{"id":46157,"date":"2019-05-07T11:00:39","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T11:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/05\/07\/the-head-of-the-us-surface-fleet-talks-training-experimentation-and-giving-the-fleet-time-back\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:03:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:03:06","slug":"the-head-of-the-us-surface-fleet-talks-training-experimentation-and-giving-the-fleet-time-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/05\/07\/the-head-of-the-us-surface-fleet-talks-training-experimentation-and-giving-the-fleet-time-back\/","title":{"rendered":"The head of the US surface fleet talks training, experimentation and giving the fleet time back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Since taking command as the Navy\u2019s top surface warfare officer in early 2018 in the wake of two deadly collision in the Pacific, Vice Adm. Richard Brown has been on a mission to ensure officers and crews know how to get the basics right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As head of naval surface forces in the Pacific<\/a>, Brown, with a background in personnel, shook up the career track for surface warfare officers so they could get more time at sea. He also poured money into simulators in fleet concentration areas on the East and West coasts known as maritime skills training centers. They are expected to be fully up and running in 2021. He also reinvigorated the seamanship and navigation courses for junior officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, Brown is focusing on moving past the basics and toward getting the most out of his ships and crews. Defense News caught up with him to talk about what\u2019s on tap this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve instituted a number of changes to the surface warfare officer training program and have focused on getting more simulators to the waterfront for watch teams. When do you think you\u2019ll start seeing the benefits?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In full run, the first [commanding officer] who has had the benefit of all the course changes will be in 2035. You usually get to your [executive officer] ride around the 15-year mark. We predict it will be 2035 when the first CO walks across and says: \u201cI relieve you.\u201d We know that officer has had two division officer tours on ships, OOD [officer of the deck] Phase I, OOD Phase II, two department head tours on ships and 10 [seamanship skills] assessments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So you have to take the long view on this. You can make changes, but it takes a long time to effect those changes. Then you continually take assessments to make sure we are on track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here for more stories, videos and interviews from Sea-Air-Space!<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You received troubling feedback when you ran checks on the seamanship skills of junior officers prior to rolling out your Junior Officer of the Deck Course last year. How will you know if things are improving?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are going to redo that in late 2020, and the reason why is we used the OOD competency checks to design the JOOD Course. What we found was that some guys had no issues, some guys had some issues and a few guys had significant issues. What we want to do is shove the bell curve to the right. We used that information to build the JOOD Course, then we ran two pilots last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first pilot was OK, the second pilot was really good, and we kind of slapped the table and said: \u201cWe got the course.\u201d But now we are going to rerun those OOD competency checks to make sure we got the JOOD Course right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve talked about moving away from just a culture of compliance to a culture of excellence. How do you give ships and their crews more space to innovate?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have approval for the Surface Development Squadron. We\u2019re going to have this place for no-kidding, real-world experimentation. It\u2019s part of this drive to excellence to where we actually have a spot that if a lieutenant commander has an idea, says, \u201cIf we had this on our ships \u2026.\u201d Well, we\u2019ll just do it and we\u2019ll go experiment with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\t