Consulting firm McAleese & Associates has released a report on Navy Secretary Richard Spencer‘s speech at the Surface Navy Association’s Annual National Symposium.
Spencer, a 2019 Wash100 winner, said at the SNA event that the Navy needs a sense of urgency and to ramp up speed and rate of change to address the âreadiness hole.â
He noted that the service considers establishing a new assistant secretary of the Navy role for information management to advance cloud computing, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and other technologies in response to Chinaâs advanced persistent threats, Jim McAleese, founder and principal at McAleese & Associates and a 2019 Wash100 winner, wrote in the report.
âOne of the things that we are exploring right now, is how to put the focus and talent to address information management inside the Navy ⦠cloud managementâ¦all the way through cybersecurity and data hygieneâ¦Right now, that is what we are exploring,â Spencer said.
He mentioned that the Navy has started to add personnel to its DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers to address the â100-hour sailor workweekâ and has begun to use a âperformance-to-planâ tool to understand maintenance costs and the industrial flow.
Spencer cited the Navyâs conversation with suppliers over âshared risksâ and âshared returnsâ and the need for the service to invest its research, development, test and evaluation budget into âForce 2.0â capabilities, which include developmental platforms and weapons systems.
He added that the Navy needs to address first the readiness of its ships, submarines and aircraft before drafting the future strategy, according to the report.