MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON -- Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity hosted U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Douglas Small, commander of Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, for a visit to the facilities on Jan. 8 aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California.
The goal of the visit was to learn more how MCTSSA could contribute to help develop solutions for communicating across joint domains and multiple platforms as described in a new initiative called Project Overmatch.
“MCTSSA is committed to supporting Project Overmatch and working with NAVWAR and other partners,” said MCTSSA commanding officer Lt. Col. Michael Liguori. “It’s imperative that we work as a naval team towards the goal of producing system integrations that will be useful to the kill chain and our fleet Marines and Sailors.”
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday signed two memos in October 2020, creating the Project Overmatch initiative and placing Small at the helm. One memo tasks Small with creating a Naval Operational Architecture that can support the Distributed Maritime Operations concept.
The goal is to create infrastructure needed for communication between various platforms and networks in both the manned and unmanned realm in all domains, according to the memo.
“It’s a competitive advantage of the U.S. for our organization and MCTSSA to work together to face our adversary,” Small said.
Small assumed command of NAVWAR, formerly known as SPAWAR, in August 2020 and leads a global workforce of 11,000 civilian and military professionals who design, develop, install and support Navy’s networking, communications, information, and cyber capabilities and systems.
“It is fundamentally critical that MCTSSA and NAVWAR work together for Project Overmatch,” Small explained.
Leadership at both commands agreed that these partnership efforts will ensure the right people are talking and developing solutions for the mission to help the services align in a joint network.
MCTSSA has several testing labs where teams of highly skilled data scientists, computer engineers and communications experts work to solve some of the most challenging problems with C4I systems to enable Marine Corps Systems Command to make informed acquisition decisions.
“MCTSSA, along with NAWAR teammates, are critical in moving the needle to further the blue-green integration for command and control in a joint warfighting environment,” Liguori added. “Inviting Admiral Small and his top technical advisors for Project Overmatch to meet our people and see our capabilities is just the first step in creating a Navy-Marine Corps team to support Project Overmatch."