ONI FME

• Origins in Intelligence: The ONI FME (Office of Naval Intelligence, Foreign Materiel Exploitation) is a specialized unit within the U.S. Navy focused on collecting, analyzing, and exploiting foreign naval technology and equipment. • Cold War Beginnings: The roots of FME trace back to the Cold War, when capturing, examining, and reverse-engineering Soviet naval assets became a top priority for U.S. intelligence. • Submarine Salvage: ONI FME played a role in projects like Operation Ivy Bells and Project Azorian, which sought to recover Soviet submarines and underwater technology from the ocean floor. • Technical Expertise: FME teams include experts in engineering, electronics, linguistics, and naval operations, making them capable of understanding and exploiting highly complex foreign systems. • Global Reach: The ONI FME operates worldwide, often working with allied navies to access and study foreign materiel encountered during conflicts or found abandoned. • Reverse Engineering: One of FME’s main missions is to reverse engineer foreign naval equipment—ranging from torpedoes to radar systems—to better understand adversary capabilities and inform U.S. countermeasures. • Operation Gunman: ONI FME was involved in analyzing Soviet typewriters and other devices discovered in U.S. embassies, revealing sophisticated bugging techniques. • Captured Vessels: The unit has examined entire captured or defected vessels, such as North Korean patrol boats or Soviet-made ships, providing invaluable intelligence on foreign naval architecture and tactics. • Technology Transfer Prevention: FME efforts sometimes focus on preventing sensitive U.S. or allied technology from falling into adversary hands, through destruction or recovery operations. • Modern Relevance: With the rise of near-peer competitors like China and Russia, ONI FME’s role has expanded to include cyber exploitation and analysis of unmanned underwater vehicles and advanced missile systems.