PENSACOLA, Fla. – Along the Navy training continuum, the Center for Information Warfare Training (CIWT) provides accessions training for Information Warfare (IW) Sailors in route to their first duty stations, where the Naval Information Warfighting Development Center (NIWDC) picks up to continue the training process for those IW professionals; advancing their knowledge with tactics, techniques, and procedures in assigned mission areas within the optimized fleet response plan.
Capt. Bryan Braswell, commander, NIWDC, visited CIWT to discuss how the two centers could best support each other, look for opportunities to collaborate to enhance training along the continuum, and meet the future needs of the Navy’s IW community.
During his initial conversation with Capt. Chris Bryant, commanding officer of CIWT, Braswell said that he was studying the current intermediate and advanced training NIWDC provides to fleet Sailors and indicated he would like to increase both, as well as add an IW certification component for those completing the advanced phase training. He also mentioned leveraging Warfare Tactics Instructor (WTI) network to increase current training capabilities and improve readiness.
Braswell said the current security environment has forced NIWDC to, “reprioritize Assured Command and Control as its number one priority” for the upcoming fight, and he is working on a plan to get the community trained on the new systems being fielded.
Braswell received an in-depth brief on the accessions training programs CIWT provides. Training managers and department heads for all the programs discussed their subject expertise and answered any questions. This allowed Braswell to gain a good perspective of how and where opportunities exist for NIWDC to help shape the linkages between training new Sailors receive from CIWT programs and what they will receive when they arrive in the fleet. He indicated that he saw a range of ways the centers could collaborate to enhance training.
Later Braswell met with Cmdr. Meredith Schley, commanding officer, Information Warfare Training Command Corry Station, discussed his perspective on the IW community with IW officers from Corry Station over lunch, and received a tour of one of the Multipurpose Reconfigurable Training System 3 Dimensional (MRTS 3D®) labs used by cryptologic technician technical students to learn how to maintain the AN/SLQ-32v6, the principal Electronic Warfare system used on Navy surface ships.
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.