Lawmakers have called the service's plans for reaching the 313-ship number unrealistic, in part because the Navy is not budgeting properly to reach that goal. Roughead has publicly defended the service's budget for shipbuilding.

One area in which the four-star admiral has done an about face is the mix of destroyers needed by the Navy.

In February 2008, Roughead warned senators against diverting funds away from the service's new DDG-1000 Destroyer program in the fiscal 2009 Navy budget. "I am very concerned that we do not disrupt our combatant [ship] lines," he said. "We really need our combatant build program to take root, grow, stabilize and move us into the future."

By the summer of 2008, the Navy had shifted its position and was asking Congress to curtail the DDG-1000 program and instead use the money to build the older, and less expensive DDG-51 destroyers.

In early January 2009, Roughead told the Surface Navy's Annual Symposium that the DDG-1000 simply did not meet the needs of today's sailors such as a growing gap in ballistic missile defense and anti-submarine warfare."We must have ships of quality construction that will last and we cannot afford gold plating," Roughead said. "We must give our sailors what they need, when they need it."

It seems that Roughead's wishes may be granted; in announcing his fiscal 2010 budget on April 7, 2009, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Navy would buy only three more of the DDG-1000 ships and then revert to building the Arleigh-Burke destroyers.

Acquisition Changes

Cost growth and schedule delays on several high-profile programs such as the Littoral Combat Ship program have plagued the Navy and forced the service to re-evaluate its acquisition road map.

As the service works to build its future fleet of ships, Roughead has underscored the importance of building vessels capable of conducting a wide array of operations around the globe.

At the Navy League's Sea-Air-Space conference in March 2008, Roughead acknowledged that the Navy must keep costs under control and resist efforts to "gold plate" ships. "If we seek extraordinary technical overmatch, it will come at the price of capacity," Roughead said. "We have to be mindful of affordability and that means appetite suppression."

Sonar Exemption

Roughead supports White House waivers that exempt the Navy from a federal court's decision to ban sonar use within 12 nautical miles of the California coast and require numerous procedures to shut it off when marine mammals are spotted.

"We cannot in good conscience send American men and women into potential trouble spots without adequate training to defend themselves," Roughead has said. "The southern California operating area provides unique training opportunities that are vital to preparing our forces, and the planned exercises cannot be postponed without impacting national security."

Nuclear Power

Roughead has been a critic of language in the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill requiring the Navy to make its next fleet of cruisers nuclear-powered. Roughead's concern with the law is that the transition to nuclear-powered ships could be very costly.

During testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Roughead told lawmakers the upfront costs of nuclear power could ultimately jeopardize other areas of the service's long-term shipbuilding plans. "I am concerned about what the initial costs will be" and the effect on the size of the fleet, the four-star admiral said.

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