PENSACOLA, Fla. – Air Force Lt. Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, deputy commander of U.S. Cyber Command, visited the Center for Information Warfare Training (CIWT) and Navy Information Operations Command (NIOC) Pensacola Naval Air Station Pensacola Corry Station, Oct. 12, as a stop during tours of DoD cyber training centers.
Haugh met with leaders from Naval Education and Training Command (NETC), CIWT, Information Warfare Training Command (IWTC) Corry Station, and NIOC Pensacola, and they discussed how the Navy is continually assessing IW training requirements to increase performance and close gaps informed by the needs of the fleet and the joint cyber force.
The group covered a wide range of topics, including advocacy and best practices such as CIWT’s partnership with the National Security Agency, a mentor program for cyber warfare technician students that has helped improve retention, and how CIWT’s curriculum development branch works directly with military subject matter experts in the fleet to update course curriculum with a much faster timeline, addressing critical, time-sensitive training gaps.
Rear Adm. Jeffery Czerewko, NETC Commander, commented that it was one of his goals to prioritize and “incentivize speed and agility” in the curriculum development process for adaptation to a rapidly changing operational environment. Key to achieving this, Czerewko said, was close coordination between the NETC learning center, the requirements sponsor type commander, and resource sponsor, noting the relationship between CIWT, Information Forces, and OPNAV N2/N6 is the “model” across the NETC domain.
Cmdr. Gil Baughn, cyber program manager, laid out the current and planned courses in the Navy cyber training program taking place at IWTC Corry Station.
Baughn described the Persistent Cyber Training Environment (PCTE) training platform that provides DoD cyber operators, and their partners, with a distributed capability to “train as they fight” in a relevant, configurable and real-time virtual environment. The recent move of PCTE to the cloud platform increased its resource efficiency, allowing for much quicker load times for the digital ranges used in classes.
During a tour, Haugh spoke with students in intermediate and advanced Joint Signals Analysis Courses, the Joint Cyber Analysis Course (JCAC), and the new Computer Network Operator Qualifications Course.
Cyber Warfare Technician 1st Class Justin Cooper, leading petty officer for JCAC, described the enthusiasm that students bring to the course, knowing that cyber offers experience in cutting-edge technologies and the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than themselves. He stressed that JCAC itself has evolved into a more user-friendly course than it was even five years ago.
Haugh engaged with more students at a lunch in the galley and spent the afternoon visiting NIOC Pensacola, where cyber professionals deliver cyberspace operations and signals intelligence in support of naval, joint forces, and national tasking authorities.
With four schoolhouse commands, two detachments, and training sites throughout the United States and Japan, CIWT trains more than 26,000 students every year, delivering trained information warfare professionals to the Navy and joint services. CIWT also offers more than 200 courses for cryptologic technicians, cyber warfare technicians, intelligence specialists, information systems technicians, electronics technicians, and officers in the information warfare community.