Networking the global maritime partnership / by Stephanie Hszieh, George Galdorisi, Terry McKearney and Dareen Sutton.

"The modern-day notion of a "Global Maritime Partnership," first introduced by then-CNO Admiral Michael Mullen at the 2005 International Seapower Symposium as "The 1000-Ship Navy," and later enshrined in the new U.S. Maritime Strategy, 'A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower, ' is rapidly gaining worldwide currency as many nations and navies seek to work together to combat global terrorism - as well as a host of other issues - in the maritime arena. But neither networking nor global maritime partnerships are new concepts and understanding the history of naval coalition operations and of networking in the maritime environment can help nations and navies understand the chall`enges to fielding an effective global maritime partnership in the 21st Century. Armed with this historical perspective, coalitions can begin to devise effective solutions to these challenges. One of the biggest challenges to instantiating an effective global maritime partnership is technical - how do the navies of disparate nations that desire to operate together at sea obtain the requisite, compatible C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) systems that will enable them to truly "network" and make the global maritime partnership a reality. Unless or until the technical challenges to networking navies at sea are addressed by the U.S. Navy and by likely coalition navies, the dream of a global maritime partnership will never be achieved."-