[3] The chief can be reappointed to serve one additional term, but only during times of war or national emergency declared by Congress.

Like the other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CNO is an administrative position, with no operational command authority over the United States Navy forces.

Members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, individually or collectively, in their capacity as military advisers, shall provide advice to the president, the National Security Council (NSC), or the secretary of defense (SECDEF) on a particular matter when the president, the NSC, or SECDEF requests such advice.

[8][9] Critics of the lack of military command authority included Charles J. Bonaparte, Navy secretary from 1905 to 1906,[10] then-Captain Reginald R. Belknap[11] and future admiral William Sims.

[12] Rear Admiral George A. Converse, commander of the Bureau of Navigation (BuNav) from 1905 to 1906, reported: [W]ith each year that passes the need is painfully apparent for a military administrative authority under the secretary, whose purpose would be to initiate and direct the steps necessary to carry out the Department's policy, and to coordinate the work of the bureaus and direct their energies toward the effective preparation of the fleet for war.

[13]However, reorganization attempts were opposed by Congress due to fears of a Prussian-style general staff and inadvertently increasing the powers of the Navy secretary, which risked infringing on legislative authority.

[8] To circumvent the opposition, George von Lengerke Meyer, Secretary of the Navy under William Howard Taft implemented a system of "aides" on 18 November 1909.

[17] The successes of Meyer's first operations aide, Rear Admiral Richard Wainwright,[18] factored into Meyer's decision to make his third operations aide, Rear Admiral Bradley A. Fiske his de facto principal advisor on 10 February 1913.

[19] Fiske retained his post under Meyer's successor, Josephus Daniels, becoming the most prominent advocate for what would become the office of CNO.

[20] In 1914, Fiske, frustrated at Daniels' ambivalence towards his opinion that the Navy was unprepared for the possibility of entry into World War I, bypassed the secretary to collaborate with Representative Richmond P. Hobson, a retired Navy admiral, to draft legislation providing for the office of "a chief of naval operations".

[22] Fiske's younger supporters expected him to be named the first chief of naval operations,[23] and his versions of the bill provided for the minimum rank of the officeholder to be a two-star rear admiral.

[23] Nevertheless, satisfied with the change he had helped enact, Fiske made a final contribution: elevating the statutory rank of the CNO to admiral with commensurate pay.

[23][24] The Senate passed the appropriations bill creating the CNO position and its accompanying office on 3 March 1915, simultaneously abolishing the aides system promulgated under Meyer.

[34] The formal establishment of the CNO's "general staff", the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV), originally called the Office for Operations,[32] was exacerbated by Eugene Hale's retirement from politics in 1911,[35] and skepticism of whether the CNO's small staff could implement President Wilson's policy of "preparedness" without violating American neutrality in World War I.

[32] By June 1916, OPNAV was organized into eight divisions: Operations, Plans, Naval Districts;[32] Regulations;[32] Ship Movements;[32] Communications;[32] Publicity;[32] and Materiel.

[49] Pratt also enjoyed a good working relationship with Army chief of staff Douglas MacArthur, and negotiated several key agreements with him over coordinating their services' radio communications networks, mutual interests in coastal defense, and authority over Army and Navy aviation.

[52] The Act also granted the CNO "soft oversight power" of the naval bureaus which nominally lay with the secretary of the Navy,[53] as Standley gradually inserted OPNAV into the ship design process.

[56] Unlike Standley, who tried to dominate the bureaus, Leahy preferred to let the bureau chiefs function autonomously as per convention, with the CNO acting as a primus inter pares.

[56] Swanson's ill health and assistant secretary Henry Roosevelt's death on 22 February 1936 gave Leahy unprecedented influence.

[66] The office was previously known as the assistant vice chief of naval operations (AVCNO) until 1996,[67] when CNO Jeremy Boorda ordered its redesignation to its current name.