U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen train on board a yard patrol (YP) craft. The Navy should purchase YPs for the fleet so junior SWOs could hone their skills on the water in a controlled environment, complementing virtual training in ashore simulators and improving SWO training across the fleet.
A U.S. Naval War College wargame in January 2025. Artificial intelligence would significantly improve wargame play and lessons, as it is ideally suited to solving complex optimization problems—exactly the type of problems wargaming presents.
Marines with 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance (LAR) Battalion, attached to Marine Rotational Force–Southeast Asia, fire an M252 81-mm mortar system during exercise Cobra Gold 2025 at Ban Chan Khrem, Chanthaburi, Thailand, in March. LAR capabilities align better with the mission and tasks of littoral combat teams and expeditionary advanced base operations.
Marine Rotational Force
The destroyer tender USS Shenandoah (AD-44) in April 1990. The last of the Yellowstone class, she was decommissioned in 1996. The Navy’s current logistical model for the western Pacific relies on shore-based facilities and would not work well in prolonged combat. Tenders could serve as mobile and distributed logistics hubs, putting critical repair parts in the theater where they are needed.
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. Many cryptologic warfare officers and cryptologic technician chief petty officers find themselves standing watch in the ship’s CIC instead of focusing on cryptologic operations in the ship’s signals exploitation space.
Marines provide suppressive fire atop machine gun hill during an integrated training exercise at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, California. New technology is not rigorously tested during routine training events. For example, at a recent integrated training exercise, Tomahawk Robotics’ Radio Agile Integrated Device was hardly used.