Seapower - May 2009

The process by which the Navy’s nine MOCs are certified as nodes in the network — accreditation — began last year. The MOCs at U.S. Pacific Fleet headquarters in Hawaii and U.S. Seventh Fleet, based in Japan aboard the flagship USS Blue Ridge, received preliminary accreditation last June, when initial operating capability (IOC) of the MOC was declared.

“The definition agreed upon for IOC was [for] at least two of those nodes to demonstrate their ability to actually [perform] according to the concept and show global networking,” Snyder said.

Since then, the MOCs at U.S. Second Fleet headquarters in Norfolk, U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and U.S. Sixth Fleet in Capodichino, Italy, also have received preliminary accreditation. An MOC facility also is being installed for the Sixth Fleet on the flagship USS Mount Whitney.

This year, preliminary accreditation will proceed for the remaining four MOCs at the headquarters of the U.S. Fleet Forces

Command, Norfolk; U.S. Third Fleet, San Diego; U.S.

Fourth Fleet, Mayport, Fla.; and Naval Network Warfare

Command, Norfolk.

The accreditation process is conducted by a team assembled by U.S. Fleet Forces Command. Because the process was new and untested in early 2008, two levels of accreditation were established, with the first, lower level being preliminary accreditation. Over time, after operational experience and with the intent of evolving the process, full accreditation will be defined.

“We don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like, but we’re going to take all of the lessons learned from the nine preliminary accreditations, [adjust] it somewhat and then go forward with the full accreditation process,” said Snyder, who expects that reaccreditation will be a regular event approximately every two years.

The accreditation concept is modeled after the Joint Task Force (JTF) certification process governed by U.S. Joint Forces Command on behalf of regional combatant commanders. Second Fleet, for example, is a certified JTF headquarters, qualified to command joint forces, if needed, for U.S. Southern Command. A JTF headquarters is required to be trained, manned and equipped to execute a specific mission-essential task list.

Similarly, MOCs become accredited by U.S. Fleet Forces Command on behalf of the chief of naval oper-

U.S. NAVY

Cmdr. Patti Enright, U.S. Second Fleet, confers with Personnel Exchange Program officers Cmdr. Andy Elvin and Cmdr. Michael C. Doherty from the U.K. Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy, respectively, during the first event in the Trident Warrior ’09 operational-level command-and-control experiment. The event was held Feb. 2- 5 at the Navy’s Maritime Operations Center-Experimentation facility at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., one of two developmental centers the service operates.

ations when they can demonstrate the ability to perform a specified set of core tasks.

Full operational capability “is when we have all of our MOCs executing at a much higher level with global networking,” Snyder said.

Five of the six numbered fleet MOCs are considered “full” MOCs with a high degree of standardization. The other four centers are considered “tailored” MOCs because most function at a different command level and feature some different functions.

“No individual, tailored MOC is like any other tailored MOC,” Snyder said.

The recently established Fourth Fleet, assigned as the naval component commander for U.S. Southern Command, began on March 2 to implement its tailored MOC. The fleet is commanded by a rear admiral, while his counterparts in the other numbered fleets are vice admirals.

The Navy has not yet decided to upgrade the Fourth Fleet MOC to full MOC status equal to those of the other numbered fleets.

“We don’t know exactly what the way ahead is,” Snyder said. “They are certainly growing in their capability. They had already had some designs on investments in terms of growth and people and technology and material solutions. Right now, they’re not funded to grow to the same level that the other numbered fleets are.”