NAVAL SUPPORT ACTIVITY NAPLES, Italy – U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa and U.S. Sixth Fleet announced the integration of the U.S. Navy’s first all-domain task force into theater-wide fleet operations, May 22, 2024.

Commander, Task Force (CTF) 66 will drive innovation, development, and acceleration of asymmetric capabilities in support of Allies and partners across the European and African theaters. The task force staff will consist of 40 military and civilian personnel based at Naval Support Activity Naples, Italy.

While attending the Combined Naval Event in Farnborough, U.K., Rear. Adm. Mike Mattis, commander of CTF 66 noted that the task force reflected the Navy’s response to integrating naval capabilities across all-domains (e.g., information, cyber, space, land, sea and air) in a highly competitive, increasingly contested maritime environment.

“CTF 66 is just starting this journey,” said Mattis. “We look forward to working with our government and industry partners to rapidly integrate new capabilities, while also working with our NATO Allies and partners to codify standards that we can all employ.”

CTF 66 will leverage collaboration between the government, industry and academia – including pairing operational tacticians with international experts to accelerate development and fielding of new systems at scale:

– Unmanned – integrate all-domain unmanned systems (UxS) across the joint force, Coalition, Allies, and partner nations.

– Maritime Domain Awareness – support multinational efforts to address transnational issues like illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUUx) activities.

– All-Domain – drive operations to integrate capabilities across information, space, cyber, sea, air, and land domains enabled by UxS.

The task force will work closely with the Navy Disruptive Capabilities Office (DCO) on rapid experimentation and prototyping. It will also work with Naval Postgraduate School’s Naval Innovation Center (NIC) established by SECNAV on ways to accelerate technology solutions and applications.

CTF 66 recently participated in Triton surface/subsurface drone testing from aboard USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB 4) during exercise Obangame Express off the coast of Gabon, Africa. In the coming months, the task force will support several more exercises in the European and African theaters, including Baltops, Dacia, Seabreeze, Phoenix Express, and Cutlass Express. These exercises will validate concepts of operations, accelerate capability development, and support integration across fleet operations as well as with Allies and partners.

For over 80 years, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-U.S. Naval Forces Africa (NAVEUR-NAVAF) has forged strategic relationships with Allies and partners, leveraging a foundation of shared values to preserve security and stability.

Headquartered in Naples, Italy, NAVEUR-NAVAF operates U.S. naval forces in the U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) areas of responsibility. U.S. Sixth Fleet is permanently assigned to NAVEUR-NAVAF, and employs maritime forces through the full spectrum of joint and naval operations.