Source: January 2025 Proceedings Vol. 151/1/1,463 – By Chief Warrant Officer Mario Vulcano, U.S. Navy (Retired) – Cryptologic Warfare Afloat Needs a Reset

The Navy’s cryptologic warfare community is facing significant challenges in afloat cryptologic operations and electronic warfare, driven by the lack of experience, knowledge, and depth necessary to confront advanced threats. The critical task of providing threat indications and warning to decision-makers in real time is becoming increasingly difficult. This is a problem that has evolved over generations, marked by years of neglect, misaligned priorities, and a shift in focus that has left the community ill-prepared for modern maritime conflict.

The Atrophy of Expertise
The Navy’s cryptologic afloat operations were significantly affected by a decades-long shift in focus, moving away from addressing peer threats to prioritizing efforts in the war on terror. While Navy cryptologists made invaluable contributions to the counterterrorism fight, this emphasis necessarily diverted resources and training away from addressing high-end naval threats posed by the People’s Liberation Army Navy and the Russian Navy. Consequently, cryptologists’ skills in these areas have diminished.

The Navy’s current approach to cryptologic manning at sea exacerbates the problem. Afloat cryptologic personnel are formally assigned to ships as permanent crew (as opposed to being augmentees for deployments), but only one-third of these ships are conducting cryptologic operations at sea at any one time. The other two-thirds are either in the shipyard or going through various stages of the Optimized Fleet Response Plan cycle. This is a waste of manning that has contributed to the decline in real-world tactical cryptologic experience at sea. (…)

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Phot0: a cryptologic technician (technical) chief stands watch in the combat information center (CIC) of the guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson (DDG-114) deployed to the western Pacific © Jamaal Liddell, U.S. Navy, as published in ibid