UNCLASSIFIED// ROUTINE R 171700Z JAN 20 MID110000309975U FM SECNAV WASHINGTON DC TO ALNAV INFO SECNAV WASHINGTON DC CNO WASHINGTON DC CMC WASHINGTON DC BT UNCLAS ALNAV 009/20 MSGID/GENADMIN/SECNAV WASHINGTON DC/-/JAN// SUBJ/SECNAV VECTOR 7// RMKS/1. We live in a dynamic era. For our Navy and Marine Corps team, this dynamism will present challenges - known and unknown, seen and unseen. In fact, perhaps the most predictable thing we can say about the future is that it will be unpredictable. Preparing for that future means investing in more platforms and new weapons systems, but nothing will be more important than the investment that we make in learning, and in creating a force made up of people who thirst for it. Accordingly, the landmark 2018 Education for Seapower (E4S) report recognized that the intellectual capability of our Navy and Marine Corps team and a lifelong passion for continuous learning would be our foundation of any credible deterrent to war. In the year since the E4S report was completed, we have moved quickly to introduce sweeping changes in the prioritization, integration, and resourcing of naval education. In October 2019, we hired the Department of the Navys first Chief Learning Officer (CLO) to lead Navy and Marine Corps education efforts, and earlier last month I issued budget orders to increase current education resources by 22 percent across the Navy and Marine Corps educational enterprise. These increases are happening now, and as we execute the Fiscal Year (FY) 20 budget, finalize our budget proposals for FY21, and begin our planning for the FY22 Future Years Defense Plan, these increases will be visible. In the next four months, we will also take the following three important steps in implementing E4S: 2. U.S. Naval Community College: Our highest priority is to create a new United States Naval Community College (USNCC) that offers advanced, online technical and analytic education to our enlisted force in critical areas like IT, cyber, and data science. Free for every Sailor and Marine, the USNCC will fill a long-neglected gap in our educational continuum, and provide a recruiting and retention incentive through degree-granting relationships with major four-year public and private universities across the nation. Last year, the CLO completed planning for this new effort and identified physical space for the college at Quantico, Virginia, where the USNCC will be based alongside the Marine Corps University. This year, we will hire a President and Provost to lead the USNCC, identify key partners in the civilian higher education community to help deliver world class education, and form the first cohort of Navy and Marine Corps students for enrollment in a pilot program in January 2021. 3. Naval Education Strategy 2020: In the next thirty days, we will release Naval Education Strategy 2020, the first-ever comprehensive education strategy for our integrated naval force. The strategy will lay out a clear road map to develop a lifelong learning continuum for our entire force, reform our personnel systems to better recognize and reward the value of education, and invest in and reform our schools and education programs. This new strategy will provide expectations for the Navy and Marine Corps to: (1) develop warfighters and leaders who possess initiative, creativity, analytic capability, and critical problem solving skills; (2) increase our geopolitical awareness, including better comprehension of the intentions and capabilities of potential adversaries; (3) expand our ability to understand and deploy with greater lethality new and emerging technologies; and (4) improve the sophistication of our financial management, logistics, IT, and weapons system acquisition skills. 4. Strategic Education Requirement for Flag and General Officers: Our commitment to education must begin at the top - and that commitment looms large in our own naval heritage. On December 7, 1941, 82 of the 84 Navy Flag Officers on active duty had graduated from the U.S. Naval War College, and benefited from the chance to think deeply about the naval operational art and science of war. The opportunity to wargame future scenarios and technologies, debate and write alongside peers who will command together at the highest levels, was just as precious then as it is today. This is why, among many other reasons, that the E4S Decision Memorandum of February 5, 2019 made in -residence strategic studies graduate education a requirement for promotion to Flag or General Officer rank. This month, I will issue new guidelines setting forth the intellectual qualities required for effective leadership at the Flag and General Officer rank and clear standards for strategic studies education, both in military as well as civilian graduate schools. 5. These steps represent real and necessary change. To deter future conflicts and to win those we cannot avoid, we must operate at or near our full theoretical potential. The only way to reach that level of maximum effectiveness is through education, creating an ever-increasing level of intellectual agility throughout our force. Out-fighting our opponents - or better yet, ensuring we never have to fight at all - will always require that at first we out-think them. Investing in a lifelong continuum of education is the best way to ensure we will always know how. Go Navy, and of course, as always, Beat Army! 6. SECNAV Vectors are released each Friday to the entire DON. Previous Vectors can be viewed https://navylive.dodlive.noclick_mil/2020/01/02/secnav- vectors/. 7. Released by the Honorable Thomas B. Modly, Acting Secretary of the Navy.// BT #0001 NNNN UNCLASSIFIED//