The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) (Monterey, California) has enrolled its first cadre of students in a new distance learning program that will award a Master’s of Warfare Operations (MWO) degree. For this initial class of MWO students, NPS has partnered with Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center (NAWDC) (NAS Fallon, Nevada) and is offering course credits to graduates of Warfare/Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) programs, such as the US Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor Program, (aka TOPGUN).
The MWO course enables younger operators, who normally need to wait until later in their military career to pursue graduate-level studies, with the ability to pursue a masters degree at an earlier stage in their careers. LT Matt Haney, an instructor at the airborne electronic attack weapons school HAVOC at NAWDC, is among the first class of MWO students. He began classes in January and was also able to take advantage of the WTI credit.
In a Navy news article about the program, Haney, who has been at HAVOC for two years, said, “I jumped on the opportunity as soon as it was announced that my experience as an EA-18G weapons tactics instructor would be considered for inclusion in the program.” He added, “Thus far, I can easily say that the content gives me a much-appreciated view on strategic competition, and I am looking forward to the other certificates in the program, as well. From an accessibility perspective, I am optimistic to see how this goes as I rotate back to a deployable command, but the allowed timeframe of the program [five years]does keep me confident that I will be able to finish, even if I am forced to take a break.”
The news article also stated, “Readiness requirements have rigorous demands, which limit operators’ ability to attend NPS in-resident programs. MWO was developed by a team of NPS faculty as an innovative, asynchronous, distance-learning curriculum with stackable certificates providing flexibility and delivery at the point of need for warfighters–an objective of the Naval Education Strategy.”
The MWO program looks for younger operators and it offers them a curriculum that consists of a sequence of NPS graduate-level certificates in at least three of the thirteen Navy core competency areas for officer education. The curriculum offers courses in Great Power competition and conflict; politics in China and Russia; naval tactical analysis; the physics of space and airborne systems; naval systems analysis; combat systems simulation; space technology; and military satellite communications.
“The MWO program provides the opportunity we need to augment operational assignments with relevant knowledge, while gaining strategic insight necessary for effective command and senior leadership,” said VADM Dan Dwyer, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Operations, Plans, Strategy, and Warfighting Development (OPNAV N3N5N7) in the news article.
Vice Provost for Warfare Studies at NPS, Col Randy Pugh, USMC (Ret.) said, “Future wars, especially the highly complex and technical wars against peer nations that the United States faces, are ultimately going to be won by the side that thinks smarter and faster than the other side. Complementing exquisitely skilled warfighter WTIs with NPS-provided relevant knowledge about strategy, operations analysis and technical capabilities is going to go a long way toward preserving our traditional advantages of decision superiority and cognitive overmatch. Delivering this instruction directly to the Fleet ensures our operating forces are highly educated and ready to deploy on a moment’s notice at the same time.” – JED Staff
