OPNAV N3N5N7

Vice Admiral Daniel Dwyer, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Operations, Plans, Strategy, and Warfighting Development, N3N5N7, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations

The DCNO for Operations, Plans and Strategy (N3/N5) is the principal advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) on joint operations and the development of joint strategies, plans, programs, and policies. Specifically, DCNO N3/N5 develops and disseminates Navy strategies and plans related to homeland defense, conflict deterrence, crisis response, maritime security, ocean and Arctic policy, nuclear weapon global employment, Navy Title X, CNO-interest war gaming and innovation, and naval and joint operations integration. CNO N3/N5 coordinates the global employment of naval forces and they also play a role in implementing the Optimized Fleet Response Plan and the Navy's personnel augmentation initiative.[1]

In June 2020, Navy headquarters reorganized to better align and prioritize efforts focused on competing against great-power rivals. Per the reorganization, the strategy-focused section of OPNAV N3/N5 realigned to N7, along with the office formerly constituted to oversee Navy analytics.[2]

Director of Warfighter Development (OPNAV N7) is charged with advancing Navy Warfighting advantage in order to deter, dissuade and deny, or defeat adversaries. N7's mission and functions follow three broad, interrelated lines of effort:

  1. Warfighter development
  2. Warfare development
  3. Warfighting corps development

Specifically, N7 is responsible for:

  • Establishing and maintaining the Navy's strategy and communicating it with a single voice to internal and external audiences
  • Ensuring that strategy guides navy-wide processes including CNO guidance to the POM, concept development, and the development of material and non-material solutions to our key operational problems
  • Aligning the Naval education enterprise with strategy, improving how the navy utilizes its flagship educational institutions, and selectively tailoring employment of its most academically successful personnel
  • Advancing warfighting development more quickly and effectively through wargames, exercises, experiments, tests, and studies
  • Empowering individuals to provide their insights and discoveries to drive necessary change
  • Ensuring a supply of warrior-scholars, leaders who are both superb warfighters and exceptional thinkers, to advance future warfighting development for the Navy[1]

Updated by Kristin Stiner, October 2024