At Sea Against the Soviet Fleet

This work will argue that the operational intelligence (OpIntel) culture in the U.S. Navy now was codified in the Cold War. The work will also make the case that this existing OpIntel culture is rooted in aircraft carrier culture, a culture which accepts adaptation and favors a structure that has the principles of mission command built in. Additionally, I see this work as having two purposes: 1) making the case that the USN's OpIntel strengths now in an age of Great Power competition are the same as those which guided the USN during the Cold War, and 2) Making the case for the success of USN OpIntel (or viewed another cynical way, that because we are in an era of Great Power competition, that the old methods of OpIntel at sea work, so why change them?) One other argument outside the central argument is that USN OpIntel owes its success to carrier culture specifically, so there is an aviation culture angle here. One other point the author raises in his proposal is that this evolution of OpIntel at sea in the face of the Soviet threat fostered a culture of trust between USN commanding officers and their intel officers.

Capt. Bryan Leese, USN (Ret.), was a career naval intelligence officer with extensive experience in operational intelligence, including key roles supporting ground combat operations and tours at sea, including as the N2 (head of intelligence) of the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group and the George H. W. Bush Carrier Strike Group. He has held senior positions across the intelligence community, most notably as Chair, Defense Intelligence Department at the National Intelligence University, and as Branch Chief, Transregional and then North/West Africa in J2 (Joint Intelligence) Africa Command, during the 2011-2012 crisis in Libya. Before joining the Joint Forces Staff College in September 2023, Dr. Leese served on the faculty of the U.S. Naval War College's Joint Military Operations Department. He holds a PhD in war studies from King's College London and lives in Chesapeake, Virginia, with his wife, Elizabeth.