Corps of Foreign Naval Attachés Visit CIWT

Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Lindsay Lair | The Corps of Foreign Naval Attachés, a contingent of military officers from 15 nations, visited the Center for Information Warfare Training (CIWT), to hear about the U.S. Navy’s latest information warfare training from Cdr. Chris Dumas, executive officer, CIWT, on Corry Station on Apr. 19.  

PENSACOLA, FL, UNITED STATES

04.21.2023

Story by Kurt Van Slooten 

Center for Information Warfare Training

PENSACOLA, Fla. – Commander. Chris Dumas, executive officer, Center for Information Warfare Training (CIWT), received the Corps of Foreign Naval Attachés for their visit to Corry Station on Apr. 19.

The contingent of attachés included military officers from 15 nations: Australia, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Dumas provided an overview of CIWT operations, which are focused on delivering trained information warfare professionals to the Navy and joint services, enabling optimal performance of information warfare across the full spectrum of military operations.

“The information environment is a very dynamic, technologically flexible, and a rapidly developing environment globally,” said Dumas. “So as a result, how we train information warfare professionals has to be agile, it has to be flexible, it has to be responsive.”

Dumas spoke briefly about the history of Corry Station, “the cradle of Navy cryptology,” which houses CIWT headquarters, as well as its largest training command by annual student throughput, Information Warfare Training Command (IWTC) Corry Station. He then went on to explain how CIWT’s four subordinate IWTCs train information warfare professionals at 17 learning sites geographically spread across the continental United States, Hawaii, and Japan. Dumas highlighted that most of CIWT’s 17 learning sites are located in Fleet Concentration Areas, nearby the Navy’s operational force.

Dumas also explained, in response to an attaché’s question, that the proximity of the CIWT learning sites to the Navy’s operational force allows for curriculum to address real-world scenarios information warfare professionals could expect when deployed and operational, especially for those students attending IWTC Virginia Beach and IWTC San Diego as part of their Optimized Fleet Response Plan training continuum.

In response to a question from another of the attaché’s asking how CIWT ensures that curriculum taught to information warfare professionals is relevant and up-to-date, Dumas commended the Training Requirements Review (TRR) process as a critical enabling factor. He explained that prior to the development of the TRR process by Naval Education and Training Command in 2016, curriculum development and revision was a slow, multi-year process. The TRR process was designed to specifically solicit feedback from the fleet and stakeholders to address those specific aspects of an individual course’s curriculum where change needs to be made instead of the previous model would require large-scale course revisions adding latency and delaying delivery to the fleet.

Concluding, Dumas reported that the information warfare field is growing within the Navy as cyber assumes a more prominent role and new information warfare capabilities and tradecraft are being developed and integrated into the fleet. Dumas also emphasized that the information warfare fight is a joint endeavor – training and working hand-in-hand with sister services, as well continuing to grow in interoperability with allies and partner nations to meet our global information needs in the current complex global operational environment.

With four schoolhouse commands, two detachments, and training sites throughout the United States and Japan, Center for Information Warfare Training trains over 26,000 students every year, delivering trained information warfare professionals to the Navy and joint services. Center for Information Warfare Training also offers more than 200 courses for cryptologic technicians, intelligence specialists, information systems technicians, electronics technicians, and officers in the information warfare community.

• Date Taken: 04.21.2023
• Date Posted: 04.21.2023 09:27
• Story ID: 443069
• Location: PENSACOLA, FL, US