CNA (nonprofit)

CNA (formally named the CNA Corporation), is a federally-funded nonprofit research and analysis organization based in Arlington County, Virginia, USA. Its two major components are the Center for Naval Analyses and the Institute for Public Research. It has around 625 employees.

CNA traces its origins to the Antisubmarine Warfare Operations Group (ASWORG), formed in 1942 to assist the US Navy with scientific advice for finding and attacking U-boats that were sinking commercial ships off the Atlantic coast of North America. Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics Professor Philip M. Morse founded ASWORG at the request of Capt. Wilder D. Baker, then commander of the Antisubmarine Warfare Unit of the Atlantic Fleet. Morse is considered the father of operations research in the United States.

By the end of World War II, the organization had expanded to almost 80 scientists serving on eight military bases in the Atlantic and Pacific as well as at the Washington, D.C. headquarters. They advised U.S. forces on air, antiaircraft, submarine, amphibious, and antisubmarine operations. Though the group served the military, it was designed to be civilian and independent in order to preserve the objectivity of its analysis, and was administered by Columbia University.

In 1945, the Department of the Navy decided to support the continuation of the group under the name the Operations Evaluation Group (OEG), which exists to this day as a division within CNA. OEG grew rapidly during the Korean War, during which one of its analysts, Irving Shaknov, was killed in combat. In 1962, OEG was merged with smaller naval advisory groups to form the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA).

The first ongoing analysis support program for a non-defense agency began in 1991 for the Federal Aviation Administration. All non-defense work at CNA was brought together under its Institute for Public Research in 1993, with the Center for Naval Analyses remaining as the other division of CNA.

CNA Corporation consists of two primary components. One, the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), is a Federally-Funded Research & Development Center (FFRDC) sponsored by the US Department of Navy. That division focuses on Department of Navy work, but also performs work other US Defense Department organizations. The other large component, the Institute for Public Research (IPR), instead focuses on work for civilian parts of the US Federal Government, and also for state and local governments (including public universities). There also is a third, much smaller, component, which is the CNA Military Advisory Board.

The Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) is a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) for the United States Navy and Marine Corps. It also provides research and analysis services to other US Defense Department and certain other US Government agencies to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of U.S. national defense efforts. The Center for Naval Analyses is a Studies & Analysis FFRDC, similar to RAND Corporation or the Institute for Defense Analysis. It is somewhat different from Aerospace Corporation, Mitre Corporation, or MIT Lincoln Laboratory because that trio instead focus on Systems Engineering work for the US Federal Government.

This FFRDC has seven divisions: Advanced Technology & Systems Analysis, China Studies, Resource Analysis, the Marine Corps Program, the Operations Evaluation Group, the Center for Strategic Studies, and the Special Operations Program. These divisions address issues of preparedness, operations evaluation, systems analysis, foreign affairs, strategic relationships, humanitarian operations, logistics, and manpower.