ADAPT AND OVERCOME: REVISING US NAVAL DOCTRINE AND POLICY IN AN ERA OF UNCONVENTIONAL CONFLICT

Abstract

When the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) was released in February
of 2006, the United States was in the middle of a multi-front Global War on Terror
(GWOT) that had been underway for more than four years. Beginning with the
initial response to the 9/11 attacks in October of 2001, the US Navy began to play a
significant part in the unconventional operations that characterised the early days of
OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM. While the Navy carried out its mission
admirably supporting Special Operations Forces (SOF) by providing the USS Kitty
Hawk (CV 63) as a “lily pad”, which enabled Rangers, Delta operators, Green
Berets, and SEALs to move in and out of Afghanistan from a maritime staging area,
it was a role well outside the norm of American naval operations and one the Navy
is yet to fully embrace.