Flotilla SITREP: SWO Tactical Qualifications and Surface Warfare Aggressor Squadrons

By Dmitry Filipoff

This month the CIMSEC Warfighting Flotilla will be hosting sessions focused on the surface force, including sessions on updating SWO qualifications and the value of standing up dedicated aggressor units for the surface force. If you haven’t already, sign up through the form below to become a Flotilla member and receive the invites to our upcoming off-the-record January discussions. The full listings for these upcoming discussions are featured down below.

Feel free to visit the Flotilla homepage to learn more about this community, its activities, and what drives it.

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Upcoming January Sessions

Updating Surface Warfare Qualifications

Surface Warfare Officers can attain numerous qualifications to bolster their skills and enhance their careers. How can the SWO community update its qualifications and how they are weighed to better emphasize tactical warfighting skill? How can the detailing process better incentivize and reward qualifications that are specifically geared toward tactical skillsets? Join us to discuss these questions as we consider possible updates to SWO qualifications.

Read Ahead: Changing Surface Warfare Qualifications: Better Incentives Make Deadlier Officers,” by LTJG Chris Rielage and LCDR JR Dinglasan
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Creating a Surface Warfare Aggressor Squadron

Aggressor units are a critical asset for forging warfighting skill and cultivating in-depth understanding of competitor forces. Yet the surface warfare community appears to lack dedicated aggressor units and staffs. How can an aggressor squadron sharpen the skills of the surface force and the broader Navy? How can the surface force stand up an aggressor staff, or even a dedicated aggressor squadron? Join us to discuss the merits of creating dedicated opposition force units and staffs for the surface force.

Read Aheads:

Surface Warfare Needs Aggressor Squadrons,” by Captain Henry Kim

Undersea Red: Captain Eric Sager on the Submarine Force’s New Aggressor Squadron,” by Dmitry Filipoff
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Dmitry Filipoff is CIMSEC’s Director of Online Content and Community Manager of the Warfighting Flotilla. Contact him at Content@cimsec.org.

Sea Control 488 – Disaster at Honda Point with Robert Kolker

By Jared Samuelson

Journalist and author Robert Kolker joins the program to discuss his deep dive for The Atavist into the disaster at Honda Point, the U.S. Navy’s largest peacetime loss of ships. Robert is the author of the New York Times best-selling Lost Girls and Hidden Valley Road. He is a National Magazine Award finalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Wired, Bloomberg Businessweek, and New York magazine.

Download Sea Control 488 – Disaster at Honda Point with Robert Kolker

Links

1. “Dead Reckoning,” by Robert Kolker, The Atavist Magazine, No. 142, August 2023. 

2. Robert Kolker’s official website.

Jared Samuelson is Co-Host and Executive Producer of the Sea Control podcast. Contact him at Seacontrol@cimsec.org.

This episode was edited and produced by Marie Williams.

Sea Control 487 – Naval Exploration and Global Empire with Michael Verney

By Jared Samuelson

Dr. Michael Verney joins the program to discuss his book, A Great and Rising Nation – Naval Exploration and Global Empire in the Early US Republic. Dr. Michael Verney is an Assistant Professor of History at Drury University. His work focuses on early U.S. naval exploration. He has published works on merchant, missionary, and pro-slavery exploration, and early American activities on the Indian subcontinent.

Download Sea Control 487 – Naval Exploration and Global Empire with Michael Verney

Links

1. A Great and Rising Nation – Naval Exploration and Global Empire in the Early US Republic, by Michael A. Verney, The University of Chicago Press, 2022.

Jared Samuelson is Co-Host and Executive Producer of the Sea Control podcast. Contact him at Seacontrol@cimsec.org.

Brian Kurukulasuriya edited and produced this episode.

Sea Control 486 – Force Writers Room with Captain Ric Arthur and Dava Casoni

By Jared Samuelson

Captain Ric Arthur and Dava Casoni join the podcast to share their experience with the Force Writers Room, the group of warfighters and creatives envisioning the future of warfare. Dava is a lawyer who worked as an actor in Hollywood and also served in the U.S. Army Reserve. Ric is a naval reservist and writer who originated and piloted the Force Writers Room process.

Download Sea Control 486 – Force Writers Room with Captain Ric Arthur and Dava Casoni

Links

1. Force Writers Room

Jared Samuelson is Co-Host and Executive Producer of the Sea Control podcast. Contact him at Seacontrol@cimsec.org.

Fostering the Discussion on Securing the Seas.