YOKOSUKA, Japan -- Members of Commander, Task Force (CTF) 70’s Information Warfare (IW) team met with Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) to exchange IW knowledge and experience, in Funakoshi, Japan, Feb. 14.
The main subject for this meeting was Operations Security (OPSEC), but the team also discussed items related to IW planning, electronic warfare, and assured command and
control.
"As with previous events, this meeting proved to be extremely productive for both of our respective forces,” said Capt. Kurt Mole, CTF 70’s information warfare commander. “CTF 70 was able to share lessons from our recent deployment and perspective on OPSEC and its importance to achieving mission objectives. Our Japanese counterparts offered tremendous insights and recommendations, and we developed plans to conduct future bilateral OPSEC assessments together. This is just the latest example of the improving IW capabilities and seamless interoperability of our teams."
OPSEC is defined as the process that identifies critical information to determine if friendly actions can be observed by enemy intelligence, determines if information obtained by adversaries could be useful to them, and then uses planned measures to eliminate or reduced adversary exploitation of friendly critical information.
This meeting was part of a series of regular IW meetings to facilitate collaboration and deepen integration.
“The overall goal in working with JMSDF is to strengthen the existing partnership between our two Navies,” said Lt. Cmdr. Brad Stadsklev, CTF 70’s electronic warfare officer. “Topics like OPSEC are often overlooked or taken for granted, and thus not always properly applied in our day-to-day operations. Having an OPSEC tabletop exercise with JMSDF allows us to exchange and reinforce OPSEC best practices, lessons learned and ways forward that we can collectively employ in order to prevent inadvertent disclosure of sensitive information, such as ship movement, exercises or tactics, techniques and procedures.”
The U.S. and JMSDF have been partnered in the Indo-Pacific for more than 60 years.
U.S. 7th Fleet exercises operational control of its units through designated Task Forces or Task Groups. These groups are organized along domain and functional lines. CTF 70 is theater strike warfare commander and theater air and missile defense commander.
CTF 70 is forward-deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific. 7th Fleet is the U.S. Navy's largest forward-deployed numbered fleet, and routinely interacts and operates with Allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region.