Savannah River Site Collaborates to Support U.S. Warfighters

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Leaders from the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic, DOE’s Savannah River Site (DOE-SR) and EM’s Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) recently briefed stakeholders on efforts to collaborate in science and technology fields that may significantly enhance national security.

“As new partners, DOE-SR and SRNL are opening up many channels of collaboration and brainstorming opportunities that can help support our mission to deliver the best and most relevant capabilities to our warfighters,” Nicole Nigro, NIWC Atlantic commanding officer, said following the event. “One exciting example involves DOE-SR’s testing capabilities in the area of electromagnetic pulse effects.”

U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, whose congressional district includes the DOE-SR and SRNL campuses, and staff from most of South Carolina’s six other congressional districts received the briefing. A representative from the office of U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina also participated.

As a part of Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, NIWC Atlantic provides systems engineering and acquisition to deliver information warfare capabilities to the naval, joint and national warfighter through the acquisition, development, integration, production, test, deployment, and sustainment of interoperable command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, cyber and information technology capabilities.

Maj. Gen. Van McCarty, the adjutant general and head of the South Carolina Military Department, attended the event on behalf of the South Carolina National Guard.

It was the first official meeting between NIWC Atlantic and DOE-SR since they signed an agreement in March aiming to develop cooperative training, testing and experimentation to enhance research and development (R&D) efforts in fields like electromagnetic warfare, cybersecurity, spectrum operations and autonomous systems. SRNL acted as DOE-SR’s designated agent for that agreement signing.

In the recent meeting with stakeholders, NIWC Atlantic leaders discussed the current strategic environment, stressing the urgency many feel in the military to enable speed-to-capability solutions for the warfighter. Key to success, they said, is building strong relationships spawned by the agreement and other initiatives, including the command’s Palmetto Tech Bridge, as well as using the full range of authorities to leverage resources and expertise available across multiple federal and state agencies, academia and the private sector.

Workforce development was another focus of the meeting. NIWC Atlantic leaders said it was critical to develop a deep bench of talented cyber-savvy engineers and scientists in the southeast region working across government, commercial industry, academic and research institutions, nonprofit organizations and other entities to keep networks and infrastructure safe, secure and resilient.

Erik Gardner, director of the Palmetto Tech Bridge at NIWC Atlantic, called it a “whole of nation” approach that should support both naval information warfare as well as the country’s overall and concerted efforts to achieve a competitive advantage over its pacing threats.

Attendees concluded the meeting noting that America faces a challenging and unprecedented information environment requiring a clear-eyed understanding of the criticality R&D collaborations can forge between the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal and state organizations like DOE-SR, SRNL and the South Carolina National Guard’s 125th Cyber Protection Battalion.