Vice Adm. Stuart Munsch, deputy chief of naval operations for warfighting development at the U.S. Navy, has been nominated to be director of operational plans and joint force development at the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, announced President Trump's nomination of Munsch in a press release published Wednesday.
If confirmed, the Navy officer would oversee the JCS' J-7 directorate and its functions encompassing doctrine, education, concept development and experimentation, training, exercises and lessons learned. Munsch assumed his current role at OPNAV N7 in October of last year after service as deputy chief of naval operations for operations, plans and strategy.
He took on sea-duty assignments aboard USS Will Rogers, Jefferson City, Kitty Hawk and USS Tucson. His previous roles also include commander of the Submarine Development Squadron 5, senior military assistant to the deputy defense secretary and special assistant to the agriculture secretary.
Munsch serves as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Seminar XXI fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.