The Wartime Readiness Action Team at Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Keyport, established in 2023 to create a culture of "durable wartime readiness" across the command, has shifted its focus to sustaining the Fleet in a potential conflict.
The team’s initial focus was establishing the Crisis Response Center, a central hub for coordinating the command’s response to a crisis. But under the leadership of Information Technology Support Services Branch Head Jeff Kistler, who took over as the command’s wartime readiness director last April, the team has pivoted to developing plans and procedures for sustaining and accelerating production of core warfighting capabilities.
A Strategy for a Higher Tempo
While the WRAT’s efforts are still driven by the need to deter potential adversaries within the “Davidson window”—a period of heightened risk for conflict between now and 2027—they also now serve a broader imperative. NUWC Division, Keyport Executive Officer Cmdr. Christi Burgos emphasized the need to maintain "maximum readiness, regardless of peacetime or wartime."
To achieve this, Kistler has implemented a two-pronged strategy: identify the operational needs for sustaining and accelerating the production of Keyport's core assets, and establish the necessary support functions to meet those needs.
“Sustained conflict especially revolves around logistics, which Keyport does really well,” said Mark Sergi, a WRAT member and site lead for Detachment San Diego. “You have to get spare parts, you have to get technical expertise and knowledge transferred. We give it back to you, you put it together and you get back in the fight. That's what Keyport's really good at.”
The Path Forward
As the WRAT refines its processes, strengthens its partnerships with other commands and works to build a culture of wartime readiness, it is incorporating key lessons from recent Fleet exercises, including a major training event last year.
The command is also working closely with other Warfare Centers and Naval Sea System Command headquarters. "We don't want to do this in a bubble,” said Kistler. “It's important that we are unified.”
Kistler said the biggest challenge remains the cultural shift from a peacetime posture to one of constant readiness. "It’s creating the right mindset and sense of urgency and importance of preparing,” he said.
-KPT- Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Keyport is headquartered in the state of Washington on the Puget Sound, about 10 miles west of Seattle. To provide ready support to Fleet operational forces at all major Navy homeports in the Pacific, NUWC Division, Keyport maintains detachments in San Diego, California and Honolulu, Hawaii, and remote operating sites in Guam; Japan; Hawthorne, Nevada; and Portsmouth, Virginia. At NUWC Division, Keyport, our diverse and highly skilled team of engineers, scientists, technicians, administrative professionals and industrial craftsmen work tirelessly to develop, maintain and sustain undersea warfare superiority for the United States.