Our focus for this edition is Department of the Navy innovation. Throughout history, Sailors and Marines have been renowned for their innovation, especially in the heat of battle, for example, John Paul Jones and his crew’s heroic adventures on the Bonhomme Richard, and much later with the Sailors who participated in the Pacific campaign during World War II who are credited with helping turn the tide of the war, and most recently, in Operations Enduring Freedom, Freedom's Sentinel and Inherent Resolve.
In this issue, we explore DON innovation, from the momentous sailing of the Great White Fleet to the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), to cybersecurity and the Joint Information Environment, to the CNO’s Rapid Innovation Cell, the Athena Project, Brightwork, and the DON’s efforts to garner the benefits of the federal government’s open data initiative.
I wish to thank, especially, the naval officers who took the time to write: Captains Danelle Barrett, James H. Mills, Ramberto "Rambo" Torruella and Reserve Capt. Joyce Richardson; Cmdr. Pablo C. Breuer; Lt. Cmdr. Ben "Prof" Kohlmann; Chris Landis; the U.S. Naval Observatory; OPNAV N2/N6; NAVIDFOR; SPAWAR HQ and SPAWAR Systems Centers Atlantic and Pacific; and the office of the Deputy Under Secretary of the Navy (Management)’s U.S. Marine Corps Maj. A.J. Martinez and Robert P. Kozloski, they all brought invaluable insight into their particular topics.
CHIPS salutes these incisive thinkers and doers and those in the fleet and across the department for their unceasing efforts to ensure the DON maintains its warfighting razor-sharp edge.
In November, CHIPS staff attended the NDIA-sponsored Naval Expeditionary Warfare Conference in Norfolk, Virginia. We have included a few highlights from the conference speakers in this issue.
In December, CHIPS staff had the pleasure of participating in NATO’s Chiefs of Transformation Conference sponsored by Allied Commander Transformation and interviewing Supreme Allied Commander Transformation French Air Force Gen. Jean-Paul Paloméros, who explained the alliance’s ongoing modernization efforts.
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Sharon Anderson
Sharon Anderson is the CHIPS senior editor. She can be reached at
chips@navy.mil.