Trident Warrior 2009 Completes Spiral 1 experimentation: improving maritime technologies for better security and communications.

More than 60 U.S. and coalition personnel participated in the first of a series of experiments at the Navy's newly inaugurated Maritime Operations Center-Experimental (MOC-X) facility on the Norfolk Naval Station, Feb 2-5, 2009. The event was the first of three parts, or Spirals, in the Trident Warrior 2009 / Operational Level Command and Control (TW09 / OLC2) experiment involving critical operational level processes and maritime technologies within maritime headquarters.

The theme of TW09 / OLC2 is building maritime partnerships for regional stability, and the primary goal is to improve maritime security between U.S. and multinational partners.

"TW09 / OLC2 is a great opportunity to bring everyone together in a controlled environment to explore experimental concepts and technologies compatible with warfighter needs," said Capt. Carl Conti, director of Naval Network Warfare Command's Innovation and Experimentation.

"TW09 / OLC2 will leverage the capabilities of a global maritime partnership along with the processes, procedures and emerging tools to reduce uncertainty and speed decision-making," said Capt. Sanford "Sandy" Lansing, director for experimentation, Navy Warfare Development Command. "This will improve maritime security among all the partners:'

Spiral One focused on the intelligence preparation of the operational environment. Participants received an initial comprehensive scene-setter briefing with daily intelligence updates based on the current real-world political, military and economic situation throughout the Atlantic, including the Caribbean, North Atlantic, West Africa and Gulf of Guinea, where U.S. and coalition participants currently operate.

The scenario presented problems to challenge warfighters in the areas of maritime situational awareness, information operations, seabasing and logistics, and MOC-to-MOC collaboration requirements and processes.

The coalition MOC participants included Canada, Finland, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom (MOC and NATO Maritime Command Component) and U.S. participants from 2nd Fleet, 4th Fleet, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Office of Naval Intelligence.