Halsey Alfa Group

The Halsey Alfa Group is an Advanced Research Program (ARP) that examines the character of near-future operational-tactical warfighting at the high end of the conflict spectrum. Scenarios involve a technologically sophisticated military competition in East Asia. This group uses iterative, free play wargaming and operations research/systems analysis as their primary methodologies.

About this Program

The Halsey Alfa Group at the U.S. Naval War College (NWC) is a collaborative student-faculty program that conducts data collection, research, analysis, and wargaming to analyze access denial challenges at the operational level of war, with net assessments informed by tactical-level details and research.

We maintain direct communication with intelligence and operational commands to ensure project relevance, and to provide feedback to these commands and resource sponsors. The outputs provide a basis for operational planning and joint force organization and employment at the theater level. These results are provided to both theater operational forces and the most senior levels of the Navy.

Program Curriculum

This 10-month specialized program of study is completed in conjunction with either the NWC U.S. resident College of Naval Warfare senior level course (SLC) or the College of Naval Command and Staff intermediate-level course (ILC) core curriculum. The program culminates in a well-researched, faculty-mentored professional paper for each term, which matches the core or elective requirement.

This program is conducted during the elective time slot in all trimesters. SLC students will have one core course replaced with the full-time graded ARP course. ILC students are full-time during the Spring trimester and will meet all Joint Professional Military Education requirements in lieu of the graded Joint Military Operations core course.

Navy students that complete this specialized program of study are awarded an Academic Qualification Designator (AQD 271).

Signing Up

Students who volunteer to are competitively selected by the Halsey Alfa faculty based on proven performance, desire, and the complementary skillsets required by the Halsey Alfa program. There are only a selected number of graduating students each term.

For more information on The Halsey Alfa Group, contact HalseyA_Director@usnwc.edu or (401) 856-6015. Students may sign up for this group during the ARP fair at the beginning of their first trimester.