, promising to stay out of personnel issues that have caused the demise of the previous two Navy secretaries.
“It saddens me to say that the Department of the Navy is in rough waters,” Braithwaite said Thursday in his opening statement, spelling out his credentials while wearing a dark pinstripe suit, purple tie, and four-point pocket square. “Due to many factors, primarily the failure of leadership.”
Braithwaite said he supported Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley’s recommendation that the Navy undergo a full investigation of the COVID-19 outbreak onboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the subsequent dismissal of its commanding officer, Capt. Brett Crozier. But Braithwaite did not show his cards on which way he was leaning with regard to reinstating the captain.
“It’s best to pause, consider all the facts, and make the right decision,” he said, noting that among his priorities, if confirmed, will be restoring the Navy’s culture and trust in its leadership.
Former acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly dismissed Crozier within four days of accusations that he acted outside his chain of command by writing a letter to urge the Navy to act faster to stem the spread of the coronavirus on board the Theodore Roosevelt. Modly’s subsequent justification to sailors, in which he insulted their commander, fell flat and led to his resignation.
Previously, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer resigned over concerns about President Trump’s interference into disciplinary action against Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” Braithwaite said, noting that restoring culture will be his top priority, if confirmed. “Culture exists. I won’t say it’s broken. I think it’s been tarnished.”
Senators wore plastic gloves and lowered bandannas or placed face masks next to their microphones to lob questions rehearsed the day before to Braithwaite, including on the projected size of the Navy.
“It needs to be minimally 355 ships. Hopefully, we build beyond that,” Braithwaite told committee Chairman Sen. Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, while later promising Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, that the Navy would reach a fleet of 66 submarines by building two per year.
Braithwaite also discussed what he learned from his former boss, Gen. Jim Mattis, that Russia aspires to be “relevant” and China aspires to be “dominant” on the world stage.
“The Chinese and the Russians are everywhere,” he said, drawing on his current experience as ambassador to Norway.
“You’d be alarmed at the amount of Chinese activity off the coast of Norway, in the high North,” he said. “We need to be vigilant to that. We need to understand why.”
Sitting alongside Braithwaite at a distance of greater than 6 feet was the first African American nominee to serve as chief of staff of the Air Force, Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr., and James H. Anderson, a nominee for the civilian position of undersecretary of defense for policy, a position he is currently performing in an acting status.
Brown, commander of Pacific Air Forces, stressed his commitment to speedy acquisition of the hardware the Air Force needs to catch up to global competitors and noted that four of the five National Defense Strategy priorities (Russia, China, North Korea, and violent extremism) operate in his current geographic purview.
“To compete, deter, and win, we will need to generate combat power faster than our adversaries,” he said, noting he was an advocate of more collaboration between war fighters and industry partners.
Asked if he felt the United States was moving fast enough to develop and field hypersonic weapons to rival China, Brown was unequivocal.
“No,” he said. “I think we need to go faster.”
Similarly, Anderson agreed that the U.S. needs to continue and even increase partner support to rival China globally.
He said reports that the U.S. will cut and run from Africa were “flatly false,” and he praised the work of U.S. Africa Command to rival China’s influence on the continent. He also called on considering a program in the Indo-Pacific region similar to the European Deterrence Initiative, which has built up interoperability and partner capacity to deter Russian aggression in Europe.
Anderson said in the past decade, while the U.S. has been busy combating violent extremism, its principal great powers competitors have become emboldened.
“The [People’s Republic of China] and the Russian Federation took full advantage of our focus elsewhere, and they have done a variety of things in both their respective theaters to strengthen their position and put our position at greater risk,” he said.
