U.S. Navy facing first serious competition in decades

China is busy pouring silt and building bases onto man-made islands in the South China Sea. Russia is launching newer, faster, quieter nuclear submarines. Iran is making noises about closing the Strait of Hormuz to U.S. shipping.

Throw in cyberattacks, piracy, smuggling of drugs, guns and people, and new technologies that are eroding America's traditional maritime superiority, and there is no lack of threats for the chief of naval operations to worry about.

"For the first time for what I would say is roughly 25 years, the United States is back to an era of great power competition," Adm. John Richardson told the National Press Club in January.

Richardson was a junior officer when the the Soviet Union collapsed, and spent his early years serving in a Navy where sailors listened to cassettes on a Walkman, a time, he says, when the U.S. was not significantly challenged at sea.

"That era is over," he said. "Both Russia and China have advanced their military capabilities to act as global powers again. Their goals are backed by a growing arsenal of high-end warfighting capability."