Cyber warfare officer @USN URL?

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txfwindian

Parent of USNA C/O 2025
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Hi All,

A question on path to being a cyber warfare officer @ USN.

- Is Cyber warfare officer path considered URL?
- What's a typical cyber officer path from USNA?
- What branch of USN does it comes under?

thank you all.
 
txfwindian said:
Hi All,

A question on path to being a cyber warfare officer @ USN.

- Is Cyber warfare officer path considered URL?
- What's a typical cyber officer path from USNA?
- What branch of USN does it comes under?

thank you all.
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Here are some links about URL, RL and Staff Corps communities, for general reading:

This link includes the Information Warfare community. “Cyber” is not a part of URL.




Note: Not all communities are available out of USNA, NROTC and OCS.

Here is USNA link:


“What branch of USN does it come under?” Not sure what you are asking. The Navy uses the terms “warfare specialty” or “warfare community.” There has been a lot of change in the IW community since it was born - community name, career path, whether you could go straight that way or had to get another warfare community first and then request a competitive lateral transfer when eligible to apply. Needs of the Navy always drive everything.

You may also see the term “officer designator.” Every officer has a 4-digit designator. For example, in the aviation warfare community, there are pilots (1310) and naval flight officers (1320). If the designator starts with “1,” it’s a Line community. Staff Corps designators do not start with “1.” In the IW community, there are a couple of different designators.

I do not know what the current path is out of USNA. I have seen many approaches over the last 20 years. My sense is that a few billets for direct-to-IW are available each year. I think some might be set aside for those coming in who know they have to go RL due to a DQ, such as color vision deficiency.

Let’s hope for a current or recent mid to pop up.
 
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txfwindian said:
Thank you @Capt MJ
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You are very welcome.

I have been around long enough to remember when there were just Intel and Crypto RL communities in that field. Within the Navy, mirroring the civilian world, people who specialized in separate communications, computer systems, data processing, information management and assurance, intelligence, etc., all “grew together.” It’s been fascinating to watch.

Make sure you know who Rear Admiral Grace Hopper was. 😁 I think Hopper Hall is the first building at USNA to be named after a woman. Towering influence in the birth of computerized information.
 
Grant Vermeer, the Academy Insider (a GREAT resource btw) went IW right out of the Academy. There are only a few slots for it for people who would traditionally go unrestricted line, and much depends on your grades.
 
@txfwindian

Here’s the Class of 2020 officer career path breakdown:

www.usna.edu

NAVAL ACADEMY CLASS OF 2020 OBTAIN CAREER ASSIGNMENTS

The U.S. Naval Academy's Class of 2020 has received their service assignments, marking a major milestone in their journey to becoming naval officers.
www.usna.edu


The RL communities are much smaller than the URL communities, in general.

There is a path, later on. It’s called lateral transfer and re-designation (remember my mention of officer designators). Let’s say you go Surface Warfare (1110), earn your warfare qual and SWO pin. There will be a window of time around your first operational tours in which you can apply for another community. The lateral transfer and re-designation boards are competitive boards which meet once or twice a year to consider those who want to transfer into another community. If your current community can afford to lose you and there is sufficient manning in your year group AND the gaining community has a need to plus up manning in your year group AND you bring stellar officer fitness reports and the appropriate educational/technical background AND you are the most competitive over other applicants, that can be a path.

At USNA over the years, there have also been options such as SWO-IP, where if you went SWO, got your qual, you were guaranteed a lat transfer. Ditto SWO-EDO, SWO-Oceanographer, and a few other variations. The needs of the Navy drive everything, so I don’t know whether that is a current option.
 
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Capt MJ said:
At USNA over the years, there have also been options such as SWO-IP, where if you went SWO, got your qual, you were guaranteed a lat transfer. Ditto SWO-EDO, SWO-Oceanographer, and a few other variations.
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As far as I know, the granddaddy of them all was (is?) Surface with the Air Option. Way back, up through the 60s at least, a USNA grad could not go directly to flight school but instead had to go to a ship first. By the mid 70's, grads could go directly to flight school but they also could select "Surface with the Air Option" at Service Selection Night. I picked that and my first ship. Once I finished SWOS, I went on to my first ship as any other SWO but at approx 2 yrs aboard, I was contacted officially and asked if I wanted to exercise my air option. I was happy where I was and opted to stay. Most other Air Option people that I knew chose to switch to air and did so including my USNA roommate who is an airline pilot now. By the way, we had to meet all of the regular air requirements, physical and AQT/FAR test prior to being allowed to select that.
 
The 2020 selection link above shows that 16 are headed to Navy CW(Crypto Warfare, URL) and 6 to USMC Cyber(URL).

This was the first year that USMC allowed Cybers to select during the Fall Service Selection. Previously they went MC ground and would take their chances trying to get into MC Cyber after TBS. For that reason, most of the Cyber studs wanting a Cyber MOS would go USN CW, as it was ~locked in.
 
If you're specifically referring to Cyber Warfare Engineer (designator 1840), I believe a couple (literally, one or two) slots are now available, but I will defer to current 1/C for that gouge.

1840s are still officers and will lead military and civilian development teams, but will also personally develop software and toolkits for operational use by the Cyber Mission Force and Cyber Protection Force, working closely with Engineering Duty Officers and Acquisition Corps officers to push capability to the fleet. Look up recent news regarding the new Cyber Foundry at NCWDG.

Three possible paths to CWE, assuming direct accession 1840 is still very rare.
-Commission 1810/1820, lateral transfer without board action to 1840.
-Commission SWO-Option 1810/1820, lateral transfer after administrative board to 1840.
-Commission any URL/RL, lateral transfer after administrative board to 1840.

CWEs are not eligible for command (any command, sea or shore) which is not in keeping with the whole "highest responsibilities of command..." part of the USNA mission. Lateral transfers without board action from 18XX designators are possible. All other designators will follow traditional lateral transfer process.

Probably the most feasible path is to major Electrical, Systems, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or Cyber Operations, and aim for 1810. Following initial tour at one of the "Big 5" NIOC/FIOCs, shoot for follow on assignment to NCWDG or an NST to build the requisite technical skills for a lateral transfer to 1840. You need to prove yourself to get the chain of command endorsement and have the skills to pass the Fleet Cyber/Tenth Fleet screening during that first or second tour. The screening involves whiteboarding algorithms and psuedo-code/actual code, and will test understanding of development along the full network stack. Civilian equivalent would be something like landing a job as a Facebook/Amazon/Apple/Microsoft software/network engineer right out of college. The Navy used to exclusively recruit experienced developers from industry to make CWEs out of ODS. You gotta be good. Folks making it to 1840 right out of USNA are likely top of the class and in one of those six majors.

If you're referring to Information Warfare Community, slots are available every year for Cryptologic Warfare (1810), Information Professional (1820), and SWO-Option Intelligence (1830) or SWO-Option Meterology (1800) without being medically disqualified (including colorblind). Medical DQ personnel will have to option to commission into 1800/1810/1820/1830 after a screening process. All of these commissioning options are extremely competitive. Again, you should major in EE, CE, Systems, CS, IT, or Cyber Operations for 1810/1820. Political Science, English, and History are common majors for Intelligence, but it can vary. Oceanography is pretty much the only option if you want METOC.

 
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