A decade has passed since the establishment of the Cryptologic Warfare designations. This message serves to connect those modern designations to the proud and enduring heritage of the cryptologic community—a legacy forged through generations of silent service, innovation, and unwavering dedication to national defense.
Questions:
Is the Cryptologic community moving boldly into the future—or drifting further from the heritage and mission that once defined it?
Has the Cryptologic community truly become stronger over the past 30 years, or has it lost something vital along the way? Why or why not?
—–OFFICIAL INFORMATION DISPATCH FOLLOWS—–
RTTUZYUW RHOIAAA0001 1311157-UUUU–RHSSSUU.
ZNR UUUUU
R 101148Z MAY 16
FM CNO WASHINGTON DC
TO NAVADMIN
BT
UNCLAS
NAVADMIN 106/16
SUBJ/DESIGNATION OF THE CRYPTOLOGIC WARFARE COMMUNITY//
MSGID/NAVADMIN/CNO WASHINGTON DC/N2N6/MAY//
REF/A/MSG/CNO WASHINGTON DC/N2N6/021815ZFEB16//
AMPN/NAVADMIN 023/16, INFORMATION DOMINANCE CORPS REDESIGNATED INFORMATION WARFARE COMMUNITY//
POC/WILSON/LTJG/OPNAV N2N6C1/-/TEL: (703) 604-6288/EMAIL: CHRISTOPHER.WILSON(AT)NAVY.MIL//
RMKS/1. As discussed reference (a), officers with designators 181X, 681X, and 781X are designated as Cryptologic Warfare effective immediately.
2. From the establishment of the Communications Security Group, the cryptologic community has continued to evolve to meet and defeat the threats it faces. The transition of the Information Dominance Corps to the Information Warfare Community in concert with the Chief of Naval Operations Design for Maritime Superiority has given Cryptologists another opportunity to formalize this evolution and define community identity.
The Cryptologic Warfare designation honors the cryptologic heritage, recognizes the military effects these warfighters deliver, and aligns these officers along with Cyber Warfare Engineers, Cyber Warrant Officers, and Civilian personnel with their enlisted force.
3. Released By Vice Admiral Ted N. Branch, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare, OPNAV N2N6.//
BT
#0001
NNNN
Station HYPO 
10 May 2026 at 13:02
I thought this was cool when it first came out but it was more of the same — our senior officers in t e pentagon, 10th fleet, and throughout the enterprise patting themselves on the back and handing each other LOMs for PowerPoint crap with (in most cases) little to no actually capability behind it. No wonder we suck, especially in cyber. The entire DoD sucks but Navy sucks the most (per DoD IG). Where are all these game changing capabilities we were told we needed to sink hundreds of billions of dollars into lest we fall behind? How come we invested in all this but we are losing a war to Iran?
LikeLike
20 May 2026 at 14:56
Cryptology is obselete due to the pacing technology. Bring back information dominance community and rename cryptologist to information warfare officers again. If the hiccup is the dominance part, then find a creative name for the entire community or the cryptologists. The information warfare officer designation needs to replace cryptologists as it encompass all the jobs a cryptologist does. The days of pure cryptology are over since the late 90’s buy folks feel attached and have nostalgia to let go of the name. The community needs to accept a cryprologist is really an information warfare officer as they conduct and plan everything from SIGINT, EW, CYBER (to an extent), OPSEC, PSYOPS, space, plus few more, and everything related to these discplines.
LikeLike