From Blue to Green Navy

As I reported earlier, the Navy is claiming it wants to shift from a force geared to deep sea fighting, to one more relevant for warfare inshore. We've heard this before but the New Chief sounds serious:

Adm. Michael Mullen, the chief of naval operations, said he envisioned the Navy operating not just in the "blue water" of the deep oceans, but also in the "green water" close to shore and the "brown water" of rivers.
Mullen said his proposal to create a "Navy combat battalion" that would conduct a variety of missions ashore was still a concept, but said he was establishing a Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, to be led by a rear admiral, that would direct and coordinate such inland operations.
He also repeated an earlier proposal to create a Navy river combat force, perhaps similar to the gunboats the Navy operated in Vietnam or the smaller armed motorboats the Marines now use for river missions.

He still sounds to me like a traditional big ship advocate, but I guess he's trying:

But Mullen expressed his strong support for the list of new ships and aircraft proposed by his predecessor, Adm. Vern Clark, all of which are being challenged because of high price tags, risky technology or, in some cases, over whether they are even needed.
He specifically endorsed the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS); the DD(X) land-attack destroyer; CVN-21, the next generation aircraft carrier, and the Joint Strike Fighter.