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STSE8-E9

Sonar Technician (Submarine)

E-8 to E-9 (Senior NCO) · Navy

E1–E3E-4E-5E-6E-7E8–E9
HEADS UP

STSCS / STSCM is the paygrade where the STS community holds you accountable for outcomes you cannot directly observe — acoustic proficiency rates across multiple boats, watchstander credentialing across the rate, commissioning accessions from a sphere of influence you manage through relationships rather than direct supervision. Start the post-Navy transition conversation 24-36 months before the retirement date. The community's cleared acoustic expertise has real market value; the STSCM who plans the transition deliberately gets the opportunity the community built.

The Honest MOS Read
Senior and Master Chief Sonar Technician Submarine is the top of the STS enlisted structure, and the job at this paygrade is materially different from anything below it. The sonar shack you ran at STS1 is now four or five submarine sonar divisions that you influence through the STSCs and STS1s you develop, evaluate, and place. The eEVALs you write are the ones that determine the next Chief and Senior Chief slate across the entire rate — fewer eEVALs than a deckplate LCPO, but each one carries the consequence of a community-level selection. The STSCS and STSCM serve at the senior enlisted STS seat in several assignment profiles: submarine squadron (SUBRON) staff as the senior enlisted STS advisor to the commodore; CSG staff as the acoustic-technical senior enlisted voice on the carrier strike group; COMSUBPAC or COMSUBLANT staff cell with community-level responsibilities; Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Newport technical cadre; or at the BUPERS/PERS-4 enlisted career management level as the STS community manager. Each assignment type carries the same fundamental accountability: the STS rating's enlisted acoustic proficiency outcomes during your tenure are traceable to your community influence. The flag-officer brief is the primary communication mode at STSCS/STSCM. The commodore, the type commander, and OPNAV-N97 (Undersea Warfare Division) leadership ask questions that require answers in the language of strategic posture: watchstander qualification rates across the squadron, acoustic proficiency trends over multiple assessment cycles, commissioning accession rates, retention concerns in the STS pipeline. The STSCS who cannot answer those questions in that language at the speed the flag officer expects has not prepared for the paygrade's communication requirement. Selection board participation is a senior enlisted professional obligation at the STSCS/STSCM level. Chief and Senior Chief selection boards, command CMC slates, and STS community career management processes require the same discipline and confidentiality that the convening authority demands of officer board members. What is discussed in the board room stays in the board room, the deliberations are not debriefed to sailors who are not selected, and the STSCM who maintains that discipline builds the board-room credibility that the fleet needs its most senior petty officers to hold. The post-Navy transition plan begins at the 24-36 month mark before retirement, not when the retirement paperwork is submitted. The STS community's cleared acoustic expertise — 20-plus years of submarine sonar watchstanding, acoustic analysis, ASW doctrine application, and classified technical systems operation — is genuinely valued in the naval defense industrial base, the civil service acoustic analysis community at NUWC, and the intelligence community technical support organizations. The STSCM who walks into the TAMP (Transition Assistance Management Program) with a targeted plan for the NUWC civil service pathway, the cleared contractor community (Leidos, BAE Systems, Booz Allen, SAIC, CACI), or the DIA/NSA technical support roles that value acoustic expertise is the one who negotiates from a position of specific competence. The STSCM who shows up to transition with a general 'I will figure it out' approach discovers that the market is specific, not general.
Career Arc
  • 01STSCS / STSCM pin-on; SUBRON staff, CSG staff, COMSUBPAC/COMSUBLANT staff, NUWC, or BUPERS community manager assignment.
  • 02First flag-officer-level readiness brief — STSCS/STSCM is the voice the commodore calls for STS community enlisted posture.
  • 03Chief and Senior Chief selection board panel participation; community CMC slate input.
  • 04Senior Enlisted Academy completion or equivalent senior PME if not completed at STSC.
  • 05STS community accession, training pipeline, and retention policy input at OPNAV and NAVSEA level.
  • 06Post-Navy transition planning initiated 24-36 months before retirement — NUWC civil service, cleared contractor, DIA/NSA technical pathways.
  • 07Retirement and transition: the acoustic standard you leave is the metric the next STSCM is measured against.
Common Screwups
  • ×Pretending to hold current technical depth on sonar system configurations when the last deckplate tour was years ago. The NUWC representative and the NAVSEA technical authority recognize faked technical currency inside the first brief. The STSCS who acknowledges the gap between current system configurations and his last direct exposure — and who stays current through NUWC briefings, technical symposia, and NAVSEA program office relationships — is the senior enlisted technical voice the community trusts.
  • ×Letting a Chief-led sonar division drift on acoustic watchstander qualification standards because 'the department head has eyes on it.' The senior enlisted STS authority owns enlisted execution posture at the community level; the COMSUBRON assessment cycle finds the drift under your community standard. The STSCS who visits the sonar divisions in his squadron's boats during workup periods — not to micromanage but to assess the standard — is the one who catches the drift before the assessment finds it.
  • ×Treating the commissioning and NEC mentoring responsibility as a signature on a form. The STSs the STSCM develops at this paygrade build the submarine acoustic-intelligence and ASW capability the fleet will depend on for the next decade. Counseling honestly about which path fits which sailor — including 'the LDO pathway is not the right fit for your eEVAL profile and here is why' — is the professional standard, not the encouraging non-answer that produces a disappointed sailor at the selection results.
  • ×Going public with disagreement with the type commander, NAVSEA, or flag leadership in a forum visible to junior sailors or the civilian defense community. The submarine senior enlisted community is small and the STSCM who breaks the alignment rule is remembered in every future assignment and advisory conversation. Take the disagreement through the appropriate channel, walk out aligned, and trust the process — or accept that the process produces a result you cannot change and own the implementation.
  • ×Confusing preparation for retirement with performance in the current assignment. Until the retirement ceremony concludes, the mission is the current job — and the deckplate reads which one the STSCM is prioritizing in the final year. The STSCs and STS1s who observe the STSCM performing the job at full standard through the final month inherit a community standard; the ones who observe the STSCM mentally retired eighteen months before the ceremony inherit a different standard.

A Day in the Life

  • 0630Arrive at the SUBRON staff, CSG staff, or command cell. Review overnight NAVADMINs, OPNAV messages, and NAVSEA technical bulletins relevant to the STS community. The STSCM who reads current message traffic before the commodore's morning brief is the one who can answer the flag officer's question about the new policy implication without saying 'I will check.'
  • 0700-0800Commodore's morning brief — staff readiness update. The STSCM presents the STS community enlisted readiness posture: qualification currency, assessment cycle status, any personnel action requiring commodore awareness. Brief from memory, four data points, no surprises.
  • 0800-1000Staff work — STS community talent management: detailing coordination with NPC for STS billets in the squadron's boats, commissioning program packet review for sailors in the pipeline, advanced NEC slot coordination with NETC.
  • 1000-1200Technical engagement — NAVSEA program office brief on system evolution, NUWC technical liaison meeting, or submarine force training command coordination for STS curriculum updates. The STSCM who maintains active technical relationships with the program office and NUWC is the one the program office calls when the community's enlisted perspective is needed before a design decision.
  • 1200-1300Lunch. The STSCM at a SUBRON or CSG staff eats with the command senior enlisted community — CMC, other senior chiefs. These are professional relationships, not social ones; the information exchange in those meals is part of the community management function.
  • 1300-1530Workup visits to the boats in port — walk the sonar spaces of the SSN in the maintenance cycle, brief the STSC LCPO on the qualification and training posture the assessment team will evaluate, and assess whether the standard the LCPO is running matches the standard the STSCM expects. Not a surprise inspection — a professional development conversation with the STSC who reports to the standard the STSCM has communicated.
  • 1530-1700Mentoring sessions — STS1 Chief board package reviews, STS2 commissioning program counseling, STSC Senior Chief board trajectory conversation. One substantive mentoring session per day; the STSCM who meets with one sailor at depth is more effective than the one who meets five sailors at the surface.
  • 1700-1800Transition planning work (24-36 months out from retirement) — NUWC GS hiring timeline research, cleared contractor recruiting contact maintenance, DIA/NSA technical program networking. This work happens during duty hours at the staff billet level because it is part of the professional management of a 20+ year career, not moonlighting.
  • 1800-2200Personal time, family, rest. The STSCM at a shore staff billet has more predictable hours than any previous submarine assignment — use the time for the personal and family stabilization that the submarine career's patrol cycles have borrowed against for 18-20 years.
  • TDY / assessment travelCOMSUBRON assessments, OPNAV staff engagements, naval symposia, and submarine force senior enlisted forums require travel. The STSCM who arrives at the COMSUBPAC or COMSUBLANT staff engagement with prepared briefing materials, current community metrics, and specific recommendations is the one whose community gets the resources and policy attention the assessment warranted.

Weekly Cadence

The STSCS/STSCM week at a staff billet follows the command's operational calendar rather than the submarine watch-section rotation. The commodore's battle rhythm — daily morning brief, weekly staff sync, monthly readiness review, quarterly community assessment — is the structure the STSCM schedules his community management work around. Monday morning is the week-setting sync: which boats in the squadron have readiness events this week, which STS sailors are at NPC decision points, which NAVSEA or OPNAV engagements are scheduled, and which mentoring sessions are on the calendar. The STSCM who arrives at Monday sync with the week's community management priorities pre-organized is the staff member who functions at the flag officer's planning horizon. Tuesday through Thursday are the execution core: boat visits during workup periods, NAVSEA/NUWC technical engagements, NPC coordination for STS billets, and mentoring sessions with the senior sailors in the STSCM's sphere of influence. Friday is the community metrics update — advancement results, qualification currency rates, any assessment findings from the week — briefed to the commodore's staff before the end of the work day. The transition planning work runs as a parallel track through the weekly calendar from the 24-36 month mark. It does not compete with the job; it fits into the professional development windows the job's schedule provides. The STSCM who treats transition planning as a second job during the last year is the one whose current assignment suffers; the one who starts at 30 months and executes steadily is the one who retires with the next opportunity already secured.

Key Skills — How to Drill Each

  1. 01
    Run a senior enlisted STS community climate — across a squadron, CSG staff, or major command cell — that produces qualified sonar supervisors, advancing petty officers, and commissioning accessions above community average.
    The 'community climate' is not an abstract concept — it is the measurable outputs the STSCM can point to: sonar proficiency assessment results across the squadron's boats, NWAE advancement rates for STS2 and STS1 in the squadron, commissioning program accessions per year, retention rates at the STS3/STS2 re-enlistment decision point. Build a tracking sheet for these numbers from the first quarter at STSCS. Brief the commodore quarterly on where the metrics are trending, not just where they stand. The STSCS who knows the trend before the commodore asks is the one the commodore trusts to manage the community proactively.
  2. 02
    Brief the commodore, type commander, or OPNAV-N97 leadership on STS community enlisted readiness in language the flag officer can defend at the next echelon.
    Flag-officer briefs are not LPO section syncs with more stars in the room. The commodore needs four things: current posture, trend over the last cycle, risk identified, and mitigation in progress. 'We are at 87% qualification currency across the squadron's sonar divisions, down from 92% last quarter due to two boats in extended maintenance; the corrective action is a qualification surge during the next work cycle, which the affected STSCs have already briefed to their department heads.' That is the brief. Every number is verified; every risk has a mitigation; no surprises.
  3. 03
    Sit on Chief and Senior Chief selection board panels, command CMC slates, and STS community career management processes with the discipline and confidentiality the convening authority requires.
    Board discipline is absolute: deliberations are confidential, selection rationale is not shared outside the board room, and the STSCM who maintains that discipline through board season and through the post-selection period — including when a sailor he mentored is not selected — builds the board credibility that the fleet needs at this level. The STSCM who hints at selection outcomes, counsels sailors on 'what the board said,' or discusses deliberation content outside the board room has compromised the process and will not be seated on the next board.
  4. 04
    Translate COMSUBPAC / COMSUBLANT, OPNAV-N97, and NAVSEA Undersea Warfare policy into enlisted talent management decisions at the unit level and across the rate.
    Policy translation is the senior enlisted leader's primary value-add. The NAVSEA technical authority brief on a new sonar system variant produces an acquisition and training timeline that the STS community's enlisted career management must adapt to: NEC codes need updating, A-School curriculum needs revision, the towed-array qualification program may need modification. The STSCM who reads the policy brief, identifies the enlisted talent management implications, and brings a specific action recommendation to the SUBRON or COMSUBPAC staff is the senior enlisted technical voice that flag officers rely on.
  5. 05
    Execute a casualty notification with the dignity it requires.
    At STSCM you may be the face the family sees when a submarine casualty notification is required. The notification protocol is not improvised — it is a formal procedure with a chaplain, a Casualty Assistance Calls Officer (CACO), and specific language requirements. Know the protocol before you are called to execute it. The STSCM who executes a notification with the dignity and precision the process requires is performing the most important single action of the career. The one who improvises produces a family's worst memory of the Navy.

Manuals & References — What Chapters Matter

  • NWP 3-21 series — Anti-Submarine Warfare
    At STSCS/STSCM you cite NWP 3-21 in staff-level conversations about ASW doctrine and community training posture, not on the deckplate during a prosecution. Know the doctrine well enough to brief the commodore on how current STS community training aligns with doctrinal ASW requirements — and specifically what gaps exist between doctrine and the training the community is actually conducting.
  • NSTM Chapter 565 — Sonar Systems
    Technical currency at STSCS/STSCM means understanding the current system configurations across the submarine force — not executing PMS, but knowing what the installed suite is capable of, what the NAVSEA technical authority is briefing on system evolution, and what the NUWC research program implications are for the STS community's watchstander qualification requirements. The STSCM who is current on system evolution at the architectural level — not the MRC procedure level — is the one the NAVSEA program office calls when the community's enlisted perspective on system design is needed.
  • Senior Enlisted Academy (SEA) reading list and CPO/COB Symposium materials
    The SEA curriculum and the annual CPO symposium materials are the senior enlisted professional development canon. The STSCS who has completed SEA and maintains current familiarity with the CPO/COB Symposium outputs is the one who walks into the commodore's brief with the professional development framework the flag officer expects at the senior enlisted level.
  • COMSUBPAC / COMSUBLANT and OPNAV-N97 policy memos and NAVADMINs
    Pull each one current as published. The STSCM who reads policy memos from the current quarterly distribution and not from a shared folder last updated eight months ago is the one who identifies the enlisted talent management implication before the commodore's staff has tasked the analysis. The stale-folder STSCM is the one who arrives at the flag brief with outdated information and loses the technical authority the paygrade requires.
  • MILPERSMAN — senior enlisted personnel administration
    Casualty notification procedures, high-visibility administrative actions, senior enlisted retention policy, and board deliberation protocol. The STSCM who is fluent in the applicable MILPERSMAN articles before the JAG consultation is the senior enlisted advisor who adds value to the legal review. The one who learns the applicable standard from the JAG officer during the meeting is the advisor who required preparation the legal team did not need to provide.

Standards — How to Hit Each

  • Senior Enlisted Academy fellowship or equivalent senior PME complete before competing for command CMC / COB slate.
    The SEA application cycle is managed through the chain — brief the CMC and the type commander staff on SEA timing and application intent. The STSCS who arrives at the command CMC / COB selection cycle without SEA on the record is carrying a visible PME gap that the selection board will note. Complete SEA during the STSC or early STSCS phase; do not defer it to the STSCM tier.
  • Community-level sonar proficiency and ASW watchstander qualification metrics defensible at flag and OPNAV level during tenure.
    Own the numbers for the squadron or staff sphere of influence. Qualification currency rates, NWAE advancement rates, commissioning accession rates, retention at the re-enlistment gate — brief these quarterly to the commodore or type commander. The numbers that surprise the flag officer are the numbers that were not being tracked. Own the tracking.
  • Commissioning and advanced NEC pipeline producing at least one selectee per year from the sphere of influence.
    The STSCM who cannot name a commissioning program or advanced NEC selectee from the previous year has not made mentoring a community standard. One selectee per year is a floor — name the sailor, name the program, name the timeline. If the pipeline is not producing, the STSCM is accountable for the structural reason: are the sailors not being counseled, are the eEVAL profiles not competitive, are the commissioning windows being missed? Diagnose the gap and own the correction.
  • Zero senior enlisted integrity incidents during tenure.
    Security clearance compliance, financial accountability, fraternization standards, and classified material discipline at the STSCS/STSCM level are not aspirational — they are the baseline that the community assumes of its most senior petty officers. A single integrity incident at this paygrade triggers review above the command and ends the career. The STSCM who holds himself to the same standard he enforces in the junior sailors has nothing to explain at the next board.

Technical Mistakes — Concrete Consequences

  • Faking technical currency on current sonar system configurations in front of the NUWC representative or the NAVSEA technical authority.
    The NUWC engineer and the NAVSEA program officer recognize fabricated technical confidence inside the first brief. The STSCS who acknowledges the gap between his last deckplate sonar system exposure and current system configurations — and who stays current through the program office briefs, technical symposia, and NUWC relationships available at the staff level — is the senior enlisted technical voice those organizations call. The one who fakes it once earns a read that follows the STSCM community through every subsequent technical interaction.
  • Failing to visit the sonar divisions in the squadron's boats during workup periods.
    The COMSUBRON assessment cycle evaluates the sonar division's readiness as a reflection of the community standard the senior enlisted STS voice has maintained. The STSCS who visits the boats during workup — not to micromanage the STSC LCPO but to assess the training quality, the procedural compliance posture, and the watchstander qualification pace — is the one who identifies drift before the assessment team does. The assessment finding that could have been caught during a workup visit is an assessment finding the commodore asks the STSCS to explain.
  • Providing board deliberation details to sailors who were not selected.
    Board deliberations are confidential by convening authority direction. The STSCM who shares selection rationale, comparison context, or deliberation content with sailors who were not selected — even out of personal empathy — has compromised the board process and will not be seated on the next board. The sailor deserves honest counseling on what to improve for the next cycle; that counseling does not include what the board discussed about the specific record.
  • Beginning transition preparation in the current assignment's final year rather than 24-36 months before retirement.
    The NUWC civil service acoustic analyst position, the cleared defense contractor senior technical role, and the DIA/NSA technical support billet all require: application timelines measured in months, clearance verification processes, professional network relationships built over years, and specific role-targeting that the STSCM who starts the process 18 months before retirement cannot complete without degrading the current assignment's performance. Start the transition plan at the 24-36 month mark; execute it on a timeline that does not compete with the current job.

Career Decisions at This Rank

  • Retirement timing — serve to STSCM maximum or retire at STSCS
    The retirement timing decision at the senior enlisted level involves the intersection of retirement pay computation (final base pay × years of service × 2.5% per year or BRS calculation), TSP balance growth, TRICARE eligibility, and the post-Navy opportunity timeline. The STSCM who retires at 20 years has a different monthly retirement check than the one who retires at 24 or 26 years; the additional years of service increase the multiplier and the base pay used in the calculation. The decision involves the family's financial picture, the post-Navy opportunity's timing, and the personal cost of the additional years in uniform. Run the numbers with the Fleet and Family Service Center financial counselor 30 months before the target retirement date, not when the paperwork is being processed.
  • Post-Navy transition — NUWC civil service vs. cleared contractor vs. intelligence community
    NUWC Newport and NUWC Keyport have civil service acoustic analyst and technical program management billets in the GS-11 to GS-13 range that directly leverage the STSCM's acoustic expertise and clearance. The application process involves USA Jobs, which is process-intensive and slow — begin the application preparation 24+ months before the target start date. Cleared defense contractors (Leidos, BAE Systems, Booz Allen Hamilton, SAIC, CACI) actively recruit retired submarine-community senior enlisted for program management, technical advisory, and cleared-testing roles; the salary range for a retiring STSCM with the right background is typically $90K-$140K depending on the specific role and contractor. DIA and NSA technical support organizations seek cleared acoustic technical backgrounds for analysis and program support roles. The specific pathway requires specific preparation; identify the target 24-36 months out and begin the network conversations before the resume is written.
  • COB (Command Master Chief / Chief of the Boat) slate consideration
    The COB billet on a submarine is the most senior enlisted position in the submarine force at the command level — the CMC for the boat, the senior enlisted leader the CO relies on for the enlisted community's welfare, discipline, and professional development. COB selection is competitive and requires: STSCM qualifications, a strong eEVAL profile from sea and staff billets, the CMC's recommendation, and command leadership's endorsement. The STSCS who is building toward the COB slate needs to brief the type commander staff on the intent early and build the professional development record (SEA, diverse assignment profile) the COB selection criteria look for.

How the Seat Varies by Unit Type

  • Submarine Squadron (SUBRON) staff — STSCM as senior enlisted STS advisor to the commodore
    The primary billet type for STSCM in the STS community. The STSCM at the SUBRON staff manages the STS community's enlisted readiness posture across multiple submarines, coordinates with NPC on STS detailing for the squadron's boats, and serves as the commodore's senior enlisted acoustic technical voice. The COMSUBRON assessment cycle evaluates the sonar divisions the STSCM has influenced; the results show up in the post-assessment report under the community standard the STSCM has set.
  • CSG (Carrier Strike Group) staff — STSCM as acoustic-technical senior enlisted voice for the strike group
    The CSG staff billet provides exposure to multi-domain operations at the strike group level — the STSCM interfaces with the air wing, surface warfare, and submarine warfare elements of the CSG's acoustic picture. The joint and combined operations context differs from the SUBRON staff's submarine-focused orientation. Some STSCM career paths move through both SUBRON and CSG staff billets to develop both community-focused and operationally-integrated senior enlisted experience.
  • COMSUBPAC / COMSUBLANT staff — STSCM in type commander-level community management
    The most senior enlisted STS assignment in the submarine force. At COMSUBPAC or COMSUBLANT the STSCM briefs the type commander and OPNAV leadership on STS community enlisted readiness and influences STS accession, training pipeline, and retention policy at the force-wide level. The position requires the full STSCM professional profile: SEA complete, multiple tour experience, strong eEVAL profile, and the demonstrated ability to brief flag officers and OPNAV staff at the community posture level.
  • NUWC Newport / NUWC Keyport technical cadre — acoustic research and development interface
    The NUWC technical cadre billet puts the senior STSCM at the interface between the fleet sonar community and the naval acoustic research and development programs. The STSCM in a NUWC billet provides the fleet's deckplate perspective on system design, qualification requirements, and training implications to the research and engineering organizations. The technical currency requirement is higher than a staff billet — the NUWC engineer expects the senior enlisted advisor to understand the system architecture at a functional level, not just the operational application. Strong preparation for the post-Navy NUWC civil service pathway.

What Good Looks Like at This Rank

The good Master Chief Sonar Technician Submarine is the senior enlisted acoustic authority COMSUBPAC and COMSUBLANT name without checking a roster. The explanation is empirical: the STS community's watchstander qualification rates and acoustic proficiency metrics were in the top tier across the submarine force during his tenure. The commissioning program accession rate tracked above the community average. The Chiefs he developed advanced to Senior Chief on schedule. When he retires, the acoustic standard he leaves is the one the next STSCM is measured against — and every STSC in the community knows it, because they worked for him or they knew someone who did. His transition plan started 30 months before the retirement date, not 18. He identified three specific post-Navy pathways — NUWC Newport civil service acoustic analyst in the GS-12 to GS-13 range, a senior technical role at one of the cleared acoustic defense contractors, and a DIA technical support position that leverages his clearance and acoustic intelligence background — and began the professional network conversations and application-timeline research before any pathway's hiring window was imminent. By the time the retirement ceremony date is set, two of the three pathways have active conversations in progress. In the final year of service, the sonar divisions in his squadron's boats are being trained and evaluated to the same standard they were trained and evaluated in year one of his tour. The commodore does not notice a change in the STS community's management posture because there is no change — the STSCM who performs the job to standard through the final month is the one whose community inherits the standard, not the lore of the standard.

Preview — The Next Rank

There is no next level in uniform. STSCM is the end of the Navy's enlisted advancement structure. The accountability beyond this paygrade is to the community and the mission — the acoustic standard the STSCM leaves is the standard the next STSCM inherits, and the sailors developed during the STSCM's tenure are the deckplate and staff leaders who will run the STS community for the next decade. The transition from STSCM to retired status is a career milestone that deserves the same planning discipline the STSCM applied to every promotion board and every assignment decision. The Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits, TRICARE RETIRED coverage, the TSP accumulated balance, and the retirement pay calculation are the financial architecture of the post-Navy life. The professional second act — NUWC civil service, cleared contractor, intelligence community technical support — is the career continuation that the STSCM's acoustic expertise and clearance make possible. Plan both deliberately and early. The final professional act is the retirement ceremony and the transfer of accountability to the next STSCM. Run the job to standard through the final watch, transfer the community clearly and specifically to the relief, and walk off the quarterdeck knowing the acoustic standard is in good hands. That is the last accountability the Master Chief owns — and the fleet will tell the next generation whether it was met.
FAQ

STS E8-E9 — Frequently Asked Questions

Q01What does a E8-E9 STS (Sonar Technician (Submarine)) actually do?
As STSCS or STSCM you hold the senior enlisted STS seat at a submarine squadron (SUBRON), a CSG staff, a COMSUBPAC or COMSUBLANT staff cell, a Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) technical cadre billet, or at the STS community manager level through BUPERS/PERS-4 enlisted career management.
Q02What's the most important thing to know as a E8-E9 STS?
STSCS / STSCM is the paygrade where the STS community holds you accountable for outcomes you cannot directly observe — acoustic proficiency rates across multiple boats, watchstander credentialing across the rate, commissioning accessions from a sphere of influence you manage through relationships rather than direct supervision.
Q03What does a typical day look like for a E8-E9 STS?
Time-blocked day at the E8-E9 STS rank tier: 0630 Arrive at the SUBRON staff, CSG staff, or command cell. Review overnight NAVADMINs, OPNAV messages, and NAVSEA technical bulletins relevant to the STS community. The STSCM who reads current message traffic before the commodore's morning brief is the one who can answer the flag officer's question about the new policy implication without saying 'I will check.', 0700-0800 Commodore's morning brief — staff readiness update. The STSCM presents the STS community enlisted readiness posture: qualification currency, assessment cycle status,…
Q04What mistakes get E8-E9 STS soldiers fired or relieved?
Pretending to hold current technical depth on sonar system configurations when the last deckplate tour was years ago. The NUWC representative and the NAVSEA technical authority recognize faked technical currency inside the first brief. The STSCS who acknowledges the gap between current system configurations and his last direct exposure — and who stays current through NUWC briefings, technical symposia,…
Q05What career decisions matter most at the E8-E9 STS rank tier?
Retirement timing — serve to STSCM maximum or retire at STSCS — The retirement timing decision at the senior enlisted level involves the intersection of retirement pay computation (final base pay × years of service × 2.5% per year or BRS calculation), TSP balance growth, TRICARE eligibility, and the post-Navy opportunity timeline. The STSCM who retires at 20 years has a different monthly retirement check than the one who retires at 24 or 26 years; the additional years of service increase the multiplier and the base pay used in the calculation.…
Q06What's next after E8-E9 for a STS (Sonar Technician (Submarine)) in the Navy?
There is no next level in uniform.
Q07What manuals and regulations does a E8-E9 STS need to know cold?
NWP 3-21 series — ASW doctrine; you translate operational doctrine into enlisted talent management and training pipeline decisions at the community level.; NSTM Chapter 565 — Sonar Systems; you cite from it more often than you open it — but the NUWC rep and the NAVSEA technical authority know if you have not kept technical currency.; MILPERSMAN — fluent on enlisted personnel actions at the senior-enlisted threshold; you are in the room for NJP, high-visibility security incidents, separation,…

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Published by the Honest MOS Editorial DeskVerified against DoD/.gov sourcesUpdated May 2026Editorial standards