U.S. Navy Secretary Richard Spencer has signed a memorandum creating a Naval University System to maintain U.S. military edge, the Department of Defense said Tuesday. The service branch is seeking to establish a Naval Community College system to cover masters degrees for unrestricted line and general officers focusing on strategic studies.
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Navy officials expect to roll out the program by 2020, along with online learning options catering to sailors and Marines in remote locations. The memo will also direct the appointment of a chief learning officer by June. The senior executive service civilian will oversee education strategy development which needed to be established by December. Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, leads the reorganization efforts to establish a director of warfighting development.
“We have to make sure we are getting the best people and that we are training them and educating them to be agile and adaptable so they can deal with uncertainty in a better way,†said Navy Undersecretary Thomas Modly.
A Navy panel based the proposed education system on the Marine Corps University as well as similar models used by the Army and Air Force.