U.S. NAVY
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead speaks during the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Naval Maritime Intelligence
Center in Suitland, Md., Jan. 14. The center will improve the mission capabilities of the Office of Naval Intelligence.
Littoral Combat Ship, with the unmanned aerial vehicles and small craft it can send out, Work said.
“You can think of it as a global maritime surveillance network, but that is the blend between intelligence and operations,” he said.
The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), the oldest
intelligence-gathering outfit in the U.S. military, kick-started its transformation at the end of February. The
restructuring is meant to strengthen the Navy’s conventional and irregular warfighting capacities and the
swift delivery of intelligence throughout the force. At
the same time, ONI is expanding its foray into new
technologies, weapons and sensors, as well as cyber
warfare capabilities.
“The Navy recognizes intelligence as a core warfighting capability,” Capt. J. Todd Ross, the commander of
ONI, said in a statement. “It has become a key driver in
the decision making of Navy leaders at all levels.”
Part of the overhaul is four so-called centers of excellence: the Nimitz Operational Intelligence Center,
Farragut Technical Analysis Center, Kennedy Irregular
Warfare Center and Hopper Information Services Center.
The Nimitz Operational Intelligence Center will
exercise overall responsibility for global maritime
intelligence integration and produce timely, relevant
and predictive intelligence to all fleet elements.
The Farragut Technical Analysis Center will anticipate
and analyze rapidly accelerating foreign scientific and
technological research, development and proliferation. Its
intelligence will enable planning and research, and help
guide future acquisitions within the Navy and Pentagon.
The Kennedy Irregular Warfare Center will meet the
growing demand for tailored reach-back and forward-deployed services to Navy Special Warfare and Navy
Expeditionary Combat Command forces engaged globally, whose missions are projected to expand significantly in the years ahead.
The Hopper Information Services Center will provide ONI’s mission-related technology and ensure the
rapid and reliable delivery of ONI’s intelligence products to customers worldwide.
“The Navy is responding to our information-intensive
world by embracing information dominance,” said Ross.
“ONI is at the heart of this effort because term analysis produces a penetrating understanding of our potential adversaries, which is the cornerstone of information dominance.”
The physical expansion of the National Maritime
Intelligence Center (NMIC), to be completed in 2010,
will enhance ONI’s mission capabilities. The NMIC,
Suitland, Md., is the home and nerve center of ONI. ■
Roxana Tiron is a defense reporter at The Hill newspaper.
