U.S. Navy mission and organization

Sea Power, Jan 2003

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark became chief of naval operations (CNO) on 21 July 2000. He is the senior naval officer in the Department of the Navy and serves as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The CNO is responsible to the secretary of the Navy for the command, use of resources, and operating efficiency of the operating forces of the Navy and of the Navy shore activities assigned by the secretary.

The post of CNO was established by act of Congress in 1915 not long before the U.S. entry into World War I. Adm. William S. Benson was appointed as the first CNO. During World War 11, Adm. Ernest J. King held the dual titles of CNO and commander in chief, U.S. Fleet, directing the worldwide operations of the Navy in coordination with the nation's other armed services and with U.S. allies.

According to the official history of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), combat operations during World War II revealed the need for a formal joint-- command structure, and the wartime JCS arrangement offered a workable model. The first legislative step was the passage of the National Security Act of 1947, which formally established the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It laid the foundation for the series of legislative and executive changes that produced today's U.S. defense organization.

As a member of the Joint Chiefs, the CNO is the principal naval advisor to the president and to the secretary of defense on the conduct of war, and the principal advisor and naval executive to the secretary of the Navy on the conduct of the activities of the Department of the Navy. The CNO's assistants include the vice chief of naval operations (VCNO), the deputy chiefs of naval operations (DCNOs), and a number of other high-ranking officers.

These officers and their staffs are assigned to what is called the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV). The CNO's responsibilities as a member of the JCS take precedence over all of his other assigned duties.

Early in his assignment, Clark reorganized OPNAV to improve the Navy's ability to define and achieve warfighting requirements and to provide stronger advocacy for fleet readiness at the Navy's highest policy levels. His staff realignments separated staff responsibilities for resources and requirements in an effort to generate more rigor in the Navy's budgeting process. In August 2001, Clark directed that the commander in chief of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet would serve concurrently as commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, with responsibility for the overall coordination, establishment, and implementation of integrated requirements and policies for manning, equipping, and training both Atlantic and Pacific Fleet units during their interdeployment training cycles.

Since he assumed office, Clark has placed special emphasis on improving the current readiness of deployed and nondeployed naval forces and continuing the acquisition of new long-range, highly accurate, and all-weather weapons systems. These efforts paid rich dividends during combat operations in Afghanistan. The Navy also continues to expand its ability to use networked information systems to share information instantaneously over broad geographic areas. This transformation to network-centric warfare centers on knowledge superiority and battlespace dominance.