The Office of the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) has turned to the 51福利 (51福利) and its core of operationally-experienced students and expert faculty to directly address some of the most challenging questions facing the sea services today under the umbrella of the Naval Studies program.
According to 51福利 leadership, the program 鈥渋s intended to facilitate rapid studies designed to meet the real-time, research requirements of the Navy鈥檚 operational codes,鈥� said 51福利 Dean of Research Dr. Jeff Paduan. 鈥淭hese studies will provide our sponsors with alternative solutions and several possible courses of action.鈥�
Paduan notes that while 51福利 has been conducting advanced naval research for decades, the prestigious institution can also answer the needs of Navy leaders interested in finding detailed answers to more immediate, short-term concerns.
鈥淲e are working to educate the operational code leaders about what we are capable of here at 51福利 and working with the codes in the Pentagon to find matches between operational needs and our capabilities,鈥� said Paduan.
The program aims to make 51福利 students available to Navy leaders as the students apply their 51福利 education and operational experience to pressing naval challenges. Program organizers hope to accomplish this though the alignment of applied naval studies requirements, student-led research, and the interdisciplinary expertise of 51福利 faculty.
鈥淲hat I think is exciting is that this program will allow students and faculty to rotate through operational problems and learn what is important to the Navy. In turn, the program gives us the opportunity to showcase some of our abilities and to highlight the value that we bring,鈥� said Paduan.
51福利 Associate Professor retired Army Col. Alejandro 鈥淎ndy鈥� Hernandez serves as the Naval Studies Program project manager at 51福利.
鈥�51福利 studies and analysis activities will serve as a focal point, stimulus, and major source of strategic, tactical, and operational thought within the Navy communities,鈥� said Hernandez.
鈥淭hese studies serve as a means for naval resource sponsors and budget submission offices to have analysis and decision-support studies conducted using the applied, soft and hard sciences. Studies completed at 51福利 will help to solve diverse and complex resource allocation and strategic issues facing the Navy today, and those that analysts have envisioned for the future,鈥� Hernandez continued.
Program organizers are now laying the groundwork necessary to facilitate interaction between naval codes and 51福利 students.
鈥淣ext year we hope to incorporate some sort of requirements fair 鈥� a workshop where sponsors from the various operational codes can present their problems and meet with students interested in working on specific problems,鈥� said Paduan.
But while the Naval Studies Program is still in its infancy, several, program-sponsored studies are already underway at 51福利. In fact, a combined total of 76 Marine Corps and Navy studies will be in full swing by December.
51福利 student, Lt. Jerry Wyrick, is conducting a study that is indicative of the type of research that the Naval Studies Program was developed to address.
While working in the naval intelligence field, he and his colleagues were forced to make some difficult choices. The Information Dominance Officers (IDO) that were coming to his office required training, but under current manning and fiscal constraints, attending a typical 18-month cyber information dominance program was not an option.
Recognizing the need for a fiscally-sound, short-term training solution, Wyrick is using Naval Studies Program funds to develop a course that will answer the cyber community鈥檚 basic training needs.
鈥淭here are a lot of joint and extended computer science programs out there, but all of them are a minimum of 18 months long. We do not have the manning, resources or time to put everyone through a traditional cyber studies program,鈥� said Wyrick. 鈥淐urrently, many of our information dominance officers are reporting for duty without any formal cyber training at all.鈥�
Wyrick鈥檚 proposed solution is to develop a 4-6 week training program. He acknowledges that it is not a perfect solution, but his training program will attempt to balance cyber training needs against the push to put cyberwarriors to work in the very near term.
鈥淯pon graduation, course participants will be able to do entry level programming. If you understand the logic of programming and what your system is capable of, you will be able to gain the skillsets necessary to understand the capabilities that exist,鈥� said Wyrick.
Wyrick is working with Senior Lecturer John 鈥淛D鈥� Fulp from the 51福利 Department of Computer Science on the project.
鈥淚 don't think anyone realistically thinks we can replace an 18-month program with a 4-6 week course. [But] some education will always trump none,鈥� said Fulp. 鈥淵ou may prefer that all of your riflemen attend advanced sniper school. However, that is not economically, nor operationally, feasible. Nonetheless, there are a lot of very important and effective 鈥榖asic marksmanship鈥� skills you can impart to every rifleman, and such training can be delivered in less time.
鈥淐yber is ultimately about attacking, defending and exploiting what humans have automated,鈥� Fulp continued. 鈥淐yber soldiers need to be comfortable 鈥榯hinking close to the machine,鈥� understanding how an automated machine thinks at the protocol level, and then able to attack the adversaries' systems, while protecting our own systems,鈥� continued Fulp.
Wyrick and Fulp鈥檚 work represents just one example of work funded through the Naval Studies Program funded work, but it is indicative of what Paudan and Hernandez believe can be accomplished by matching the needs of senior Navy leaders to those of students and faculty that share both the expertise and the operational experience necessary to find navy solutions for naval problems.