Of all the enlisted ratings included in the Information Warfare Community, none offers as many possible courses of advancement as Intelligence Specialists (IS). But the amount and type of opportunities has changed over time as the Navy has sought to fine-tune its relatively new Information Warfare Community and strike the right balance Limited Duty Officers (LDOs) and Chief Warrant Officers (CWOs).
As specified in OPNAVINST 1420.1B (December, 2009), IS Sailors who had reached the paygrade of E6—Intelligence Specialist, First Class—and had served at least a year (as of October 1 during the year of their applications) were eligible to apply for the LDO program. Four different LDO categories were open to them: Information Systems, Information Warfare, Intelligence, and Photography. Intelligence Specialists who had reached the rate of at least Chief Petty Officer had three possible CWO paths they could pursue: Information Systems Technician, Information Warfare Technician, or Intelligence Technician.
A change in LDO and CWO designators resulted in slightly fewer career options for IS Sailors. Just two CWO positions were available—Cryptology Technician (formerly Information Warfare Technician) and Intelligence Technician—and the LDO categories were also down to two, Intelligence and Cryptology.
But in 2015, the Navy began making some very big changes in its Information Dominance Corps (IDC), which had been established just six years earlier in 2009 (Information Dominance Command was not established until 2014). Although NAVADMIN 241/15 detailing the slew of changes to LDO and CWO designators did not mention it, the name of the IDC was being changed to “Information Warfare Community,” and as a result several LDO and CWO designators had to be renamed.
In the Information Warfare Community’s LDO program, the categories of Information Systems (642x), Cryptology (644x), Intelligence (645x), and Oceanography (646x) were replaced respectively with Information Professional (682x), Information Warfare (681x), Intelligence (683x), and Meteorology/Oceanography (680x). The same type of overhaul took place in the CWO community of the IWC. Cryptology Technician (744x) was transformed into Information Warfare Technician (781x), Information Systems Technician (742x) and Intelligence Technician (745x) were given new numerical designators of 782x and 783x, and Cyber (743x) became Cyber Warrant (784x).
With these shifts, however, Intelligence Specialists now are eligible to vie for a CWO Technician grade in four different categories: Cryptologic Warfare, Information Systems, Intelligence, and Cyber.
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