The vision of the Navy’s capstone concept Sea Power 21² is summarized in the concepts of Sea Strike, Sea Shield, and Sea Basing, enabled by FORCEnet, as described briefly below.

Sea Strike is a broad concept for projecting precise and persistent offensive power from the sea. According to this concept, networked, autonomous, organic, long-dwell naval sensors, integrated with national and joint systems, will provide persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), enabling the development of a comprehensive understanding of an adversary’s capabilities and vulnerabilities. Closely integrated with these ISR assets will be the capability to strike time-sensitive and moving targets so as to defeat any plausible enemy force.

Sea Shield is the concept focused on the protection of national interests by sea-based defense resources. Traditionally, the Navy has maintained vital sea lines of communication, protected its own offensive forces, and provided strategic deterrence through nuclear-armed submarine patrols. Under Sea Shield, in the future the Navy will also project an umbrella of theater air defense ashore, assist in providing ballistic missile defense for the U.S. homeland and for forces in theater, and extend the security of the United States seaward by detecting and intercepting vessels of hostile intent.

As stated in “Sea Power 21,” “As enemy access to weapons of mass destruction grows, and the availability of overseas bases and ports declines, it is compelling both militarily and politically to reduce the vulnerability of U.S. forces through expanded use of secure, mobile, networked sea bases.”³ Sea Basing will support versatile and flexible power projection, enabling forces up to the size of a Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) to move to objectives deep inland. More than a family of platforms afloat, Sea Basing will network platforms among the