Hepworth, along with fellow student U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Ellie Ekman, offered a brief on their research effort assessing multi-domain denial in the South China Sea.

"This afternoon I was fortunate to brief Adm. Swift on behalf of a campaign analysis project team from the operations research program," said Hepworth. "The ability to brief and converse with the senior leadership of one of our most important allies was a fantastic opportunity.

"His engagement and passion for the research really demonstrated to me the meaningfulness of the work we are doing here, as well as its impact within the wider U.S. military," he continued.

"I know similar conversations are happening in Australia on this topic and I plan to engage in these with the valuable input gained here at NPS, and specifically from Adm. Swift," Hepworth added. "Understanding his intent and vision for this analysis will be valuable for further Australian and U.S. dialogue in the future."

The students noted how quickly Swift found his way to the core relevance of their efforts, and offered valuable feedback for further research.

"He used his vast experience and knowledge to add important context to everyone's research, whilst providing a way forward with which to move with the research in order to provide a greater benefit to the military," Hepworth said.

Following a roundtable discussion with faculty, and the student thesis presentations, Swift departed NPS with plans to re-engage in the future.

"Figuring out problems can be difficult, but that's what this institution does, figuring out hard problems," said Swift. "The power of the [Naval] Postgraduate School is the power of imagination."