World War II: Anti-submarine warfare As soon as the United States officially declared war on Nazi Germany in late 1941, an urgent need developed to consolidate and coordinate anti-submarine operations. Although Allied ship traffic had been subject to German U-boat attacks since the hostilities in Europe began, Germany began aggressively attacking American targets after the U.S. officially entered the war. U.S. Tenth Fleet was established on 20 May 1943 based on a recommendations Fleet Admiral
Ernest King made to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a memo entitled "Anti-submarine Operations." The memo proposed a central organization with access to all intelligence about German U-boats and the authority to direct Navy ships to prosecute them. Tenth Fleet became a clearing house for everything involving
anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and had unrestricted access to the Admiralty's U-boat tracking room and its various ASW research and intelligence agencies. All Allied countries coordinated ASW activities through U.S. Tenth Fleet. In addition to the coordination and supervision of all anti-submarine warfare training, anti-submarine intelligence, and coordination with the allied nations, U.S. Tenth Fleet's mission included the destruction of enemy submarines, the protection of coastal merchant shipping, and the centralization of control and routing of convoys. U.S. Tenth Fleet was composed of five primary sections: Operations, Anti-submarine Measures, Convoy and Routing, the Civilian Scientific Council, and the Air Anti-submarine Development Unit. Commander in Chief and Chief of Naval Operations
Admiral Ernest King was the fleet's commander, with Rear Admiral
Francis S. Low, King's assistant chief of staff for ASW, as fleet chief of staff. Admiral Low was later relieved by Rear Admiral
Allan Rockwell McCann, who remained in command of U.S. Tenth Fleet until it was deactivated. U.S. Tenth Fleet never put to sea, had no ships, and never had more than about 50 people in its organization. The fleet was disbanded June 1945. after the surrender of Germany. The fleet was re-established using existing Naval Network Warfare Command infrastructure, communications support and personnel at
Fort Meade,
Maryland. Much as U.S. Tenth Fleet was originally constituted to confront the U-boat threat and ensure access to the shipping lanes of the Atlantic, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command and the modern U.S. Tenth Fleet was created to manage threats in cyber space and ensure access to online traffic and commerce. The need for a more coordinated approach to the cyber domain had been building for some time and culminated with the White House Cyberspace Policy Review of May 2009, which stated that "America's failure to protect cyberspace is one of the most urgent national security problems facing the new administration." Two months later, Secretary of Defense Gates unveiled his plan for military cyberspace operations. In a memo to the Secretaries of the Armed Forces, he wrote, "Our increasing dependency on cyberspace, alongside a growing array of cyber threats and vulnerabilities, adds a new element of risk to our national security. To address this risk effectively and to secure freedom of action in cyberspace, the Department of Defense requires a command that possesses the required technical capability and remains focused on the integration of cyberspace operations. Further, this command must be capable of synchronizing war-fighting effects across the global security environment as well as providing support to civil authorities and international partners." In August, 2017, President Donald Trump announced that he would elevate
U.S. Cyber Command, the parent command to U.S. Fleet Cyber Command to full
combatant command status. == List of Commanders ==