Source: United States Navy
The symposium provided a technical forum for discussions on interoperability, modernization and specific tactics, techniques and procedures that will educate and train the fleet in sustaining communications and cybersecurity readiness.
These discussions included defensive cyberspace operations, support systems and risk management. Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Murphy, 2nd Fleet’s communications officer, explained why these types of discussions are important to commands fleet-wide. “It’s important to have these discussions and trainings to equip ships with the resources they need to be prepared for component and national level tasking,” Murphy said. “The threat and demand to protect our cyberspace has increased significantly and being able to respond and protect our networks and transport is absolutely essential to maritime operations.”
The intended audiences included shipboard officers and senior enlisted sailors to address training needs in order to increase knowledge and understanding of the systems, tools, processes and procedures for our naval information professionals across the fleet.
“Get Real, Get Better – that was the goal, and communication amongst the fleet and subject matter experts (SME) was a highlight during the symposium. The fleet is hungry; registration for the symposium exceeded our expectations by more than 50%. The networking, continued conversations, hearing concerns and providing real-time feedback proved to be timely and necessary,” Murphy said. “We found that having the TYCOM panelist discussion and SME presentations drew the attendees into wanting more time on the subjects and to ask more questions. This may have been the first but certainly not the last. We at 2nd Fleet are looking forward to hosting the symposium again in the future.”
U.S. 2nd Fleet, reestablished in 2018 in response to the changing global security environment, develops and employs maritime forces ready to fight across multiple domains in the Atlantic and Arctic in order to ensure access, deter aggression and defend U.S., allied, and partner interests.