MAKO Challenge 2025 Increases Navy Readiness and Lethality
06 February 2025
NORFOLK, Va. – Navy Reserve Sailors from U.S. Fleet Forces (USFF), U.S. 2nd Fleet, U.S. 4th Fleet, and U.S. 6th Fleet assembled at the Navy Warfare Development Center (NWDC) in Norfolk, Virginia, for MAKO Challenge 2025 from Jan. 30-Feb. 2.
The MAKO series is designed to provide Reserve Sailors hands-on experience within the Operational Level of War (OLW) environment including a Maritime Operations Center (MOC) scenario.
Rear Adm. Kenneth Blackmon, Vice Commander, USFF, describes this MAKO Challenge as aligning to, “the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO)’s ‘Project 33 target’ to ‘Fight from the MOC’ by affording Reserve Component Sailors new to MOC units basic reps and sets to be better prepared to add value on day one.”
Fighting from the MOC is one of the seven targets that make up CNO Adm. Lisa Franchetti’s Project 33, a set of targets that will allow the U.S. Navy to make strategic gains in the fastest time with the resources we influence. In the Navigation Plan for America’s Warfighting Navy, the CNO states that, “through ready MOCs, the Navy will expand information and decision advantage to retain the initiative in crisis or conflict.” The document adds that, “by 2027, all fleet headquarters, starting in the Pacific Fleet, will have ready MOCs certified and proficient in command and control, information, intelligence, fires, movement and maneuver, protection, and sustainment functions as assessed by our MOC Training Teams.”
“This investment in our Reserve Component MOC training is critical for CNO’s Fight From the MOC priority and is informed by the active component’s experiences on the watch floors around the globe,” according to Blackmon.
With limited time and high operational expectations, the Navy Reserve prioritizes training to increase warfighting readiness. This is especially important given the many geopolitical challenges the U.S. currently faces. Accordingly, evolutions like MAKO are designed to give Reserve Sailors in the Fleet the most realistic training they can receive without standing on the active watch floor. MAKO also prepares participants for when they are called on orders for future exercises or to fill in for active duty gaps.
Reserve Sailors who attended MAKO make a direct impact on the readiness of the Navy through realistic training, and the MOC and other OLW lines of effort are priorities of Navy leadership. Senior leaders visited the watch floor and spoke with Reserve Sailors and mentors in order to better understand the training taking place and witness the active and Reserve integration firsthand.