Officers from the amphibious transport dock ship USS San Diego (LPD 22) invited instructors from Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center (SMWDC) aboard for training, August 7.
San Diego’s Commanding Officer, Capt. Carl W. Meuser, said:
We in the surface community recognized that we weren’t as focused on warfighting as we could be, but SWMDC is helping to bring our focus back to that.
The training was primarily focused on how SMWDC could assist and improve San Antonio-class LPD tactics and the amphibious warfare community as a whole.
SMWDC stood up on June 9 with the mission of increasing the warfighting effectiveness of the surface fleet by providing advanced tactics and training across the individual, unit and integrated level enabling warships and Warfare Commanders to transform combat potential into maximum combat power.
The foundation of this effort is training junior officers to become Warfare Tactics Instructors (WTI) who will specialize in warfare areas such as amphibious operations, integrated air and missile defense, or a combination of anti-submarine and surface warfare.
SMWDC’s primary effort is in developing junior surface warfare officers (SWOs) with enhanced skill sets critical for today’s fleet.
Image: US Navy