Pensacola, FL - Vice Admiral Clapperton, Commander, Fleet Cyber Command (FCC), visited Navy Information Operations Command (NIOC) Pensacola on 27 March 2024 along with FCC's Command Master Chief John H. Walker Jr. The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement. Image: US Navy, Petty Officer 2nd Class Lillian Bruce
The Navy has pursued several initiatives designed to improve its cyber workforce, but faces continuing challenges in understanding that workforce, including storing information on civilians in such positions in two separate systems that contain differing data, the GAO has said.
“GAO attempted to determine the structure and composition of the Navy’s military and civilian workforce but found that the underlying data were unreliable,” including for example showing inaccurately high vacancy rates, it said.
GAO said that it had made similar findings regarding accuracy of cyber work roles and position descriptions in a 2019 report but said those recommendations have not been carried out fully. The GAO also noted internal Navy studies of its civilian and military cyber workforces of 2021 and 2022 that made 31 recommendations—of which 26 have been implemented or in progress.
Recommendations that the Navy does not plan to carry out include increasing junior level civilian hiring, on grounds that they don’t have the skills needed; creating more senior level positions, on grounds that the allotment of such positions must be made at the command level based on needs and mission requirements; and studying the impact of pay caps on senior level employees, on grounds that current pay flexibilities are sufficient for retaining senior talent.
GAO reiterated its recommendation from 2019 that the Navy review work roles and position descriptions for accuracy. Management did not directly comment on that recommendation but did tell GAO that it is working to reconcile the information in the two databases.
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