The Navy Role in Confronting Irregular Challenges – Implementing the Navy Vision for CIC

The U.S. Navy has initiated efforts to confront irregular challenges (CIC) associated with regional instability, insurgency, crime, and violent extremism. A key document for understanding how the Navy will do this is the Chief of Naval Operations’ U.S. Navy Vision for Confronting Irregular Challenges. However, it remains unclear which of the Navy’s capabilities are most useful for CIC actions and how Naval forces can best contribute to the CIC effort. This makes force planning for CIC problematic. Therefore, the Navy Irregular Warfare Office (NIWO) asked CNA to assess the Navy Vision in order to identify:
• Which Naval capabilities and forces are uniquely or most suitable for addressing irregular challenges
• How general purpose forces (GPF), not simply special operations forces (SOF), can contribute more directly to meeting irregular challenges
• What overarching changes the Navy should consider in order to more effectively confront irregular challenges in the future.
This paper is in response to NIWO’s request.