Planners Aim to Broaden Navy Intelligence
The U.S. Navy is launching some new initiatives to improve its intelligence capabilities while it takes on new missions amid force cutbacks. The sea service also is planning to make greater use of other service intelligence capabilities and products.
B. Lynn Wright, deputy director of naval intelligence, Headquarters, U.S. Navy, explained some of these naval intelligence activities to the audience at the AFCEA/INSA Intelligence and National Security Summit 2014, held September 18-19 in Washington, D.C. Wright noted the importance of intelligence to the Navy as it deals with new missions.
“Intelligence allows us to deliver both kinetic and nonkinetic effects,” Wright said, adding, “Nonkinetic effects are more valuable most times than kinetic effects.”
Wright described some major projects underway. The Navy recognizes that human intelligence (HUMINT) is central to operations, she said, as crises and war are a human environment. “We are in the process of rebooting Navy HUMINT,” she stated.
Naval intelligence also is focusing on getting back to deep-penetration campaigns against hard targets. It also is building high-end digital models so that it does not have to perform training for all scenarios at sea.
Wright noted that the Navy will be taking advantage of Air Force and Army unmanned aerial reconnaissance work as it seeks to improve its over-the-horizon situational awareness. The intelligence structure must be able to provide the same meaning to users amid a changing environment.
