Naval Warfare Studies Institute
Newsletter  -  9 July 2024

Happy July!

This month’s updates include a few event recaps from the Naval AI Summit held in May and June’s Maritime Risk Symposium at NPS. Our main story shares an update on Task Force Hybrid Force, guest written by NPS’ lead of the Warfare Innovation Continuum, Jeff Kline.

There are a few upcoming events of special note:

• This week is the SECNAV Space Summit on the NPS campus.
• And on 19-21 July, we’re offering a rare opportunity to learn about how the craft of narrative storytelling can impact naval warfare—from Hollywood writers!

Read all about it in our Events section.

As you get back into the groove from the holiday weekend, don’t forget that the Declaration of Independence was signed on the fourth of July 1776.

• It didn’t end the ongoing war against the British, but it did make an eloquent case for why a new democratic country needed to break away from the monarchy.

Questions or comments?

NWSI Hybrid Force Task Force: Sea Control and Sea Denial in the Future Fleet

NWSI’s Hybrid Force task force has been conducting a campaign of analysis on sea control missions in support of a Navy Force Review Study (NFRS).

• In January 2022, the Navy’s lead for the OPNAV-wide NFRS asked NPS to conduct an independent strategic risk assessment and a technical risk assessment of the current programmed Navy force structure and three alternative force designs generated by the OPNAV NFRS team.
• The goal: provide additional independent valuations of each fleet alternative to assist in down-selecting to one alternative for further study.

Why it matters: The foundational wartime Navy mission is to establish control of maritime environments where necessary to meet integrated naval and joint campaign objectives. 

• Specific sea control missions range from protection of seaborne logistics to maritime defense of expeditionary basing.
• At the most basic level, this is the Navy’s primary contribution as a joint force enabler.

The NPS effort: A total of thirty NPS faculty and officer-scholars participated in either one or both risk assessments. 

• Results were provided to the OPNAV NFRS team in two classified narrated briefings with written notes.
• One alternative force structure, the Joint Force enabler, emphasized force capabilities to exercise sea control.

The NWSI Impact: At the request of OPNAV N81 and OPNAV N72, the NWSI Hybrid Force Task force designed and is executing a campaign of analysis to continue work on this force design alternative by exploring additional capabilities and capacities to obtain and exercise sea control.

• This campaign of analysis integrates Joint Force enabler capabilities into a bimodal force concept.
• It assigns a portion of the naval force a sea denial mission inside high-risk areas while retaining traditional surface and air fleets to establish sea control when and where necessary.

The NWSI Hybrid Force is addressing four specific research questions in this year-long effort:

• How might a 2045 Carrier Air Wing be configured to best conduct war at sea strikes, anti-submarine warfare, and integrated air and missile defense as opposed to power projection and long- range strikes?
• How might capabilities such as small missile combatants, armed logistic ships, various unmanned systems, AI, cyber, quantum sensing, nano-satellites, sea wing in ground effect, airships, seaplanes, dynamic mine fields and other emerging technologies enhance sea control missions?
• What are the strategic and technical risks associated with a fleet design weighing sea control over power projection?
• How might the Army, Air Force, and Marines adapt their future force concepts and designs given a Sea Control Navy force?

How it works: The campaign of analysis involves a series of studies, analysis, workshops, simulations, and wargames to answer these questions and discover, assess, and recommend ways to enhance and further develop the sea control capabilities of U.S. naval forces. 

The figure below shows the macro event schedule.

Figure 1: NPS Sea Control Force Design Campaign of Analysis Schedule

The campaign of analysis kicked off with a Warfare Innovation Workshop (WIW) for officers in the winter Joint Campaign Analysis course. 

• The workshop’s objective: survey current and emerging technologies that may be used to enhance sea control by U.S. naval forces.

Using the workshop’s insights as a foundation, teams from the Joint Campaign Analysis then considered four ideas:

• modifying carrier air wings to focus on the sea control mission
• designing a multi-domain sea denial system
• proposing a port security system
• addressing additional joint force requirements to address power projection.

Officers in the WIW also benefited from a recently completed study by NPS Masters of Systems Analysis scholars addressing carrier air wing modification to enhance the ability to exercise sea control.

• These combined efforts addressed two of the four questions above: composition of a dedicated sea control naval air wing and enhanced joint capabilities in power projection in response to the naval air wing’s loss to that mission.
• These efforts were shared with OPNAV N81 and OPNAV N72 staff.

A classified wargame was conducted the first week of June to further assess the bimodal fleet concept, specifically the efficacy of a series of littoral sea denial systems composed of multidomain crewed and uncrewed systems to impose risk on an adversary. 

• Officers from the NPS wargaming course developed, designed, and executed the game.
• Players and observers included NPS warfare chairs, NPS faculty with military and/or military strategic planning experience, and OPNAV staff.
• Results of this wargame will further refine the Hybrid Force with bimodal concept to provide OPNAV with a force design alternative to analyze.

What’s next: Future events will include a strategic risk assessment and technical risk assessment to complete the 12-month campaign of analysis.

• A concept of a multidomain crewed and uncrewed littoral denial system is shown below.

NPS Hosts Maritime Risk Symposium

In June, NPS hosted the Maritime Risk Symposium (MRS), co-sponsored by the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and National Academy of Sciences Transportation Research Board.

• More than 200 attendees joined senior leaders from across the services, federal and state agencies, academia, and industry along with NPS faculty, staff and students.

DON-CIO Chairs for Information Superiority at NPS retired Vice Adm. TJ White and Lt. Gen. Lori Reynolds, USMC, speak on a panel at the Maritime Risk Symposium.

In June, NPS hosted the Maritime Risk Symposium (MRS), co-sponsored by the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and National Academy of Sciences Transportation Research Board.

• More than 200 attendees joined senior leaders from across the services, federal and state agencies, academia, and industry along with NPS faculty, staff and students.

NPS President retired Vice Adm. Ann Rondeau set an urgent tone in her opening remarks.

• She warned that Gray Zone tactics are just part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) overall hybrid warfare strategy to gain control of Taiwan, and if allowed, the entire Indo-Pacific region and rules-based order of global free trade are at stake.

Randy Pugh, NPS' Vice Provost for Warfare Studies, went further:

• "The illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive PRC-led tactics will continue to expand without end unless the combined forces and agencies of all maritime democracies stand firm, and increase coordination and collaboration world-wide, now."

Participants took a fresh look at the 2020 Tri-Service Maritime Strategy between the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps with regard to Gray Zone actions and how essential a revitalized U.S. maritime industrial base is to countering PRC’s malign activities, as increasingly called for through bipartisan efforts to create a National Maritime Strategy.

• A key point made was to ensure this future strategy also fully accounts for asymmetric threats within the cyber domain, especially as AI-enabled capability increases – a concern vetted with experts and leaders alike to include DON-CIO Chairs for Information Superiority at NPS—and NWSI members—retired Vice Adm. TJ White and Lt. Gen. Lori Reynolds, USMC.

Other key leaders present included

• Rear Adm. Michael Brookes, Commander, Office of Naval Intelligence;
• Adm. Andrew Sugimoto, USCG Commander District 11;
• Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby, former Administrator, U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD);
• Rear Adm. Nancy Hann, Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Commissioned Officer Corps; and
• Rear Adm. Megan Dean, USCG Commander, District 17 in Juneau, Alaska.

"I was impressed by the discussions and efforts to expand thinking and coordination by including NOAA, MARAD and the Maritime Industry," said Dean.

• “The event’s discussion on Maritime Domain Awareness, cyber, and elements of the Maritime Transportation System is timely as the coercive gray zone activity expands in my AOR and many others. The USCG Commandant’s Evergreen event complemented the symposium perfectly to look at actions, and future possibilities. My compliments to NPS and the MRS Committee for a great event that enabled this strategic dialogue."

The NWSI Impact: NWSI facilitated a Maritime Gray Zone Exploration Workshop on the second day of the symposium, an exploration of a design challenge to inform the 2025 Maritime Risk Symposium planning team run by NWSI.

• This workshop applied the concept generation strategies used in warfare innovation continuum workshops and other similar events.

Pictured above is the team led by the NWSI Facilitation Corps member Zach Klein.

• He is facilitating a team made up of professionals from the NPS Energy Academic Group, the University of San Diego, Sikorsky/Lockheed Martin, Dog Zebra Solutions LLC, and the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies.

The team addressed this three-part design challenge:

• How might a diverse group of stakeholders ensure leaders at the appropriate level of command make effective decisions in conditions of deep uncertainty?
• What capabilities might be needed to effectively counter threats in a contested littoral environment?
• How might the sea services and maritime industry best collaborate to mitigate risks associated with conducting operations and countering gray zone operations in a dynamic and pristine Arctic?

What's next: The September workshop kicking off the next year of Warfare Innovation Continuum activities runs 23-26 September.
 

The 8th Naval AI Summit was a resounding success!

The Spring 2024 Naval AI Summit brought together 500+ people (in-person and virtually) at the Marine Corps University’s Brute Krulak Center for Innovation and Future Warfare to share and to learn about AI work being done across the DoD.

• There were attendees and presenters from every service, the Joint Staff, CDAO, and industry.

The Naval AI Summit started in January 2022 when a dozen people got together and vowed to fix AI in the Navy and Marine Corps.

• Exciting initiatives are being driven top-down by the Service Headquarters and bottom-up by the Operating Forces – our collective progress in turning opportunity into true capability is accelerating.

As with all previous Summits, one of the best parts of the Naval AI Summit was the opportunity for AI thought leaders, practitioners, program managers, and warfighters to make great connections (NWC, NRL, Navy AI Task Forces, HQMC DC I, wargame experts, Qualcomm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, etc.).

The summit generated the following takeaways.

What’s working:

• Services are intelligently balancing research (long-term) and development (near-term)
• Services are deftly managing AI-related risk, speed, security, and ethical concerns
• Services have all created Chief Data and AI Officers
• Industry’s AI leaders are strong and incredibly dedicated partners
• Naval, Joint, and Coalition interoperability and integration is constantly considered
• Everyone is committed to sharing and cooperating

What’s needed:

• Shared database of AI-related Use Cases - ideas, problems, and best practices
• “Central connector” to ensure durability of the current coalition of the willing
• Naval AI Center of Excellence / Accelerator like the USA and USAF
• Continue improving data discipline and data sharing
• Exponentially increase educating our uniformed and civilian workforce in AI
• Go faster!

Ultimately, our success will be due to talented and dedicated people, professional relationships, and cooperative / collaborative efforts.

What’s next: The next Naval AI Summit will be held at NPS and is scheduled for [DATE?]

Read more about the summit and the full after-action report.

NPS in the News

DOD FutureG Office Invests in NPS to Advance 5G Networks, Workforce Matt Schehl, NPS

The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering’s FutureG Office recently took a significant step toward advancing next-generation wireless network capabilities for the Department of Defense (DOD) and developing the workforce to deploy them.

On April 22, Dr. Tom Rondeau, FutureG's principal director, formally approved a $1.8 million investment in NPS over the next five years for workforce development and education in addition to research in expeditionary applications of 5G open networks and beyond.

The project, entitled Active-Duty Open-Source Development (ADOSD), seeks to establish a formal and sustained graduate-level education and research program at NPS to develop advanced 5G (Fifth Generation) and FutureG (Future Generation) expertise in the active-duty force. This is particularly important for personnel who may be tasked to plan, install, operate and maintain 5G/FutureG networks in expeditionary environments.  Read more.

Defense Technology Exploration Continues to Thrive at JIFX Dan Linehan, NPS

The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) conducted its spring Joint Interagency Field Experimentation (JIFX) event in May, with a technological focus on command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C5ISR) and countermeasures.

The interaction between technologists and stakeholders at JIFX serves to rapidly advance innovation that can specifically address gaps in operational technology.

WeatherHive, a swarming meteorological measurement system being developed by GreenSight, is a project funded by DIU for the U.S. Air Force Weather Wing. By deploying 10 small quadcopter drones from a portable “hive” canister, the system can collect weather data not just for tactical weather forecasting, but for “nowcasting” – what's happening right now and in the immediate future. Read more.

NPS Student Captures Unique Photo of Earth Using Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Dan Linehan, NPS

A recent photo taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has revealed a very unusual subject – Earth!

Typically, as its name suggests, the LRO is pointed at the surface of the moon. But while U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Timothy Musmanno was a student in Space Systems Engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), he had the idea to point the LRO at Earth while testing out a new kind of satellite maneuver.

What allowed this opportunity to happen was NPS’ work on fast attitude maneuvering, which is a process that optimizes the movement of a spacecraft as it maneuvers to reorient itself to point in a new direction.  Read more.

Events

SECNAV Space Summit
Tuesday, 9 July 2024 to Thursday, 11 July 2024
King Hall Auditorium | Glasgow Hall

The SECNAV will host the Naval Space Summit at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, California from 09-11 July 2024. The Summit will re-baseline the naval space focus of efforts at the strategic and operational level and clarify the way forward in establishing a path for success against current and future adversaries.

NPS Writers Room
19-21 July 2024
King Hall Design Lab

Write a fictional scenario for the 2024 NPS Warfare Innovation Continuum (WIC).

This interactive “writers room” experience will guide students through a hands-on professional-level creative experience to build skills through developing the WIC scenario. NPS students and faculty will gain an appreciation for key elements of narrative for more compelling and powerful messaging throughout their academic journey and their careers. A compelling scenario sometimes makes the stakes clear more quickly than a series of graphs and tables in a technical report. In complex military problem spaces our warfighters need to make these stakes clear to decision makers for quick effective action so tools of narrative will be key!

NOTE: limited to government (military and civilian)

Want to learn more about what to expect?

• Watch this short video intro:

JIFX 24-4
August 5, 2024 to August 9, 2024

Focus Area: Non-Standard Communication & Navigation
NPS Field Laboratory at Camp Roberts Event

The Non-Standard Communication & Navigation focus area delves into innovative and unconventional methods of communication and navigation, aiming to revolutionize how information is exchanged in diverse and challenging environments. This event centers on developing and growing cutting-edge technologies that transcend traditional communication and navigation paradigms, catering to scenarios where standard infrastructure is unavailable or compromised.

• Emerging Frequency Bands
• Quantum Communication
• Visible Light Communication (VLC)
• Biological Communication
• Cognitive Radio Networks
• Navigation in GPS-Denied Environments
• Swarm Communication
• Underwater Communication

Learn more.

Naval Warfare Studies Institute
Newsletter  -  30 May 2024

Happy May!

In this newsletter, we’re bringing updates from two of the teams that are working on projects identified in September’s Warfare Innovation Continuum (WIC) workshop that focused on Integrated Naval Campaigning. The design challenge for the workshop was: How might the confluence of new technologies provide opportunities for new operational concepts in executing integrated naval campaigning across the full Spectrum of Conflict?

Eight facilitated concept generation teams worked over 3 ½ days to generate concepts in these eight areas:

• Amphibious operations
• Coalition operations
• Gray zone operations
• Contested logistics
• Future vertical takeoff and landing
• Advanced mining
• Undersea operations
• Long-range fires

Since the workshop in September, teams have continued to collaborate on research and concept generation. This newsletter provides updates on the teams working on amphibious operations and advanced mining.

• BTW, the Final Report for the WIC Workshop is hot off the press and now available on the event page.

We also have updates from this month’s Acquisition Research Symposium, co-hosted by NWSI and the Acquisition Research Program at NPS.

• NWSI Director Randy Pugh chaired one of two panels on artificial intelligence in (and for) acquisition.

Continuing the conversation on AI, Pugh traveled across the country to lead the eighth Naval AI Summit at Quantico the following week. Check out the after action report now, and we’ll bring more updates in the next newsletter.

Finally, we share two stories that celebrate NPS collaboration with industry partners Qualcomm and AT&T and showcase the beautiful marriage of technology and naval warfare expertise.

We’re excited to see the NPS innovation network continue growing and to be a key part of it.  Let us know if you want to join in!

Team update: 21st Century Amphibious Operations Concept – Future Operating Environment

Members of the Amphibious Operations team, photographed in September, included four NPS students, two NPS faculty members, and eight guests from warfare centers, a warfighting lab, a systems command, and industry. This team was facilitated by a warfare center engineer and an NPS faculty member.

At September’s Warfare Innovation Continuum Workshop, the team presented this hypothesis: In 2040-2045, amphibious forces will support maritime campaigning by controlling key maritime terrain. 

Why it matters: The team identified several benefits from amphibious operations:

• Highly diversified amphibious capabilities and operation types increase scalability, integrate better with other stand-in forces, and make targeting complex for adversaries.
• Streamlined command relationships generate decision advantage.
• Conscious and careful "operationalization” of phasing ensures all activities contribute to campaign objectives.

What’s happened since September: Research has been led by members of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) and Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock (NSWC-CD) to develop a baseline amphibious ship concept that will support the 21^st Century Amphibious Operations concept.

How it works: The main goal for the concept: develop a low-signature amphibious ship that can deliver and retract a company-sized maneuver force to a beach in a contested littoral environment.

To meet this primary goal, the team wanted the ship to be able to

• Support a platoon of Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACV), or equivalent, for surface lift and land maneuver.
• Support take-off, landing, and hangar storage for a HMLA (Helicopter Marine Light Attack) section of 1 x AH-1 and 1 x UH-1, or equivalent.
• Provide a well deck capable of employing a Mk-VI Patrol Boat, or equivalent.

An NPS student wargame has already provided insights about potential relationships between stand-in forces and amphibious forces. 

• Lesson learned: There does not appear to be a "one-size-fits-all" command and control template for stand-in forces operating with distinctly amphibious forces. Certain C2 models are more effective than others in given situations. 

Plus, force design efforts by the UK’s Royal Marines have reinforced the team’s view of the future operating environment, and many of their proposed solutions align with the hypotheses of our concepts.

This March, the team held a wargame to experiment with the amphibious ship concept’s capabilities. About ten people from MCWL worked to prepare for the wargame, and NSWC-CD sent 12 people to support and observe.

• The team is using results of the wargame to create a foundational model which they can use to assess trade-offs of different ship capabilities and their impact on operational effectiveness in potential excursions.

What’s next: The team will continually scan for signals and trends to confirm or deny the assumptions that inform 21^st Century Amphibious Operations (and other concepts) to understand emerging threats and opportunities that may justify new operating concepts.

Team update: Mobile Mines

The Systems Engineering Analysis (SEA) 33 capstone team is working on the design and analysis of the potential benefits of self-mobile sea mines over traditional static mines.

Why it matters: The incorporation of self-mobility into sea mines can potentially provide numerous benefits over traditional static mines that could not only improve lethality and the counter-mobility effects, but could also provide benefits to mine delivery, minefield flexibility, tactical employment, and minelayer safety.

• The biggest challenge will be the balance of mine capabilities with energy density to provide a sustained presence in the water space.

A team-generated drawing illustrates their basic concept.

Click to edit this placeholder text.

What’s happened since September: The team has considered numerous potential ways in which to incorporate mobility into sea mines and has created an operational and functional architecture for their proposed design.

• They have also begun developing the testing scenarios and simulation in which to evaluate the effectiveness of their design in comparison to static mines using the Navy's Modeling and Simulation Toolbox (MAST) software.

The team is led by CDR Erik Kowalski, a MH-53E Pilot who graduates with a degree in Systems Engineering in June 2024.

• The team has 22 warrior-scholar members from multiple NPS degree programs, as well as students from National University of Singapore’s Temasek Defence Systems Institute.
• Members include officers from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, Brazilian Air Force, Taiwanese Navy, Israeli Defense Force, and Singapore Army, as well as U.S. and Singapore Navy civilians.

What’s next:  The next steps will be translating the system functional architecture into a physical architecture and evaluating the effectiveness of their design compared to static mines with regard to sustained lethality, technical feasibility and cost.  Sorry, but you may not get another update on this topic.  The team’s research is proving really compelling and, when it comes to building offensive mining concepts and capabilities, “loose lips won’t sink ships!”

• Yes, and: Team lead CDR Kowalski’s next assignment will be as the Aviation Safety Officer on the USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN-73).

Pugh Leads Conversation on Artificial Intelligence in Acquisition

At this month's Acquisition Research Symposium co-hosted by NWSI, Randy Pugh chaired a panel that considered AI in sustainment, talent management, and cost modeling. Pugh connected his past operational experience acquiring software-intensive intelligence systems to today’s challenges acquiring AI.

“At the time, there was nothing more risky or complex than acquiring a software application. It’s just filled with ambiguity and cost and risk,” Pugh said. “Acquiring AI tools or doing AI for the acquisition community is going to be like acquiring software, only exponentially more complex and exponentially more risky.”

As NWSI Director, Pugh helps Naval leaders and practitioners navigate this complexity by connecting them with AI experts at the Naval AI Summits regularly organized by NPS and DON CIO. The latest summit was held last week at Quantico and assembled hundreds of participants learning how to apply this emerging technology.

Watch the panel to learn more about AI in acquisition (and a bonus reveal of how DoD crowdsources data labeling for visual recognition apps).

Watch a two-minute video recap of the Acquisition Research Symposium.

NPS in the News

Naval Postgraduate School and Qualcomm Empower Student Ideas, Wireless Innovation
Naval Postgraduate School Public Affairs

NPS student Lt. Alexander Evans and faculty associate Darren Rogers work with 5G wireless equipment provided by Qualcomm Technologies under a Limited Purpose Cooperative Research and Development Agreement.

The emergence of autonomous vehicles and drones has increased the demand for communication technologies that can move vast amounts of data at the necessary speeds, but traditional communication systems have struggled to keep up with the evolving landscape of modern military operations. At the same time, U.S. service members are operating in contested distributed environments that require agile and innovative applications of technology in the face of multidomain threats.

These are the types of challenges that U.S. Navy Lt. Alexander Evans, a student at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), and U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Brian Allen, an NPS alumnus, aim to solve through their research. Evans and Allen took advantage of a Limited Purpose Collaborative Research and Development Agreement (LP-CRADA) between NPS and Qualcomm Technologies to collaborate with NPS faculty and Qualcomm Technologies technologists to explore the application of 5G technology and develop innovative solutions for the fleet and Fleet Marine Force. Read more. 
 

NPS is partnering with Commander, Task Force 66 (CTF-66) in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations to help them drive innovation, development, and acceleration of asymmetric capabilities in support of allies and partners across the European and African theaters.

“We are proud that Rear Admiral Mattis, CTF-66, asked for our support, and we will bring to bear all that sets NPS apart,” said Kaitie Penry, Director of Research Innovation. “NPS will support rapid development of the CTF-66 Innovation Cell to help build their capacity and capability leveraging the Naval Innovation Center, our operationally experienced students, faculty experts and partner ecosystem as a shared framework of learning and applied research.”

• Read the full story at Navy.mil.
   

The Bottom Line – Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) | AT&T Business

Check out the latest episode of The Bottom Line featuring the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, California. NPS is not only the flagship technical graduate school for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, it’s also a tech accelerator, incubator, and testbed for applications, concepts, and capabilities. During this episode, we’ll visit with NPS President Ann Rondeau, Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.), students, and other subject matter experts to discuss their research as well as the value of industry-academic collaboration in developing defense innovation.

Watch now.

Upcoming Events

JIFX Call for Proposals

Proposals are now open for the Joint Interagency Field Experiment 24-4, focused on Non-Standard Communication & Navigation.

This focus area delves into innovative and unconventional methods of communication and navigation, aiming to revolutionize how information is exchanged in diverse and challenging environments. This event centers on developing and growing cutting-edge technologies that transcend traditional communication and navigation paradigms, catering to scenarios where standard infrastructure is unavailable or compromised.

Proposals are due by 03 June 2024.

Learn more.

NPS Writers Room Info Session
4 June 2022, 1200-1300
Reed 101 or on MS Teams

Learn what to expect from the July Writers Room workshop.

Write a fictional scenario for the 2024 NPS Warfare Innovation Continuum (WIC). This interactive “writers room” experience will guide students through a hands-on professional-level creative experience to build skills through developing the WIC scenario.

Modeling Virtual Environments and Simulation (MOVES) Institute Open House 4-6 June 2024
Naval Postgraduate School

This three-day event opens with information on MOVES status, its future, and the curriculum, plus briefs and demos of MOVES research. Thursday is an industry day, with a keynote, briefs, and demos. Keynote speakers are COL Heath McCormick, USA, and Mr. David Allsop, Boeing.

Maritime Risk Symposium
11-13 June 2024
Naval Postgraduate School

The Maritime Risk Symposium is an annual three-day conference in which government and maritime industry leaders, port representatives, researchers, and solution providers convene to examine current and emerging threats to maritime security.  Check out details here.

Maritime Gray Zone Exploration Workshop
12-13 June 2024

This workshop is offered by the NWSI Concepts Branch and runs concurrently with the USCG Maritime Risk Symposium EVERGREEN Workshop to complete the final day and a half of the three-day symposium.

Through a plausible near-future Arctic regional scenario, small teams of government, military, maritime industry stakeholders, and retired senior leaders and mentors will explore maritime gray zone issues of interest to the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and other maritime security stakeholders. Using tools of human-centered design, participants in the MGZ Exploration Workshop will address the design challenge: How might a diverse group of stakeholders ensure leaders at the appropriate level of command make effective decisions in conditions of deep uncertainty and what capabilities might be needed to effectively counter threats in a contested littoral environment, and how might the sea services and maritime industry best collaborate to mitigate risks associated with conducting operations and countering gray zone operations in a dynamic and pristine Arctic?

Spring Quarter Graduation with VADM Kelly Aeschbach, NAVIFOR
21 June 2024
Naval Postgraduate School

MORS 92nd Symposium
24-27 June 2024
Naval Postgraduate School

SECNAV Space Summit
9-11 July 2024
Naval Postgraduate School

NPS Writers Room
19-21 July 2024
King Hall Design Lab

Write a fictional scenario for the 2024 NPS Warfare Innovation Continuum (WIC).

This interactive “writers room” experience will guide students through a hands-on professional-level creative experience to build skills through developing the WIC scenario. NPS students and faculty will gain an appreciation for key elements of narrative for more compelling and powerful messaging throughout their academic journey and their careers. A compelling scenario sometimes makes the stakes clear more quickly than a series of graphs and tables in a technical report. In complex military problem spaces our warfighters need to make these stakes clear to decision makers for quick effective action so tools of narrative will be key!

NOTE: limited to government (military and civilian)

Info session on 4 June 2024, 1200-1300 in Reed 101 or on MS Teams