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Navy reorganizes staff to focus on cyber

A new Navy staff reorganization is expected to beef up the service’s ability to defend its computer and communications networks, as well as exploit and attack an enemy’s systems, by combining intelligence and information technology operations under a new Fleet Cyber Command.

“There was a realization over the past several months that the Navy has to be better positioned to face the information age,” said one service official familiar with the plan. “So many things need to be networked. You need to have more of a holistic view that includes communications, sensors, networks, intelligence and computer networks. These things can’t be done in stovepipes.”

The moves are outlined in a June 26 internal memo from Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations (CNO), to Vice Adm. Jack Dorsett, the director of naval intelligence, known as N2. The memo, a copy of which was obtained by Navy Times, directs the N2 office to be combined with the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Communications Networks (N6) and other, unnamed entities into a single organization, DCNO N2/6.

N2 and N6 currently are each headed by a vice admiral. The memo did not specify whether both three-stars will remain in the new organization, and noted that flag billet guidance would be provided separately.

Execution of the new, integrated organization is to begin Oct. 1 and be complete by Dec. 18.

In the memo, Roughead also directed the transition of the Navy Staff Quadrennial Defense Review team now headed by Rear Adm. Bill Burke to a new Naval Warfare Assessment (N00X) team. That organization is to “assess existing and proposed Navy programs and address desired warfighting and operational capabilities,” Roughead said in the memo.

Responsibilities of N00X will include identifying gaps and shortcomings in war-fighting capability; making recommendations to the CNO on how the Navy should allocate risk; monitoring, evaluating and assessing “the Navy program”; and conducting other assessments as directed by the CNO.

The memo stipulates that the moves are “zero sum,” with no growth of staff personnel.

While creation of the new FLTCYBERCOM mirrors the establishment Oct. 1 of the Pentagon’s U.S. Cyber Command, “the memo is a culmination of two years of discussion,” the Navy official said.

Another source noted that a survey of cyber warfare last year by the CNO’s staff caused a significant amount of concern. “They realized the Navy is a sieve,” the source said. “Lots of people can get into our networks.”

Over-reliance on computer networks, the source said, could be “the proverbial technological glass jaw.”