Page 59 - Maritime Services and the Kill Web

The Maritime Services, the Allies and Shaping the Kill Web

We first visited Fallon Naval Air Station in 2014 and produced a Special Report on the evolution of Naval
Aviation anchored in part by that visit.

http://www.sldinfo.com/the-evolving-future-for-naval-aviation/

As the then head of the training center, Admiral Scott Conn, who will soon become head of N-98 or The Air
Warfare Division of OPNAV, commented at the time:

Naval aviation is very interdependent on how we train aircrew and how we resource to those training
requirements.

As competing readiness requirements pressurize the flight hour program, a bow wave is created by pushing
training qualifications later on in one’s aviation career.

Naval aviation is looking at this issue hard, to ensure our future forward deployed leaders will have the
requisite knowledge, skills and experience to in fact, lead.
We have returned to Fallon this summer and found the training command in the process of promoting
significant change associated with preparation for the evolution of high tempo or high intensity combat
operations.

The name of the command has changed in part to reflect the significant shift in direction for training for naval
air warfare or really becoming combat development training, rather than training for platform proficiency as
a core focus.

The target goal is to shape an integrated distributed force able to dominate at all levels throughout the
spectrum of warfare.

Several changes have been already been put in place to facilitate this effort, and more are on the way.
One challenge though is the training word.

This term tends to conjure up learning skill sets on a platform and getting proficient on that platform and the
conflict envelope within which that platform will confront peer competitors. The image of TOPGUN comes to
mind in which it is aircraft versus aircraft in face offs to drive enhanced proficiency.

TOPGUN is part of NAWDC; not the definer of it.
Although platform proficiency is crucial, it is simply a building block in weaving capabilities for the integrated
high-end fight and to do so requires significant change, some of which we saw in the period from our last visit
to the latest one.

We had a chance during our visit to meet several times with and to interview the current head of the training
command, Admiral “Hyfi” Harris.

This Fall the Admiral will join the Nimitz in operations in the Middle East where strike ops are being conducted
currently against ISIS.

http://www.navy.mil/navydata/bios/bio.asp?bioID=993

Since we last visited the training command, the name has changed and that change reflects a broadening of
the focus to both infusing the Navy with an evolving aviation approach and integrating the air wing with the
broader challenges occurring within the fleet.

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