By Dmitry Filipoff

Submissions Due: September 18, 2023
Week Dates: September 25-30, 2023
Submission Length: 500 words
Submit to: [email protected]

In 500 words or less, what do you want the new Chief of Naval Operations to know? CIMSEC is launching a special topic week series featuring short articles that look to convey pressing points to the U.S. Navy’s new top leadership.

On August 14, 2023, Admiral Lisa Franchetti assumed the duties of Acting Chief of Naval Operations. Several days later, Admiral Franchetti issued guidance to the fleet, and captured the scope and intent of the Navy’s major efforts:

“In our ongoing effort to strengthen warfighters, improve warfighting, and ready the platforms that support them, our way ahead is clear and our course is true. We will continue our Navy-wide culture renovation, where Get Real Get Better is the standard of leadership and problem-solving that leaders at all levels embrace and live. We are building teams that are self-assessing, self-correcting, and always learning toward one goal – delivering warfighting advantage. Similarly, we have commenced a once-in-a-generation transformation of our Navy in order to develop, design, and deploy the weapons and tools we need to compete and win, both now and in the future. In this decisive decade, we will maintain this course and increase our speed.”

How can Admiral Franchetti better lead these efforts and achieve these objectives? What challenges are underappreciated by Navy leadership and deserve stronger priority? Contributors can address these questions and many more as they convey their message to the Navy’s new leadership.

Given the broadly international nature of the U.S. Navy’s mandate and the numerous partners and allies that closely work with American naval forces, international contributors are highly encouraged to share their perspectives. 

Please submit all contributions for consideration to [email protected]. 

This is an independent CIMSEC initiative and is not produced in cooperation with any U.S. Navy organization or entity. Read the previous edition of “Notes to the New CNO” here.

Dmitry Filipoff is CIMSEC’s Director of Online Content. Contact him at [email protected]. 

Featured Image: The new acting Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Lisa Franchetti delivers remarks after assuming the duties of CNO during the relinquishment of office ceremony for the 32nd Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Michael M. Gilday at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, August 14, 2023. (DoD photo by Chad J. McNeeley)

Submissions Due: May 23, 2023
Topic Week Dates: June 5-9, 2023
Article Length: 1,500-3,000 words
Submit to: [email protected]

By Dmitry Filipoff 

The demand for innovation and novel capability has grown with the accelerating pace of technological change and the deteriorating threat environment. As military capability proliferates and becomes ever more lethal, actors are intensifying their search for new capability that could provide a decisive edge. From increased firepower to enhanced non-kinetic defenses, to cunning deception measures and perceptive command and control, new capabilities can threaten to upend and surpass a wide variety of legacy systems.

What is your novel warfighting capability idea? Whether a new platform, a cutting-edge weapon, or something entirely original, CIMSEC wants your ideas for what could be the force-multiplying and game-changing capabilities of future forces.

The way a capability functions technically is only a point of departure for how it may function tactically. Capabilities need associated concepts of operation to make good on their promise and potential. Authors are encouraged to explore how their capabilities can be practically applied in operational warfighting contexts, and consider what sort of countermeasures they may stimulate from adaptive adversaries.

The scope of opportunity and disruption has never been greater. Send all submissions to [email protected].

Dmitry Filipoff is CIMSEC’s Director of Online Content. Contact him at [email protected].

Featured Image: Art generated with Midjourney AI.

Submissions Due: April 5, 2023
Topic Week Dates: April 17-21, 2023
Article Length: 1,000-3,000 words
Submit to: [email protected]

By Nicholas Romanow

The Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) ended the debate (for now) on whether the U.S. Navy needs a cadre of cyber officers. Section 1503 of the Act mandates that the Navy “establish and use” a cyber operations designator for officers and a cyber operations rating for enlisted personnel. It also prohibits members of existing information warfare designators from filling cyber-related billets and requires the Navy to submit a report to Congress in one year on the administration, training, and utilization of the Navy’s cyber personnel.

But the answer to this question opens up a range of new questions on cyber operations in the maritime domain. How should the Navy recruit, train, and retain cyber talent? What do cyber operations in a maritime environment look like? How will this investment in a Navy cyber community affect the Navy’s aviation, surface, subsurface, and special warfare communities? As the Navy develops this new cadre of talent, it needs to more deeply examine how it can leverage cyber in warfighting and peacetime operations.

Cyberspace is quite similar to the maritime environment. It is a domain wherein trillions of dollars of international commerce transits. It is not exclusively controlled by any single nation-state in particular. It is simultaneously a conduit for wealth and exchange yet also rife with peril and exploitation.

In theory, naval leaders should be in a prime position to understand the complex logic of cyberspace and tackle its dilemmas. Yet numerous other actors influence the maritime domain through cyber and depend on cyber for maritime access. What could be the risks of suffering malicious cyber effects on critical maritime infrastructure and platforms? How do maritime security and cybersecurity interact and depend on one another?

The Navy will finally have a specialist cyber cadre, but more remains to be done. As maritime and cyber connections grow and proliferate, these two domains will interact in complex ways to present advantage and threats across the spectrum of conflict. We invite authors to discuss these questions and more as we consider the future of Navy and maritime cyber. Send all submissions to [email protected].

Ensign Nicholas Romanow, U.S. Navy, is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. He is currently assigned to Fort Meade, Maryland, and working toward his qualification as a cryptologic warfare officer. He was previously an undergraduate fellow at the Clements Center for National Security. He is CIMSEC’s Social Media Coordinator.

The views presented are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other military or government agency.

Featured Image: Artwork created with Midjourney AI.

Submissions Due: March 16, 2023
Topic Week Dates: March 27-31, 2023
Article Length: 1,000-3,000 words
Submit to: [email protected]

By Nicholas Romanow

The Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) ended the debate (for now) on whether the U.S. Navy needs a cadre of cyber officers. Section 1503 of the Act mandates that the Navy “establish and use” a cyber operations designator for officers and a cyber operations rating for enlisted personnel. It also prohibits members of existing information warfare designators from filling cyber-related billets and requires the Navy to submit a report to Congress in one year on the administration, training, and utilization of the Navy’s cyber personnel.

But the answer to this question opens up a range of new questions on cyber operations in the maritime domain. How should the Navy recruit, train, and retain cyber talent? What do cyber operations in a maritime environment look like? How will this investment in a Navy cyber community affect the Navy’s aviation, surface, subsurface, and special warfare communities? As the Navy develops this new cadre of talent, it needs to more deeply examine how it can leverage cyber in warfighting and peacetime operations.

Cyberspace is quite similar to the maritime environment. It is a domain wherein trillions of dollars of international commerce transits. It is not exclusively controlled by any single nation-state in particular. It is simultaneously a conduit for wealth and exchange yet also rife with peril and exploitation.

In theory, naval leaders should be in a prime position to understand the complex logic of cyberspace and tackle its dilemmas. Yet numerous other actors influence the maritime domain through cyber and depend on cyber for maritime access. What could be the risks of suffering malicious cyber effects on critical maritime infrastructure and platforms? How do maritime security and cybersecurity interact and depend on one another?

The Navy will finally have a specialist cyber cadre, but more remains to be done. As maritime and cyber connections grow and proliferate, these two domains will interact in complex ways to present advantage and threats across the spectrum of conflict. We invite authors to discuss these questions and more as we consider the future of Navy and maritime cyber. Send all submissions to [email protected].

Ensign Nicholas Romanow, U.S. Navy, is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. He is currently assigned to Fort Meade, Maryland, and working toward his qualification as a cryptologic warfare officer. He was previously an undergraduate fellow at the Clements Center for National Security. He is CIMSEC’s Social Media Coordinator.

The views presented are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other military or government agency.

Featured Image: Artwork created with Midjourney AI.