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Operational Methods, Tactics Key to Navy Defeating Adversaries

The narrowing technology gap must be overcome by new ways of doing business at sea.

The U.S. Navy is focusing on training its personnel to overcome adversaries that are closing the technology gap with the fleet, according to the admiral in charge of fleet readiness. While the sea service continues to seek game-changing technologies to restore supremacy, it also is relying on new tactics and operational methods to overcome adversaries at sea, underwater, in the air and in cyberspace.

Adm. Philip S. Davidson, USN, commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, described these efforts to the Wednesday morning audience at West 2015, being held in San Diego, February 10-12. The admiral offered that superior technology is not always a solution to adversaries with diverse approaches to undoing that technological edge.

“In the past, we would defeat a challenge with the turn of a firing key,” Adm. Davidson said. “But today, the firing key alone is not enough.”

He called for “an added tactical advantage on the left side of the enemy’s kill chain.” The key to that will be flexibility in operation, and the Navy already is improving its training incrementally to prepare personnel to deal with an evolving fight against diverse adversaries. He noted the Optimized Fleet Response Plan is aligning the Navy’s ways and means to produce combat capable naval forces in this environment.