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.

Beyond the Simulator: SWO Training on YPs

While simulators provide immense value, junior officers training on yard patrol craft could hone their skills on the water in a controlled environment.

Lieutenant Commander Michael Wallace, U.S. Navy
May 2025
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.

Use Artificial Intelligence to Conduct Wargames

Wargaming presents an optimization problem with countless battlespace variables, making the problem more complex than humans alone can likely solve.

Lieutenant Andrew Calloway, U.S. Navy
May 2025
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.

Use Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalions As MLRs

Light armored reconnaissance (LAR) capabilities align best with the mission and tasks of littoral combat teams, and LAR battalions should be the base unit of future Marine littoral regiments.

Captain Ross W. Gilchriest, U.S. Marine Corps
May 2025
Marine Rotational Force

Define Training Standards for Interoperability

There is no training and readiness standard to gauge unit integration with allied and partner forces. This needs to change, because interoperability is crucial to U.S. strategy.

February 2025
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.

Bring Back the Destroyer Tender

If the Navy expects to keep ships underway and operational, it should revive a battle-tested capability from a time when its control of the seas was not assured.

Lieutenant William Yale, U.S. Navy
February 2025
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.

Cryptologic Warfare Afloat Needs a Reset

To reverse the decline in afloat cryptologic readiness, the Navy must overhaul its approach to manning, training, and equipping.

Chief Warrant Officer Mario Vulcano, U.S. Navy (Retired)
January 2025
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.

Bolder Experimentation Needed for Force Design

The Marine Corps is falling short of meeting Force Design’s goals because it lacks focused and deliberate experimentation methods.

Second Lieutenant John Kelley, U.S. Marine Corps
January 2025