The Navy's Cryptologists

We have great capability. The Navy, through its cryptologists, has some of the best linguists and network operators that are in the military service today. My concern is capacity and retention. There was a plan to add a substantial number of personnel to this community with the 2011 budget, but due to competing priorities, we got a little less than half of what we planned. We still need to increase our capacity, our personnel, in this area.

The Navy has outstanding signals intelligence capabilities. We also have a sound electronic warfare program, specifically with aviation capacity. We need to do some work on what we have in surface warfare, but we have a relatively sound foundation there. Therefore, my initial focus is on networks and the ability to command and control our forces globally. How do we get from static and reactive network operations and defense to proactive and dynamic? My first near-term goal is to establish dynamic cyber operations, which includes defense, as well as exploitation and development of non-kinetic effects.

Dynamic cyber operations is a huge challenge for the Navy, and I think there is one chance to get it right — and that is now. The Navy has the right vision to put us at the forefront of this capability and capacity in this new warfare domain.

Vice Admiral Barry McCullough
Commander, Fleet Cyber Command
Commander, TENTH Fleet

in the June issue of CHIPS magazine