Robert Wells had a distinguished 30-year career in our US Navy. His career included two ship commands: the AEGIS cruiser USS Lake Champlain during Operation Enduring Freedom and the guided missile frigate USS Lewis B. Puller.
During his career, Wells was awarded twenty service medals including two Defense Superior Service medals and two Legions of Merit. Bob had over 5 years of White House & National Security Council ex
perience in the Bush 43/Clinton administrations. He also served as Special Advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney for national security.
Some may be surprised to learn that, with 472 ships, the U.S. Navy is only the fourth largest in the world, behind Russia (781 ships), China (730 ships) and North Korea (505 ships). We used to have over 1,000 ships through the 1970’s but many were retired to upgrade engine technologies and as part of the “Peace Dividend”. Wells emphasizes the importance of quality and capability over quantity. He does express concern about the reduced number of shipyards available to conduct timely maintenance.
Wells disagrees with the suggestion that the age of the aircraft carrier is near its apex, saying carriers are more important than even given their ability to project force and American commitment throughout the world.
We also discuss cyber threats. Wells says that military leadership has been developing strategies in this area since the 1980’s. He clarifies that most attacks fall somewhere on the cyber warfare “ladder of escalation.” The bottom rung of the ladder is exploitation such as stealing technology. Next are denial of service operations and then the most serious threats are destruction actions like the Stuxnet worm used to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program.
Societies like ours that value free speech can face an extra challenge in this battle space. “Human nature has not changed and the maxim “loose lips sink ships” still applies.”
Wells concludes with a story where the awareness of a single sailor standing watch helped avoid what could have been a disastrous collision at sea.