NUWC Division, Keyport embraces wartime readiness culture

Led by NUWC Division, Keyport wartime readiness director Troy Kelley and chief logistician Wendy Kierpiec, the WRAT is focused on ensuring the command's ability to anticipate and respond to warfighter needs across the entire spectrum of operations, from peacetime to active conflict. Its goal is to achieve initial operational capability for wartime readiness by Sept. 30, 2025.

The team includes senior command leaders, technical experts from each department, and advisory and ad-hoc members with specialized subject matter expertise. Its work is part of a broader effort to shift the Navy’s focus from peacetime efficiency to wartime effectiveness, driven by the need to counter the growing potential for military and economic challenges from China between now and 2027, a period known as the "Davidson window."

This period takes its name from Adm. Phil Davidson, former commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, who warned, in testimony to Congress four years ago, about the potential for China to take action against Taiwan by 2027.

Kelley elaborated on the need to adopt a posture of wartime effectiveness.

"Everything we [currently] do is about return on investment: How can we produce more with less and be the most efficient organization out there," said Kelley. "When you get into a time of conflict, that measure flips the opposite way. Effectiveness becomes your measure."

To drive this shift, the WRAT has been developing wartime response plans, identifying and addressing readiness gaps, improving command communication, and establishing a crisis response center to coordinate and respond to wartime-related activities.

Kierpiec, who developed the command’s wartime concept of operations and crisis response posture, emphasized the importance of being prepared for any scenario and the need for a flexible, adaptable response plan.

"We haven't had to tackle in so many decades, and since the end of the Cold War, we’ve downsized a lot of our military resources,” said Kierpiec. “As a result, we're building the airplane as we're flying it—we're still figuring things out and developing our plans and processes in real time, which can be difficult, but it's also an opportunity for us to be innovative and adaptable in our approach."

Kierpiec stressed the need to prepare for various wartime scenarios, including communication disruptions, damage or destruction to military assets, and contested environments where commercial transportation and shipping may be restricted, necessitating the use of other means to deploy personnel. She added that these challenges would likely be particularly pronounced in the context of a war in the Indo-Pacific Command area of operation, given its distance from Keyport.

“We've got approximately 7,000 nautical miles between Keyport and the Straits of Taiwan,” said Kierpiec. “How do we overcome that from a logistics perspective? What's the communication flow? Who would we be getting direction and orders from? How can we still provide our expertise to support the problem from stateside? Or should we be sending someone out there, and how do we get them out there? Do we have to get them on a military transport aircraft? Are they prepared to go in theater?”

These are among the many questions the WRAT has been actively working to address through planning, exercises and drills.

Held monthly in the CRC, the drills use realistic wartime scenarios to assess and refine the team's communication strategies, response times and logistical capabilities. To simulate real-world conditions, they are unannounced and involve the use of secure communication channels and classified networks.

Common scenarios include responding to an attack on a naval vessel, providing emergency repairs to a damaged ship, and supporting a large-scale military operation in a contested or degraded environment.

Each of the command’s departments is represented during these drills, with key personnel assuming the roles of watch stander, battle watch captain and assistant battle watch captain. The watch stander monitors and reports on the command's crisis response efforts, while the battle watch captain oversees the crisis response and provides strategic guidance, and the assistant battle watch captain supports the battle watch captain as needed.

The team must work together to assess the situation, develop a response plan and allocate resources as needed. It is evaluated on its ability to collaborate, make decisions quickly and decisively, and communicate effectively both internally and with higher headquarters.

Jeff Kistler, head of NUWC Division, Keyport's Information Technology Support Services Branch, and Amy Abbott, the command's emergency management officer, have been instrumental in establishing and maintaining the CRC. Kistler oversees its IT infrastructure, while Abbott manages its operational and procedural aspects.

"We've spent hundreds of hours developing things that make us as lethal and prepared as possible,” said Abbott. “We’ve spent a lot of time really pulling apart the nuts and bolts of our processes. We've developed standard operating procedures, directives and desk guides, and we've developed them in such a way that anybody could walk in, sit at a departmental desk, open the book from page one and know what they're doing without guidance."

Kistler stressed the CRC’s vital role in enabling the command to quickly respond to and support naval operations in real-world scenarios.

"If we're in a wartime scenario and there are casualties out in the fleet, we may be called upon to help get that ship back into the fight,” said Kistler. "[Providing that type of support] takes a lot of knowledge of what Keyport does, and that's the kind of expertise that our personnel in the room collectively bring to the table.”

Effective communication is crucial in such situations, and to this end, Kistler is tasked with ensuring the command's communication systems are robust and reliable. This involves developing redundant communication paths, planning for continuity of operations in the event of disruptions or outages, and identifying and mitigating single points of failure in the CRC’s command and control systems.

A key aspect of wartime readiness is the ability to anticipate ways in which one may need to pivot and redirect resources to address emerging priorities and gaps.

"To support wartime efforts, we need to be able to pivot and change the way we conduct our business, prioritize our business and increase the tempo of our operations," said Bryan Duffey, head of NUWC Division, Keyport's Enterprise Systems Engineering Division and WRAT team lead for his division's parent unit, the Fleet Readiness Department. "We need to be able to redirect resources to reinforce priority areas, increase op tempo areas, or leverage other technical capabilities and skills to fill emerging gaps.

Duffey is responsible for ensuring his department is prepared to support the fleet during wartime. In the event of a conflict, this support would involve providing expeditionary repair capabilities and technical expertise for ship and submarine maintenance and repair.

Among Kierpiec’s top priorities is identifying and addressing NUWC Division, Keyport’s readiness gaps and pivot points. The latter are capabilities the command has today that might need to be expanded or accelerated to support the warfighter.

One pivot point of particular interest is NUWC Division, Keyport’s additive manufacturing capability.

“We have a pretty a robust infrastructure in place for that,” said Kierpiec. “How would we respond to a request to do additive manufacturing for potentially a different customer? Maybe we get asked to make helicopter blades because [another customer] cannot for some reason. How could we rise to that occasion?”

Wartime readiness gaps often stem from the challenges of operating in a contested or denied environment. These can include disruptions to communications and logistics, limited access to transportation and the need for rapid technical support to address emerging fleet requirements.

According to program analyst Havalah Noble, WRAT team co-lead for the Unmanned and Theater Undersea Warfare Systems Department, the command is on track to meet its wartime readiness goals.

"I feel like Keyport is ready and we will meet the NAVSEA and Navy goals of the Davidson window of 2027,” said Noble. “We're perpetuating a culture of readiness now and there is urgency and dedication and vigilance in the practice, and it is important that we continue to do this work.”

Command policy officer Melissa Berry, who oversees policy for the WRAT, agrees.

"I think the clarity coming down from the Chief of Naval Operations and from NAVSEA on what we're trying to accomplish, has really resonated with the team and provided a sense of urgency," Berry said. “I am optimistic that come 2027, we will be in a strong place.”

But the real goal of the 2027 target is not to get ready for war, but to make war unnecessary.

“We want to demonstrate that our Navy is prepared to fight a war in 2027, but obviously our goal is to not have to do that,” said Jack Smith, lead exercise planner for the Naval Sea Systems Command's Warfighting Readiness Directorate and a WRAT team lead for the Undersea Weapons Department. "We want to demonstrate the strength and the capability, so that potential enemies decide that 2027 is not when they want to fight a war."

Abbott emphasized the importance of wartime preparedness not just at work, but also at home.

“We need to be thinking not only about how we support our warfighters who are out there on the water, but also how we support our brothers, our sisters, our husbands, our wives and other family members out there,” said Abbott. “This means being prepared at home, having discussions with our families, and having a plan in place, so that we can take care of our loved ones and be the best asset we can be for our warfighters in a time of crisis."

Abbott recommends having an emergency kit, establishing local emergency contacts, drafting powers of attorney for children's care, and planning for how to manage everyday responsibilities such as school schedules and childcare in the event of a crisis.

For additional resources and guidance on emergency preparedness, visit Ready.gov.

Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Keyport is headquartered in the state of Washington on the Puget Sound, about 10 miles west of Seattle. To provide ready support to Fleet operational forces at all major Navy homeports in the Pacific, NUWC Division, Keyport maintains detachments in San Diego, California and Honolulu, Hawaii, and remote operating sites in Guam; Japan; Hawthorne, Nevada; and Portsmouth, Virginia. At NUWC Division, Keyport, our diverse and highly skilled team of engineers, scientists, technicians, administrative professionals and industrial craftsmen work tirelessly to develop, maintain and sustain undersea warfare superiority for the United States.

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