With Ukraine, Taiwan in mind, Navy creates new acquisition cell focused on crisis response (EXCLUSIVE)

WASHINGTON — The Navy is establishing a new acquisition cell tasked with responding to ongoing crises around the world, with its initial focus set on the war in Ukraine and a potential future conflict over Taiwan, according to a memo obtained by Breaking Defense.

The Maritime Accelerated Response Capability Cell “will coordinate and prepare [Department of the Navy] responses to urgent [Defense Department] security cooperation tasks, contingency operations support, and other identified priorities,” according to the May 3 memo signed by Frederick Stefany, the service’s acting acquisition executive. “[I]t will remain in effect until ordered no longer needed.”

“The MARCC will initially focus on Ukraine, Taiwan, and contingency support, and will have inherent flexibility to adapt to new conflicts or urgent DOD requirements and tasks,” the memo continues.

The group’s mission, as the memo describes, will essentially be to facilitate the rapid selection and transfer of various Navy capabilities to help US entities, allied nations or any other group that the Pentagon is tasked with supporting during a time of crisis. In other words, the new Navy cell is formally taking up the mission that the Pentagon has had to organize on the fly as it continually arms Ukraine with different weapons and vehicles to defend itself against Russian invaders.

“Identify actionable suites of capabilities for potential assistance in key mission areas for critical U.S., allied, or partner nation support,” the memo states of the new cell’s mission. “Enable and encourage use of rapid acquisition and contracting authorities to the maximum extent possible and facilitate removal of any barriers to execution or delivery.”

It’s not unusual for the services to create groups tasked with speeding up acquisition —  every service has one or more offices doing just that. The Navy in 2016 stood up a “Maritime Accelerated Capabilities Office,”  while the Army, Marine Corps and Air Force have all previously created separate “rapid capabilities” offices.

But what makes this new cell unique is its focus on providing capabilities for contingency operations and to allies and partners in crisis, with Ukraine and Taiwan being explicitly named as the initial focus areas.

The new cell will be led by an executive director and overseen by a board of directors comprised of the deputy undersecretary of the Navy for policy as well as the principal military deputy assistant to the acquisition executive. The board will also have representatives from the chief of naval operations’ office and the Marine Corps.

The MARCC “will be empowered to the greatest extent possible to maximize responsiveness,” the memo states.

The memo also alludes to the cell’s responsibility for overseeing and accounting for any aid it provides. “Champion issuance and accountability for security cooperation-related tasking that affect multiple DON components,” it states.

The call for accountability is particularly relevant as news of the cell’s establishment follows the revelation that the Pentagon’s valuation of its aid to Ukraine was off by $3 billion, Reuters first reported. The Navy did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this report.