The Navy’s information warfare engineering command in Charleston has a new commanding officer.

Capt. Nicole K. Nigro took command of Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic on Thursday, relieving Capt. Wesley S. Sanders, who is retiring after 29 years of naval service, the command said. Nigro is the sixth commanding officer of NIWC Atlantic and its predecessor, SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic.

She now leads about 5,000 federal civil service employees and military personnel at the center’s headquarters in Charleston and at sites in Hampton Roads, Va.; New Orleans; Tampa, Fla.; Washington, D.C.; and overseas locations in Europe, the Middle East and Antarctica, according to the command.

Physical attendance at the ceremony was limited because of coronavirus safety measures, and the event was streamed online so the command’s workforce around the world could watch, NIWC Atlantic said.

A new leader from the Navy’s engineering school

Nigro comes to Charleston from the Engineering Duty Officer school in Port Hueneme, Calif., where she had served since April 2019 as executive officer and senior course director. There, she focused on moving the traditional curriculum to problem-based learning to better prepare new engineering duty officers for their first tours, the command said.

“I am excited, honored and humbled to be given the opportunity to be part of the NIWC Atlantic team and very much looking forward to furthering our mission to deliver information warfare capabilities to the naval, joint and national warfighter,” Nigro said, according to the command.

Rear Adm. Doug Small, commander of Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, the parent command, presided.

“NIWC Atlantic is a special place, with a global workforce supporting Sailors, Marines, and the Joint force all over the world,” Small said. “Today we honor and bid farewell to a great leader in Wes Sanders, who led this incredible team through an amazing time, and welcome Nicole Nigro, another of our Navy’s finest leaders, to relieve Wes’ watch.”

Sanders’ tenure

Sanders took command in October 2018, when the center was still called SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic. He came to Charleston from Patuxent River, Md., where he had been chief of staff at Commander, Fleet Readiness Center, the Navy said at the time.

Four months after he arrived, the Navy renamed the center Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic. The change took effect Feb. 18, 2019, and was meant to recognize the importance of the information warfare mission, not to change the work, the Navy said then.

During the ceremony, Sanders received the Legion of Merit. The award recognized his “extraordinary vision and outstanding leadership,” which “facilitated the masterful transformation of the command into a highly effective and efficient competency aligned/integrated product team organization,” according to the command.

The award also highlighted how the command kept meeting warfighters’ needs in the development, acquisition and support of command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems during the coronavirus pandemic.

Sanders said he had held the post “during a unique and challenging time.” He added: “Together, we navigated through the rough waters of a worldwide pandemic, and overcame uncertain and changing circumstances.”

Retired Rear Adm. Paul A. Sohl, CEO of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, was the guest speaker. “I can’t possibly imagine Wes retiring from anything,” Sohl said, according to the command.

Investing in labs

The change of command follows other changes at the command this year. In July, NIWC Atlantic cut the ribbon on the Expeditionary Systems Integration and Innovation Center Bay, a 36,000-square-foot lab at its Expeditionary Warfare Department headquarters building in the old Navy Yard in North Charleston, the Navy said.

The department oversees the command’s integration work for the Marine Corps. The lab supports work on vehicles such as amphibious assault vehicles and joint light tactical vehicles, as well as projects in mixed reality and biometric operations, according to the Navy. Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southeast supported the design and construction.

“This renovation is the first of several steps we are taking to modernize our labs and facilities for the ExW workforce,” Ashlee Landreth, head of the department, said at the time.

Peter C. Reddy, the command’s executive director, said success in the Indo-Pacific will depend on naval forces’ ability to sense and communicate across systems in a highly contested environment, the Navy reported.

“The requirements to communicate, hide and fight in the Pacific are unlike anything we have seen to date and critical to our nation’s success,” Reddy said.

The command traces its current form to 2008, when SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic was commissioned in Charleston, Norfolk and New Orleans, according to its history. Its earlier commanders include Capt. Mark Glover, Capt. Amy Burin and Capt. Scott Heller.