The commander of the Joint Cyberspace Command gives a presentation at the first edition of the Royal Navy’s Cyberspace specialism course

• He addressed more than 150 officers and students at the ‘Antonio de Escaño’ Naval Specialities School

The opening ceremony for the Navy’s Complementary Specialism Course (ECOM) was attended by and featured the Commander of the Joint Cyberspace Command (MCCE), Vice-Admiral Javier Roca. The event took place in the auditorium of the “Antonio de Escaño” Naval Specialities School in Ferrol, marking the start of the first edition of the Cyberspace ECOM (CIBER).

The event brought together an audience of over 150 attendees, comprising officer intakes specialising in Cyberspace, Combat Systems, Platform Control and Information and Communications Technology (ICT), comprising mainly sub-lieutenants and Marine captains, as well as officers from the Submarine Flotilla and other technical training courses.

The event also served as a farewell ceremony for the students who had completed their preliminary phase at the ‘Escaño’ before joining the Basic Specialisation Course in Cyber Operations (CBECO) at the Military School of Cyber Operations (EMCO) in September.

Under the title “Cyberspace as a new domain of operations: what you’ve never been told about cyberspace and how it affects your personal and professional life”, the commander of the MCCE delivered a keynote lecture aimed at raising awareness amongst new senior officers of the cross-cutting nature of the digital threat. During his presentation, Vice-Admiral Roca emphasised that cyberspace is no longer merely a support tool for information technology but has established itself, on a par with the land, naval, air and space domains, as a genuine operational theatre where the Armed Forces vie for strategic superiority.

The commander of the MCCE elaborated on the need to tackle operational incidents from a proactive, high-speed perspective, where the ability to detect threats in a timely manner and the resilience of systems are crucial in the face of increasingly sophisticated cyber adversaries. He emphasised that the creation of the cyber specialism within the Navy responds to the imperative need to train highly specialised personnel to protect technological sovereignty and ensure the operational readiness of the fleet’s ships and units.

The presence of the MCCE’s senior management at the ‘Antonio de Escaño’ School underlines the Joint Command’s commitment to teaching, operational training and the cohesion of the Armed Forces in the face of the challenges posed by digital transformation in the defence sector.