It's good to see you by video teleconference. I look forward to seeing you on the coast again soon.
It's an excellent question. Of course, it is a recognized capability gap for us not to have the sustainment capability of a replenishment ship. That is not catastrophic in itself; it just makes the employment of our forces significantly less efficient. It requires additional planning factors, for example, just to travel across the Pacific and add in a port visit to gain fuel for our ships. One or two times adds between four and eight days, which takes us away from time on station to do whatever our mission is, be it economic sanctions, interdiction, working with allies, etc.
Indeed, the requirement that has been expressed was for three replenishment ships. We are pursuing two, with an option for a third, to provide us with that kind of flexibility. However, I note that we had been operating two for essentially my entire time in the service, and two had provided us with a significantly enhanced capability over what we have now, which is none.
I think I'll leave my comments there and turn it over to Admiral Newton.