Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command


The Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command or CNMOC, serves as the operational arm of the Naval Oceanography Program. Headquartered at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, CNMOC is an echelon three command reporting to United States Fleet Forces Command. CNMOC's claimancy is globally distributed, with assets located on larger ships, shore facilities at fleet concentration areas, and larger production centers in the U.S.
CNMOC is focused on providing critical environmental knowledge to the warfighting disciplines of Anti-Submarine Warfare; Naval Special Warfare; Mine Warfare; Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance; and Fleet Operations, as well as to the support areas of Maritime Operations, Aviation Operations, Navigation, Precise Time, and Astrometry.
The Oceanographer of the Navy works closely with the staff of CNMOC to ensure the proper resources are available to meet its mission, to act as a liaison between CNMOC and the Chief of Naval Operations, and to represent the Naval Oceanography Program in interagency and international forums.

Mission

Responsible for command and management of the Naval Oceanography Program, utilizing meteorology and oceanography, GI&S, and precise time and astrometry, to leverage the environment to enable successful strategic, tactical and operational battle space utilization across the continuum of campaigning and at all levels of war – strategic, operational and tactical.

History

The Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command traces its ancestry to the Depot of Charts and Instruments, a 19th-century repository for nautical charts and navigational equipment. In the 1840s, its superintendent, Lieutenant Matthew Fontaine Maury, created and published a revolutionary series of ocean current and wind charts. This information, still resident in modern computer models of the ocean basins and atmosphere, laid the foundation for the sciences of oceanography and meteorology.
Atmospheric science was further developed with the birth of naval aviation early in the twentieth century. During World War I and the following decades, naval aerological specialists applied the fledgling concepts of air masses and fronts to warfare, and provided forecasts to the first transatlantic flight.
The Navy's weather and ocean programs contributed greatly to Allied victory in World War II. In the Pacific, Navy forecasters cracked the Japanese weather code. Hydrographic survey ships, often under enemy fire, collected data along foreign coastlines for the creation of critical navigation charts.
In the mid-1970s, the Navy's meteorology and oceanography programs were integrated in a single organization reflecting nature's close interaction of sea and air. This structure is today the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command.

Organization

Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command is a third echelon operational command reporting to Fleet Forces Command. The Command's personnel are located at its headquarters at the John C. Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and at several field activities located around the world.
Effective October 1, 2014, the Command's major subordinate activities fourth echelon commands include the Naval Oceanographic Office, located at Stennis Space Center Mississippi; Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, located in Monterey, California; the Naval Observatory, located in Washington, D.C.; the Naval Oceanography Operations Command, located at Stennis Space Center, Mississippi; the Atlantic Fleet Weather Center, located in Norfolk, Virginia; The Pacific Fleet Weather Center, located in San Diego, California; and the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Professional Development Center located in Gulfport, Mississippi were all administratively realigned to Naval Information Dominance Forces, Suffolk, Va. Operational control of Navy Oceanography forces remains aligned to Naval Meteorology and Oceangraphy Command.
Furthermore, effective October 1, 2014, the Command realigned its fifth echelon commands include The Naval Ice Center, located in Suitland, Maryland and aligned underneath the Atlantic Fleet Weather Center; The Joint Typhoon Warning Center, located in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and aligned underneath The Pacific Fleet Weather Center; The Fleet Survey Team, located in Stennis Space Center, Mississippi and aligned underneath the Naval Oceanographic Office; and Naval Oceanography Anti-Submarine Warfare Center - Stennis Space Center, Mississippi, Naval Oceanography Anti-Submarine Warfare Center - Yokosuka, Japan, Naval Oceanography Mine Warfare Center - Stennis Space Center, Mississippi, and Naval Oceanography Special Warfare Center - San Diego, California who all align underneath The Naval Oceanography Operations Command.
The Command provides meteorological and oceanographic services to five of the Navy's warfighting disciplines:
It also supports Navigation, Precise Time and Astrometry, Maritime Operations and Aviation Operations.