HONOLULU – Eleven members of U.S. Naval War College's (NWC) Assist and Assess Team (AAT) provided direct support to combatant and fleet commanders during a 10-day, multi-domain command post exercise, concluding Feb. 3.
“Exercise Pacific Sentry (PS) 18-2, was a field training exercise that focused on joint training integration among U.S. forces. It was designed to exercise U.S. Pacific Command headquarters staff and command components in a real-world, operational level of war scenario,” explained Cmdr. Matt Griffin, a military professor in the College of Maritime Operational Warfare.
The exercise included U.S. Forces Japan, U.S. Strategic Command and U.S. Cyber Command, and was integrated with exercises Keen Edge 18, Global Lighting 18 and Cyber Lightning 18.
The exercises ran simultaneously from three primary locations: U.S. Pacific Fleet in Honolulu, Hawaii; U.S. 7th Fleet in Yokosuka, Japan; and U.S. 10th Fleet at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland.
The AAT provided subject matter experts at all three locations, with emphasis on the areas of planning, sustainment, intelligence, fires, command and control and cyberspace operations.
“The mission of the AAT is to support fleet combat readiness by illuminating opportunities for improvement and developing solutions that enable the fleet to optimize its force employment,” said Griffin. “We provide tailored, operational-level assistance and education to fleet headquarter staffs at Maritime Operations Center (MOC) sites and support the Navy's MOC certification process through performance observation and assessments conducted at the numbered fleets.”
At NWC, AAT members support operational level of war education through various operational courses, electives and wargaming. The team is comprised of 15 active-duty personnel and one civilian faculty member and is aligned under the College of Maritime Operational Warfare.