Info warriors coming to Navy subs in the Pacific

The Navy has been experimenting with embedding information warfare officers and sailors on submarines, starting with two pilot efforts off the East Coast. Later this year, it wants to expand the idea to the Pacific, said the service’s IW chief. 

“We have been piloting having a permanent integration of an IW officer—as well as IW sailors—on submarines,” Vice Adm. Kelly Aeschbach, leader of Naval Information Forces, told reporters Wednesday. 

Aeschbach said the additional crew brought expertise in cybersecurity, communications, and intelligence, and included cryptologic technicians for electronic intelligence and warfare. 

“We had enough positive feedback from that, that the submarine force is moving to permanently underpin the electronic-warfare billets for the sailors. They also would like to retain the officer billet and are examining how they would resource or underpin a position permanently. And then we're doing some further examination on where the intelligence piece is best fit,” Aeschbach said. 

The Navy is planning to continue to test the idea in different configurations and locations.

“We're going to do some additional pilots this fall, one out in the Pacific, where we change up the composition. We'll have some capacity on the submarine and some additional capacity ashore as we continue to look at what's the best alignment of IW capability with the submarine force,” she said. 

NAVIFOR will provide tailored information warfare teams that go with submarines for specific missions as demand increases. 

“We continue to experience a high demand for that capability. So I think it's on a really positive trajectory. And we'll just be working with the submarine force. [There are] just challenges in terms of capacity, in terms of the availability of how fast we can fund billets. And so I think it'll continue to grow. And we'll continue, probably, to examine just exactly what is the right form going forward,” she said.

“I think it's really reinforced that we ought to have information warriors taking care of our mission set and that the submarine environment has gotten complex enough that our integration and presence allows the folks who are focused on the actual operations of the submarine to not be distracted by having to pick up collateral responsibility for our mission set.”

Besides funding challenges, Aeschbach said the pilots have highlighted training problems with submarine-deployed IW personnel. 

“We have gotten some feedback on how we can do better with the training, but I'm not sure I would characterize that as a challenge so much. It's just us learning about what's really required in order to make folks ready for the position,” she said. 

The Navy has been working to boost IW training as part of the live-virtual-constructive training environment. IW requires a lot of hands-on experience with a myriad of systems that are often classified, presenting a bit of a challenge when trying to weave them into virtual training platforms. 

Earlier this year, the service revealed plans to integrate 20 program-systems-of-record into LVC, but there’s been a slight change.  

“We're going to be meeting at the end of September, with NAVWAR and other stakeholders, to review our prioritization of the 20 systems to determine if there are other things we need to integrate. Because…our mission space is pretty dynamic. And we have new equipment and capabilities that I think we need to examine to see if they need to be integrated in the overall plan,” Aeschbach said.

The admiral, who is set to retire this month, said current objectives are otherwise on target and the purpose of the review is to double check whether adjustments are needed or programs should be added. 

The outgoing information warfare chief hopes to see more IW commanders at sea as demands for the capability increase both in the U.S. and with allies and partners.

“In the NDAA in 2021, the Congress removed the restrictions for information warfare officers to serve in command at sea. And we've been working on the governance inside the Navy that gives us the latitude to serve, potentially serve, at sea. And I think information warfare commander is the perfect position,” she said.

“In terms of our allies and partners, there's been a lot of interest in how we organize. And we have been working closely with Australia, with the UK and with Japan, in particular, on their development of information warfare. And each of those countries has examined what we're doing. And each of them are developing their own information warfare focus.” 

Moreover, the Navy sent an IW-experienced commander to Australia for a year and plans to send one to the United Kingdom for their next carrier deployment, she said.