ARLINGTON, Va. — Next month, the Navy will create a new command that will determine force protection needs and equip sailors accordingly, and which will serve as an advocate to get sailors the needed funding to meet mission requirements, the new commanding officer said Thursday.
“This is the first time that the Navy has stood up a single entity to focus solely on force protection issues,” Capt. Mark Kosnik said in a video teleconference from command headquarters in Little Creek, Va.
On Oct. 1, the newly formed Maritime Force Protection Command, or MARFPCOM (pronounced MAR-F-P-COM), will align four existing components: the Mobile Security Forces, Naval Coastal Warfare, Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Expeditionary Mobile Diving and Salvage Forces, he said.
“As it exists today, the entity that is responsible for these forces are the surface-type commanders, [who] are responsible for administrating and dealing with ships and these forces,” he said.
The new command will give the Navy “a single organization focused solely on making sure that these forces are trained, equipped and manned to do the mission,” he said.
It also gives those forces, which will total about 7,000 sailors in all, a command focused solely on their needs, he said. “We become the voice at the table to go back to big Navy” and seek needed funds, Kosnik said.
MARFPCOM will have a $50 million operating budget, money pooled from Naval Surface Force U.S. Atlantic Fleet and U.S. Pacific Fleet.
