The United States (U.S.) faces a growing nexus of strategic competition from nations who seek gains at America’s expense. Within this increasingly volatile security environment, our globally distributed Navy stands as the nation’s forward bastion to check aggression, malign influence and efforts to undermined international norms. After decades observing how the U.S. Navy operates and fights, our adversaries now actively contest us in the cyberspace domain, seeking to shape it for their own advantage. In the face of this relentless aggression, Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command is the Navy’s vital force for preserving global cyberspace advantage and a critical contributor to U.S. national defense.
Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command, assigned as U.S. 10th Fleet Task Force 1020, continuously plans, directs and executes cyberspace defense and cybersecurity actions and activities to disrupt, degrade, and deny malicious cyberspace activity targeting U.S. Navy cyberspace terrain, and other cyberspace terrain as directed, in order to attain and preserve U.S. Navy cyberspace advantage.
a. Purpose. Plan, direct and execute cyberspace defense and cybersecurity actions and activities; generate and sustain cyberspace warfighter and weapon systems readiness; and posture for crisis or conflict in order to preserve cyberspace advantage across all assigned missions and terrain.
b. Method.
1. Warfighting Focus. Failure to preserve cyberspace advantage during conflict with peer-adversaries will unquestionably lead to the death of sailors and the destruction of U.S. Navy ships. This necessitates every crewmember embrace their role as a warfighter – regardless of rate / designator or active duty / reserve / civilian status – and adopt a Warfighting Focus during planning, prioritization, resourcing, execution and assessment of all Command actions and activities. Implicit within Warfighting Focus is a focus on warfighters. Cyberspace advantage is a product of continuous effort by knowledgeable and experienced individuals, committed to developing their own expertise and that of their team, collaborating across mission areas to capitalize on opportunities inherent within the domain or generated via our technical capabilities. Warfighting Focus is our means to vet activities and prioritize limited resources, ensuring distractions are eliminated and our efforts culminate in warfighting outcomes.
2. Agility. The cyberspace domain is naturally dynamic, driven by the rapid pace of technology and evolving adversary techniques, requiring an ability to pivot and adapt effectively at all levels of the Command. Effective planning aids Agility by fixing a course, avoiding impulsive changes and identifying viable pivot points. To this end, our Command will develop and communicate clearly articulated guidance for cyberspace warfighter expertise development, rapid evolution of our cyberspace weapon systems capabilities and a resilient force posture for extended crisis or conflict contingencies. Deckplate insights and innovation are critical to identifying the opportunities and means for achieving Agility across the Command.
3. Precision. The technical complexity and speed of action within the cyberspace domain necessitates the highest level of Precision and attention to detail from every warfighter in every duty performed. During competition, we have neither the time or resources to expend on rework. During crisis and conflict, inaccuracy and uncertainty will lead to a loss of ships and lives. Precision unequivocally requires every one of us to be the foremost expert in our area of responsibility, requiring a sound understanding of our operating environment, exquisite component-level knowledge of our systems and a firm grasp of the associated tactics, techniques and procedures. We must articulate our requirements, capabilities, actions and risks, as well as those of our adversaries, with concise Precision. To achieve this, we will apply the Navy’s Watchstanding Principles – formality, level of knowledge, forceful backup, procedural compliance, questioning attitude, ownership and integrity – in everything we do.
c. Endstate. Malicious cyberspace activity targeting U.S. Navy or other assigned cyberspace terrain is disrupted, degraded or denied and U.S. Navy cyberspace advantage is preserved.
Our capability and capacity to defend and preserve U.S. Navy cyberspace advantage – which directly links to Fleet lethality – is our benchmark of success. A combination of formal and informal assessments, including scenario-driven training events and drills, will serve as our mechanism to evaluate readiness across our weapon systems; tactics, techniques and procedures; and warfighters. We will integrate our findings into future training, directives and plans to ensure continuous improvement across our warfighting mission areas.