SUFFOLK, Va. (NNS) — Rear Adm. Matthew J. Kohler, Commander, Navy Information Dominance Forces (NAVIDFOR), recently hosted a Commander's Summit on Nov. 18-20 in Suffolk, Virginia, for more than 60 commanding officers whose commands were administratively realigned under the new NAVIDFOR Type Command (TYCOM) on Oct. 1.
NAVIDFOR consolidated and aligned missions, functions, and tasks previously managed by separate Information Dominance (ID) commands (specifically, Navy Cyber Forces Command, Fleet Cyber Command (FCC), Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command (NMOC), and the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI)) to improve the generation and sustainment of ID Force readiness across the Navy. Operational commanders and leadership representatives from FCC, ONI and NMOC were also present at the summit in Suffolk.
As the Navy's global TYCOM, NAVIDFOR is responsible for supporting Navy ID Man, Train and Equip capabilities, readiness and defining ID requirements afloat and ashore. The summit was the first time the recently realigned commanders met as a group to exchange ideas and provide feedback on ways to improve delivery of capability and ensure mission readiness. The goal of the summit was to allow commanding officers, command master chiefs and senior enlisted advisors to meet with Rear Adm. Kohler and key members of the NAVIDFOR staff for face-to-face discussions on Administration Control issues such as readiness challenges, readiness reporting, NAVIDFOR TYCOM priorities, lines of responsibilities and other issues effecting readiness.
"The Navy now has a single voice responsible for providing Information Dominance readiness to forces afloat and ashore, including Information Dominance Corps (IDC) forces worldwide," said Rear Adm. Kohler, as he addressed the audience of over 130 IDC personnel. "I want to take advantage of having all the commanding officers here to talk about the responsibilities of Navy Information Dominance Forces Command and expectations of the kind of support we will provide to ensure your operational readiness."
Adm. Bill Gortney, former commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, kicked off the summit and set the tone by putting the new command's mission in the larger strategic context of our national requirements and stating how NAVIDFOR will support execution of those missions.
"It's really important that we understand that TYCOMs fix problems," Gortney noted.
Gortney highlighted the important role NAVIDFOR has to improve readiness and operations for the Fleet.
"We have TYCOMs that are bound by a common doctrine and training standard, a common way of doing things like maintenance," said Gortney. "Their mission is to man, train and equip and to find efficiencies that make our Navy more warfighting capable. If I have an IDC problem, I can now go to NAVIDFOR to fix it."
Gortney was upbeat as he concluded his remarks to the group.
"I'm excited about your future and the ID community," Gortney said. "You are unique in that you are the ID TYCOM for the entire Navy. I'm thrilled to have a TYCOM that the Navy can go to fix things and to man, train and equip our Information Dominance Community."
For more information on Navy Information Dominance Forces, visit the command's web site at www.navidfor.navy.mil, or the NAVIDFOR Navy News Web page at www.navy.mil/local/navidfor. Additional information, articles and photos can be found at www.facebook.com/USNavyInformationDominanceForces.
For more news from Navy Cyber Forces, visit www.navy.mil/local/ncf/.