OPNAV N7

Vice Admiral Jeffrey Hughes, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfighting Development, N7

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, November 2023