Vice Adm. Brown Holds All-Hands Call at Naval Base Coronado

Vice Adm. Brian B. Brown, Commander, Naval Information Forces (NAVIFOR) held an all-hands call for Sailors at Naval Base Coronado (NBC), March 5.

This visit marks the first time Brown convened such an event open to all San Diego area commands to speak about his increased role in the Information Warfare (IW) Community since assuming command of NAVIFOR in June 2018.

“IW is a warfighting discipline, a set of warfighting capabilities, and an enabler for all Navy mission areas,” said Brown. “It underpins every warfighting domain from sea to land, to air, to undersea, to cyber, to space. It is a complex network of human talent, machines, spectrum, and data that provides our Force with non-kinetic options, increases lethality of kinetic options, enables maneuver and distributed maritime operations, and delivers the home-field advantage at the away game.”

During the all-hands call, Brown presented on topics including IW integration into the fleet; manning, training and equipping personnel; the future of the IW community; impacts of the creation of the U.S. Space Force, and the expansion of IW Commander beyond Expeditionary Strike Groups to Amphibious Ready Groups.

“We’ve been charged with focusing our efforts on great power competition,” said Brown. “We went through many years of being the only superpower and now we find ourselves, over the last decade or so, with a rising China and rejuvenated Russia in a different kind of global competitive space than we had back in the 1980s. The ability to control information used to be much easier. Now we find ourselves in a time where information is the coin of the realm and how effectively we control information determines our ability to observe, orient, decide, and act faster than our competition. It's a much more cognitive space and it requires are different kind of fighting force.”

Brown also answered questions from members of the audience and presented outstanding Sailors and civilians with challenge coins, expressing gratitude for their hard work and dedication to their craft.

“It was great being able to ask a three-star admiral questions and receive honest answers on the spot,” said Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Jocelyn Rivas, a Sailor assigned to Naval Communications Training Center San Diego. “It wasn’t just officers and senior enlisted, it was a good mix of junior and senior Sailors. But my favorite part was seeing my peers being recognized on stage for their hard work.”

NAVIFOR is the Navy's IW Type Command under U.S. Fleet Forces Command, focused on generating agile and technically superior manned, trained, equipped, and certified combat-ready IW forces to ensure the US Navy will decisively deter, compete, and win.