The Mission
A few years ago, Congress handed the Navy a new class of coastal patrol boats that were built, in part, in order to create jobs in a certain congressional district. They were 170 feet long, which was considerably larger and more comfortable than the small commando boats that SEALs were used to. They carried a crew of 28 sailors—non−SEALs—providing a tremendous opportunity for a rising lieutenant specializing in surface warfare to command a ship. They had a range of 2000 miles and a speed of 35 knots. That was enough range to get them down to Central America, and there was a lot going on in Central America at the time.
Most people in the SEAL community didn’t want them.
Although they were large by commando standards and carried a large crew, the patrol boats could each carry only one eight−man SEAL squad and a few rubber boats. That limited the type of SEAL operations that could be conducted from them. They could stay at sea for only 10 days before refueling. They were expensive by commando standards, costing $9 million apiece, and there were 13 of them. The same amount of money would have provided several smaller boats with proven track records, crates of new weapons and communications gear, and several years of training funds. Meanwhile, since they had few defenses and little clandestine ability, the coastal patrol boats were a poor choice for slipping up to enemy coastlines and clandestinely inserting SEALs.
Most significantly, their mission was unclear. They could act as transports to get a handful of SEALs down south of the border, but there were less expensive ways of doing that. The SEAL community spent years exploring and inventing ways to use them. Finally, many of the coastal patrol boats were transferred to the Coast Guard for drug interdiction operations.
Regardless of any benefits these boats may eventually produce for the Coast Guard, their original lack of a clear mission hurt the SEAL organization. Time and money were wasted on them. They diverted attention from other SEAL programs that had immediate war−fighting missions.
The Take−Away
Avoid creating a capability and then having to search for a mission to justify it. Unless there is strong evidence that demand for a currently unavailable product will soon exist, you’re rolling the dice. If that new asset goes unused, someone from above is going to notice a lot of wasted resources sitting around, and that means cuts or layoffs. And that means fewer future operations.
This is not a condemnation of pure science projects or exploratory engineering. On the contrary, some of your future success may depend on your access to currently undiscovered tools. But there’s a big difference between exploring new techniques and tools that may significantly improve the way you do business and paying a lot of money for a bigger boat just because, well, it’s bigger.
Remember, part of your success depends on your efficiency. Use the right personnel and equipment. Streamline your organization so that you use only what you need to, and where there is hard evidence to support the fact that you need it. If your resources are spent in places other than these, they aren’t necessarily being spent pursuing success. In fact, they’re sapping other areas that are needed for success. Directly or indirectly, you’re hurting your organization.