Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group

The Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group (SSG) was established by Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Thomas B. Hayward in 1981.^[1] The Group is co-located at the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, but receives its direction and makes its reports only to the Chief of Naval Operations.

Mission

The current mission of the Strategic Studies Group is to "generate revolutionary naval warfare concepts. Revolutionary implies that the concepts would upset the existing order. Therefore, these concepts are non-consensual. The SSG focuses its efforts on warfighting concepts that appear to have great potential, but Navy organizations are currently not pursuing. In conducting this mission, the SSG is at the leading edge of the Conceptualization Phase of the Process for Naval Warfare Innovation."^[2]

Directors

• The Hon. Robert J. Murray, SSG Groups I-II, 1981 – 1983
• Dr. Robert S. Wood, SSG Groups III-IV, 1984-
• Ambassador Marshall Brement, SSG Groups V-VIII, - 1991
• The Hon. Robert B. Pirie, Jr., SSG Groups IX-XI, 1989 – 1992
• Ambassador Francis J. McNeil, SSG Groups XII-XIV, 1993 - 1995
• Admiral James R. Hogg, SSG Groups XV to XXXII, 1995 - 2013
• Vice Admiral James P. Wisecup, SSG Groups XXXIII to present, 2013 - 2016

Strategic Studies Group Fellows

Former SSG Fellows include a wide range of officers who have later risen to the flag and general officer ranks.

• List of Fellows

References

1. John B. Hattendorf, et al., Sailors and Scholars: The Centennial History of the Naval War College (Newport: Naval War College Press, 1984), pp. 224, 314, 319
2. http://www.usnwc.edu/About/Chief-Naval-Operations-Strategic-Studies-Group.aspx

External Source

• CNO Strategic Studies Group webpage