Month: March 2024

Source: United States Navy

Throughout the symposium, speakers and leaders had the opportunity to share their expertise on several themes including warfighting competency, professional and character development, and Sailor’s quality of life.

NAVEUR-NAVAF Staff Command Master Chief Mistie Marcucci was one of the delegates at the symposium, and explained the importance of building a foundation for effective warfighters.

“This week highlighted the necessity to focus on the foundation of our Sailors,” said Marcucci. “An instrumental part of that foundation, is enlisted leadership development. Education of our Sailors is a warfighter enabler.”

Ms. Juliet Beyler, the Executive Director of NAVEUR-NAVAF, was a guest speaker at the symposium and spoke to the importance of diversity in the Navy and why equal opportunity is critical for force development.

“Today, women account for 21% of our active duty Navy and 10% of the Marine Corps,” said Beyler. “When I was first in, women were 4% of the Marine Corps. Across the DoD women are 20% of our force and that number continues to grow.”

Among those themes was diversity and how the military has evolved during the years, especially when it came to women in service.

That same week, Beyler spoke at the Women’s History Month celebration sponsored by the U.S. Sixth Fleet’s Multicultural Heritage Committee onboard U.S. Naval Support Activity (NSA) Naples Capodichino.

“Beyond celebrations of achievement,” said Beyler. “I hope that you walk away from these multi-cultural heritage events with a deeper understanding of your own leadership strengths and weakness and style and hope you at least learn one thing from every speaker. I think we all can learn about the strength of the team and the true power of diversity of thought, perspective and approach.”

Beyler spoke about the progress she has seen over the last 40 years and invited the crowd in attendance and leadership to seek changes of their own and to be on the lookout for excellence.

“Excellence doesn’t always look like excellence,” said Beyler. “Excellence comes in surprising forms, shapes and sizes and I tell everyone to become what you want to become and don’t let someone discourage you because you might not be their version of picture perfect. More importantly, as leaders, every one of you should be constantly on the lookout for that under-the-radar-talent and off-the-wall brilliant idea because great ideas and solutions often come from the most surprising places.”

The symposium aspires to inspire attendees to prioritize trust, confidence, and respect within their teams. By fostering these core values, senior enlisted leaders can help create a more unified and harmonious society, laying the foundation for a peaceful tomorrow.

Headquartered in Naples, Italy, NAVEUR-NAVAF operates U.S. Naval forces in the U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) areas of responsibility. U.S. 6th Fleet is permanently assigned to NAVEUR-NAVAF, and employs maritime forces through the full spectrum of joint and naval operations.

Source: United States Navy

Since arriving to Rota and joining the Forward deployed Naval Forces Europe (FDNF-E) forces in August 2022, Bulkeley’s crew has completed their second patrol in the U.S. Sixth Fleet area of operations, working alongside Allies and partners to ensure security and stability throughout European and African waters.

“The sailors of the USS Bulkeley have consistently shown their dedication and commitment to carrying out the mission as a forward deployed asset since joining FDNF-E force in August 2022,” said Ishee. “The patrol they just completed made a significant impact on naval operations in the region and around the globe, and I am proud to have this incredibly capable ship and crew in this area of operations.”

During the patrol, Bulkeley operated with Carrier Strike Group (CSG ) 12 and USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78). Bulkeley also escorted the Blue Ridge-class command ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20) and the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) on separate missions. The ship participated in various port visits, exercises, trainings, integrating various ships and working alongside allies and partners to ensure security and stability throughout European and African theater.

Bulkeley returned to Naval Station Rota at the end of February 2024, and has spent their in port period maintaining proficiency and training the crew to sustain capability and excellence. Bulkeley’s FDNF-E assignment demonstrates the U.S. Navy’s flexibility to operate throughout Europe and Africa, supporting security and stability in the maritime domain.

For over 80 years, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa (NAVEUR-NAVAF) has forged strategic relationships with allies and partners, leveraging a fountain of shared values to preserve security and stability.

Source: United States Navy

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) researchers deliver novel contribution in fiber optics computing, Fiber Optic Computing Using Distributed Feedback paper recently published in Communications Physics Journal, brings the Navy one step closer to faster, more efficient computing technologies.

Optical computing uses the properties of light, such as its speed and ability to carry large amounts of data, to process information more efficiently than traditional electronic computers.

In collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Central Florida, NRL is aiming to increase processing speeds, reduce energy consumption, and enable new applications in fields such as data processing, telecommunications, and artificial intelligence.

“This paper marks a significant advancement in optical computing,” said Brandon Redding, Ph.D., a research physicist from the NRL Optical Sciences Division. “It is the first to employ distributed feedback in optical fiber, combining temporal encoding with low-loss, partially reflective fiber. Our approach offers scalability to process multiple neurons simultaneously, along with high-speed performance and a compact, lightweight, and power-efficient design, as the entire system is fiber-coupled and does not require free-space optics.”

The Navy is rapidly adopting machine learning algorithms for a wide range of applications. Many of these applications are time and energy-sensitive. For instance, image or target recognition tasks where objects require identification in real time.

“Many of these applications involve forward deployed, often autonomous platforms with limited power availability,” Redding said. “We intend to use analog photonics, which has fundamentally different energy scaling than Von Neumann based digital electronics — to perform these machine learning tasks with lower power consumption and with lower latency. In the current paper, we performed an energy consumption analysis showing the potential for 100-1000x lower power consumption than a GPU depending on the problem size.”

This research shows how optics can be used to conduct valuable computing tasks using passive random projections, in this case non-linear random convolutions. This is counter to how most machine learning works, which typically requires extensive training to set the weights of a neural network.

“Instead, we show that random weights can still perform useful computing tasks,” Redding said. “This is significant because we can apply random weights very efficiently in the optical domain simply by scattering light off of a rough surface, or, as we show in this paper, scattering light off non-uniformities in an optical fiber.”

In traditional, digital electronics-based computers, there wouldn’t be much advantage to doing this because every multiplication operation is just as expensive, in terms of time and energy, whether multiplying by a random number or by a value carefully selected through training.

“This implies that in the optical domain, we may want to design our neural network architectures differently to take advantage of the unique features of optics — some things are easier to do in optics and some things are harder, therefore simply porting the same neural network architecture that was optimized for digital electronics implementations may not be the ideal solution in the optical domain,” Redding said.

A more subtle feature of NRL’s fiber platform is performing convolutions, similar to a convolutional neural network (CNN), a rarity for an optical computing platform. Convolutions are very powerful for tasks like image processing, which led to the widespread use of CNNs within the Department of Defense image processing applications.

“The Navy payoff is implementing machine learning algorithms faster, reducing the delay before we arrive at an answer,” said Joseph Murray, Ph.D., a research physicist from the NRL Optical Sciences Division. “We are also exploring applying these algorithms directly on analog data without requiring intermediate digitization and storage, which could have a significant benefit when processing high bandwidth data that is difficult to record and analyze in real-time, such as: high-resolution image data or RF data for electronic warfare applications.”

This research is sponsored by the NRL Base Program designed to develop fundamental science. The research, both theoretical and experimental, is concerned with discovering and understanding the basic physical principles and mechanisms involved in optical devices, and materials.

“The current paper is the proof-of-principle that we can do useful computing with these fixed, random optical projections, as tested on benchmark tasks like image recognition of handwritten digits,” said Joseph Hart, Ph.D., a research physicist from the NRL Optical Sciences Division. “We also tested this on a SONAR dataset task to show how this platform can discriminate between SONAR signatures from rocks versus underwater mines as a more Navy-specific application.”

The Optical Sciences Division carries out a variety of research, development, and application-oriented activities in the generation, propagation, detection, and use of radiation in the wavelength region between near-ultraviolet and far-infrared wavelengths. The Division serves the Laboratory and the Navy as a consulting body of experts in optical sciences.

About the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory

NRL is a scientific and engineering command dedicated to research that drives innovative advances for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps from the seafloor to space and in the information domain. NRL is located in Washington, D.C. with major field sites in Stennis Space Center, Mississippi; Key West, Florida; Monterey, California, and employs approximately 3,000 civilian scientists, engineers and support personnel.
 
For more information, contact NRL Corporate Communications at (202) 480-3746 or nrlpao@us.navy.mil. 

Source: United States Navy

Culture of Excellence 2.0 focuses on building Great People, Great Leaders, and Great Teams, with the knowledge that this is the best way to prepare for victory in combat, innovate and solve hard problems, and prevent harmful behaviors. It is designed to simplify, streamline, and align traditional Navy programs with new concepts in order to close the gap between the Navy’s highest and lowest performing commands.

“I am releasing Culture of Excellence 2.0 (COE 2.0), the foundation by which our Navy builds its Warfighters – our People, Leaders, and Teams – as a key enabler of delivering the decisive combat power I talked about in ‘America’s Warfighting Navy,’” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti wrote in the naval administrative message.

Culture of Excellence 2.0 is written for command triads and leaders at all levels, but it can also be used by every member of the Navy Team, including civilians, to define what great culture looks like at every Navy command. 

Several products accompany the launch. These include a new COE 2.0 visual placemat that serves as a concise explanation of “what right looks like,” and a playbook that serves as a comprehensive guide to implement COE 2.0 at the command level.

“By being boldly transparent and self-aware, we build combat Teams that are ready for any contingency in any domain,” Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy James Honea wrote in the COE 2.0 playbook. “In order for COE 2.0 to be truly successful, every Sailor must see themselves in this document. We must recognize through COE 2.0 how we make ourselves better, how we make our Shipmates better, and how we make our combat Teams better. Leaders must clearly see this and ensure others do as well.”

Building on Get Real, Get Better principles, the Navy recognized COE 2.0 as an opportunity to empower Navy Leaders with new resources, such as the Commander’s Risk Mitigation Dashboard (CRMD) and the Virtual CO’s Suggestion Box.

These tools intend to help command triads better understand how they can recognize and act on the needs of their People.

“Culture of Excellence 2.0 will be implemented in every Navy command, in order to have a direct and tangible impact on the Quality of Service of our Sailors,” said Rear Adm. Brett Mietus, Director of the Navy Office of Culture and Force Resilience. “It’s not a new requirement or checklist, but a radical simplification of traditional Navy ideas, ideals, and programs combined with newer concepts in order to provide every command with the tools necessary to build warfighters and teams ready to fight and win.”

The COE 2.0 integrated framework incorporates programs already familiar to Sailors, such as suicide prevention, sexual assault prevention and response, and Warrior Toughness, as well as more recent initiatives, such as the Navy Women’s Initiative Team (Navy-WIT) and the Mental Health Playbook.

In 2019, the Navy released initial guidance for building Culture of Excellence in NAVADMIN 254/19. This effort provided a series of tools for Sailors to strengthen fleet wide culture. However, it did not achieve its desired effect for several reasons, to include the impact of COVID-19, too much complexity, and an incomplete approach to building culture. The new COE 2.0 guidance intentionally refrains from creating new tasks for commands, and instead prioritizes a realistic, holistic approach.

For more information on COE 2.0 concepts, visit Culture of Excellence (navy.mil).

For more news from the Chief of Naval Personnel, follow MyNavy HR on Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), and YouTube, or visit https://www.navy.mil/cnp

Source: United States Navy

The book, originally published as a digital edition (508-compliant PDF) in 2021, was written by Dr. Thomas Hone, a former senior defense official, and Curtis Utz, a historian at NNHC, and provides a significant historical account of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV), shedding light on the influential individuals who left an indelible mark on the U.S. Navy’s history and strategic evolution.

Drawing on five years of research, the book offers readers a captivating narrative that goes beyond the battles at sea to uncover the bureaucratic battles that have shaped the Navy’s organization, planning, policies, and strategies over the past century. It delves into the lives and legacies of admirals, especially the Chiefs of Naval Operations (CNO), who played pivotal roles in the development of OPNAV and the Navy itself. It also explores instances when Secretaries of the Navy, Secretaries of Defense, or even Presidents intervened to drive policy because of changing circumstances and their views of national imperatives.

“This book examines the challenges that CNOs and OPNAV have faced over a century, and it provides insight to how and why Navy leadership made policy decisions,” said Utz. “Although the authority of the CNO and the organization of OPNAV have changed over the years, they are still primarily responsible and accountable for shaping and fielding a naval force capable of implementing national strategy.”

One consistent theme throughout the book is the unwavering commitment of CNOs to leaving the Navy stronger and better managed than they found it. This book examines the strategies and measures employed by these leaders to achieve this goal and provides valuable insights into effective leadership within the U.S. Navy. While History of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations: 1915-2015 is not intended to be a manual of leadership, it offers readers an understanding of how leadership within the Navy evolved in response to an ever-changing environment, both in Washington, D.C., and the world.

“As a student of history, I believe that in order to move forward we should look to the past for insights and lessons on how we, as a Navy and a Nation, have navigated similar challenges,” said the 33rd Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti. “Our Navy has been most effective at driving change and developing warfighting advantage when successive CNOs move with urgency and commitment toward the same goal.”

To download a 508-compilant PDF version of the book visit: https://www.history.navy.mil/research/publications/publications-by-subject/opnav-100.html

To check out other publications from NHHC visit: https://www.history.navy.mil/research/publications.html

NHHC, located at the Washington Navy Yard, is responsible for preserving, analyzing, and disseminating U.S. naval history and heritage. It provides the knowledge foundation for the Navy by maintaining historically relevant resources and products that reflect the Navy’s unique and enduring contributions through our nation’s history and supports the fleet by assisting with and delivering professional research, analysis, and interpretive services. NHHC comprises many activities, including the Navy Department Library, the Navy Operational Archives, the Navy art and artifact collections, underwater archeology, Navy histories, ten museums, USS Constitution repair facility, and the historic ship Nautilus.

For more news from NHHC, visit www.history.navy.mil.