Signature Event 8: Navy Flag Office Panel - The Navy the Nation Needs
(Room 330BCD)
04 Dec 19
10:30 AM
-
12:00 PM
Tracks:
Full Schedule, Signature Event, Wednesday Schedule
Superior technology and training is critical to the United States Navy’s advantage over its potential adversaries. In this special event, Navy Flag Officers will discuss how the U.S. Navy plans to advance the best-prepared fighting force in the world. This year's I/ITSEC theme, "Winning the War of Cognition, by Pushing Readiness & Lethality Boundaries" highlights how the Navy uses the latest learning innovations and technology to modernize traditional military training methods to give us a distinct advantage. In the face of any potential opponent, it is the readiness of our personnel – their ability to pivot and make sound decisions under pressure – that will provide our greatest asymmetrical, warfighting advantage. Because highly-skilled warfighters are able to make superior decisions and perform their missions better, training sits at the very core of naval readiness. To that end, the Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer called for the Department of the Navy to "become and remain a continual learning organization, because that is how you maintain Warfighting Readiness and excel in the battle." Likewise, the United States Maritime Strategy calls for the sea services to "create a true learning competency that unites our acquisition, requirements, and programming efforts to deliver the latest in technology and design, resulting in realistic simulation and live, virtual, and constructive scenarios before our people deploy…" High-quality training is an investment in improving the human performance of our warfighters. However, in developing training, we also have the responsibility to make affordability a priority throughout the training system cycle of research, development, acquisition and sustainment. To remain flexible, agile, and ready, our Navy seeks out and employs innovative training methods to train Sailors more efficiently and to ever-higher levels of proficiency while maintaining a high speed to fleet. The Navy is taking efforts to prevent inefficiencies in the training pipeline and the training acquisition process. For the Navy a key measure in deciding whether to invest in a new training technology is will it make the Naval force more lethal. As Secretary Spencer said to senior Naval Officers, "people are foundational to everything we do. We could have the best processes in the world. We could have the best ships, airplanes, rifles, and tanks – but they are nothing without the people who operate and maintain them. The Department of the Navy is dedicated to recruiting, training, and retaining the best America has to offer, at every level…" Sailors with superior training are an essential component of maintaining maritime superiority, now and in the future. This panel of senior Navy leaders will provide insight from acquisition, research and development, and mission readiness perspectives into how effective and relevant training optimizes the human performance of U.S. Navy Sailors. As Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Michael Gilday said, "We will question our assumptions. We will think differently about the competition that we are now in. We will be the navy the nation needs now and we will build a Navy the nation needs to fight and win in the future.”