PENSACOLA, Fla. – Air Force Maj. Gen. Douglas Coppinger, deputy chief, Central Security Service (CSS), visited the Center for Information Warfare Training (CIWT), spoke with staff and students, and toured cryptology classes in session at Information Warfare Training Command Corry Station.
Rear Adm. Pete Garvin, commander, Naval Education and Training Command (NETC), and Capt. Chris Bryant, commanding officer, CIWT, opened the visit with a meeting to discuss the National Security Agency/CSS endorsed joint cryptologic training being taught at Corry Station.
Although Pensacola has long been known as the “cradle of naval aviation,” Corry Station is thought of by the Navy’s cryptologic community as the “cradle of cryptology.” Corry Station is also starting to gain recognition within the Navy as the “cradle of Navy cyber,” explained Garvin.
Coppinger expressed interest in Navy plans to split cryptology and cyber into separate ratings and was told that Navy senior leaders continue discussions on the future of the rating. Currently, the cryptologic technician rating has five specialty fields, including interpretive, maintenance, networks, collection, and technical; all support critical roles within the Navy’s information warfare community.
The leaders also discussed the future growth of cyber student throughput at Corry Station. Bryant noted CIWT is in the process of expanding curricula to meet the growing needs of the military for cyber operators as well as ensuring base resources keep pace with the increased student population on board.
Training standardization to promote integration between services and support manning requirements is one of the issues Coppinger said that he is actively looking into in an effort to create efficiencies.
Garvin shared how the Navy’s Ready Relevant Learning (RRL) program is changing when the Navy provides training, where and how it is delivered, and how that training is kept as relevant as possible to the real-world needs of the fleet. NETC and its learning centers, like CIWT, are in the process of modernizing training delivery for many of the Navy’s enlisted ratings to include aspects such as more hands-on virtual and augmented reality in curricula, while also incorporating advances in the science of learning,
During a tour of several of Information Warfare Training Command Corry Station’s cryptologic training classrooms, Coppinger engaged with staff, instructors and students about course work and their backgrounds. Coppinger observed an intermediate signals analysis course class, received a demonstration of the cutting-edge Persistent Cyber Training Environment (PCTE) and interacted with Joint Cyber Analysis Course (JCAC) Extended Training Collection students. After the presentation, he said that systems like the PCTE are a huge change from the way training was conducted in the past and are truly the way of the future.
While speaking to students in a JCAC class, Coppinger told them that he had joined the Air Force for the same reasons that many of them had for enlisting. He encouraged students to remain focused on their academic work, which will ensure a secure future in their chosen profession and keep our national security networks secure.
With four schoolhouse commands, two detachments, and training sites throughout the United States and Japan, Center for Information Warfare Training trains over 26,000 students every year, delivering trained information warfare professionals to the Navy and joint services. Center for Information Warfare Training also offers more than 200 courses for cryptologic technicians, intelligence specialists, information systems technicians, electronics technicians, and officers in the information warfare community.