Source: United States Navy
VENICE, Italy – Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, attended the 14th Trans-Regional Seapower Symposium (TRSS) in Venice, Italy, Oct. 8-10, 2024.
This year’s TRSS brought together Heads of Navy and Coast Guard from 67 countries with experts and professionals from around the world to discuss critical maritime issues and foster collaboration. The symposium, themed “A Spotlight on the Depths: the Underwater as a New Frontier for Humankind,” aimed to address the growing importance of the underwater through panel discussions, presentations, and interactive sessions that allowed participants to explore innovative approaches and strategies for maritime cooperation.
“It is great to be here among friends who are united by our shared values, our shared commitment, and our shared stake in the continued stability, security, and prosperity of the entire global maritime commons, especially in the undersea domain,” said Franchetti. “We’ve all scanned the horizon and see the forces that are threatening to make the world more unstable and more dangerous. And we’ve witnessed the vulnerabilities of our critical undersea infrastructure, like gas pipelines, fiber optic cables, which are so critical to our economies, our shared security, our prosperity, and our peoples’ way of everyday life.”
During the symposium, Franchetti participated in a panel titled “Safeguarding the Underwater: New Solutions and Technologies for new Challenges,” where she discussed how U.S. Navy is leveraging modern technology, like robotic autonomous systems, underwater command and control networks, and sensing and detection systems; is integrating these systems into the fleet and adopting the new technology, getting the innovation into the hands of Sailors as quickly as possible; and building relationships and having conversations with Allies and partners.
“Integrating robotic and autonomous systems into the daily business of our operations is a critical part of my recently released Navigation Plan for America’s War Fighting Navy,” said Franchetti. “It’s one of my seven Project 33 targets, areas where I will invest my personal time and my resources, where I’m going to put my thumb on the scale to raise the baseline level of readiness of the American Navy in the fastest time possible.”
She went on to say, “we are continuing to closely collaborate with you, all of our allies and partners, and your respective innovation bases to advance our capabilities in the undersea domain. And I see us doing this together as part of a broader warfighting ecosystem. It’s another component in my Navigation Plan, which is fundamental to my vision of how we will deter and, if necessary, fight and win future wars.”
While at the symposium Franchetti also held bilateral engagement with her counterparts from Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Nigeria, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Sweden; and conducted over 40 meaningful discussions with TRSS Head of Navy participants about the importance of increasing interoperability with Allies and partners.
Franchetti also conducted her second trilateral meeting with her Australian and United Kingdom counterparts as part of the AUKUS partnership. Their first meeting occurred earlier this summer at HMAS Stirling in Perth, Australia.
“In three years of the AUKUS agreement we have made significant progress in integrating the exceptional undersea capabilities of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States,” said Franchetti. “Our navies will continue to build on our relationships, strengths, and interchangeability to provide security and stability, and maintain the rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific and around the globe.
The CNO wrapped up her time at TRSS with a multilateral meeting with Heads of Navy from the Group of Seven (G7: U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom) and a meeting with the chiefs of carrier strike group navies.