Inside the Navy’s Push for Resilient, AI-Enabled Command Centers

The Navy’s maritime operations centers (MOC) are moving away from vulnerable, land-based command centers and toward decentralized digital architectures that use emerging technology to aid warfighters, officials said Monday at Sea-Air-Space 2026 in National Harbor, Maryland.

“Part of operational resilience is having communications resilience, where we’re not relying on one type of transport,” Office of the Chief of Naval Operations Director of Warfighting Integration Rear Adm. Susan BryerJoyner said during a panel. “And it’s about the compute. It’s about the data and the applications being available wherever [commanders] need them.”

The growing technological and workforce complexity of MOCs demands greater synchronization across operations, according to Capt. Christi Montgomery, chief of staff for Naval Information Forces.

“I think about the MOCs as the orchestra,” Montgomery said. “Each part of the orchestra has a has a role to play in order to make the symphony beautiful and correct. And in our case, the beautiful symphony is delivering combat power.”

Resilient Cloud and On-Prem Compute

MOCs are designed to solve the Navy’s unique challenge of operating in “disconnected, intermittent and limited” environments, BryerJoyner said. Unlike many commercial cloud models, critical data and applications remain available even when satellite links are severed, she added.

“When I say resilient cloud, I’m talking about a combination of on-prem capabilities that allow you to continue to have the compute available that you need and the data storage until we can reconnect you to the cloud,” BryerJoyner said.

Resiliency is critical for the Naval Operational Architecture, she added. By decoupling the “brain” of the MOC from its physical “body,” the Navy can maintain communications and support commanders even in contested environments, she said.

The technical challenge lies in the “orchestration” of these disparate nodes, according to Montgomery. She said that the architecture requires a massive effort in force generation — ensuring the technology is standardized enough to be managed by sailors across ten different numbered fleets, while also being flexible enough to adapt to localized combat conditions. The Navy, she said, is looking to create a seamless digital ecosystem where the software environment is identical wherever a commander is located.

“We’re always trying to balance the ability to man, train, equip and force generate in a standardized way, but also deliver enough innovation to be able to allow those capabilities in the right fleet at the right time where they’re needed,” Montgomery said.

Artificial Intelligence and the Orchestration Layer

The Navy is integrating AI to serve as an orchestration layer for MOCs and commanders, Montgomery said. This technology is being used to synthesize massive datasets into actionable intelligence for faster decision cycles, she added.

“I think the MOC is ripe for AI … It’s the layer of orchestration,” Montgomery said. “If you’re trying to make a decision that is viable across logistics and sustainment and combat operations and weather and fuel and people, you need some sort of an orchestration layer that can give you an understanding of how all of those things interrelate.”

BryerJoyner said that integrating AI into MOCs gives commanders better access to information for decision-making, especially in combat scenarios. She added that the Navy is open to any tech that can help fleet commanders do their jobs better.

“We’re working with the fleet commanders very closely to understand what their key problems are, so we can start to send strike teams to get after the problem itself,” BryerJoyner told GovCIO Media & Research in an interview. “Once a problem is solved, to assess how we’re going to scale it.”

BryerJoyner added that AI applications in the MOC are already active in three specific areas:

• Data Aggregation: Automating the process of making sense of “grunges of data” so analysts can focus on high-level decision making.
• Course of Action Generation: Speeding up the commander’s decision cycle by modeling potential responses to adversary moves.
• Machine-Level Autonomy: Utilizing machine-to-machine data exchanges for rapid, automated sequences of events.

The Navy is looking to collaborate more with industry to enhance AI integration into MOCs, BryerJoyner said.

“We need to be a little bit more nuanced about talking about AI and the MOCs,” BryerJoyner added. “We can be a little bit more precise about the conversation, especially where we think industry may be able to help us with some existing areas that we want to further accelerate.

Scaling Tech and Looking Ahead

Navy’s goal is to provide MOCs a modular tech stack that can scale based on mission requirements, officials said. The Navy is currently exploring “expeditionary MOCs”— units that pack the entire command baseline into suitcase-sized containers, Montgomery noted.

“This concept scales from something that I can put in several Pelican cases and put on an aircraft and fly to seven line haul Conex boxes that have the entire MOC baseline suite,” Montgomery said. “There’s still conversation about the cost, how many, where should they be, and then, under what sort of concept of operations would they be employed.”

Montgomery added that the ecosystem is evolving so quickly that the Navy must now prioritize “sailor-ready” delivery, ensuring that intuitive software and standardized training accompany every new piece of equipment.

“How do I make sure that the right sailor is in the right job with the right piece of equipment, with the right training at the right time,” Montgomery said. “It sounds very plain, but in reality, it’s exceptionally complicated.”