Capt. Jon O’Connor, the commanding officer of the new Information Warfare Squadron Two, renders a salute as he arrives with the official party during an assumption of command ceremony in Norfolk, Va., on Dec. 5, 2025. (Robert Fluegel/U.S. Navy)
The Navy established a first-of-its-kind information warfare squadron at Naval Station Norfolk, in Virginia, on Friday as part of a pilot program meant to streamline IW capabilities for carrier strike group commanders, according to service officials.
Information Warfare Squadron Two will spend the next four years testing, expanding and improving the new unit’s capabilities in the information warfare domain, which defense officials have emphasized in recent years amid global power struggles with adversaries such as China and Russia. The Navy’s information warfare community includes sailors who specialize in communications, networks, intelligence, oceanography, meteorology, cryptology, electronic warfare, and cyberspace and space operations, according to the service.
The Navy has traditionally placed IW capabilities inside other units, including its carrier strike groups. Building the new information warfare squadrons will bring better capabilities to those strike groups, said Vice Adm. Mike Vernazza, who commands Naval Information Forces.
“This is a paradigm shift in how we fight and win in the 21st century,” the admiral said in a news release from the Navy on Friday. “For too long, information warfare has been a collection of vital but often disparate capabilities. Today, we change that.”
The Pentagon’s military services have placed new emphasis on information warfare capabilities in recent years as it and its adversaries have adopted the latest battlefield technology from space-based capabilities to efforts to jam or disrupt enemy communications platforms and drones. IW capabilities — especially electronic and cyber warfare — have been a critical part of the war in Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion, where both nations have used information warfare in an attempt to shape the narrative about the conflict, Pentagon officials have said.
The new IW squadron was named to align with Carrier Strike Group 2, which is led by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier. A second information warfare squadron is expected to be established next year on the U.S. West Coast, according to the Navy.
The Navy expects the squadron to include about 70 sailors from various IW specialties once it is fully manned, said Lt. Cmdr. Madie Hansen, spokeswoman for Naval Information Forces. The service is taking a “phased approach” to build out the new squadron with sailor from the carrier strike group and some other commands, she said.
Navy Capt. Jon O’Connor took command of the new unit on Friday. O’Connor commissioned as a naval intelligence officer in 1997 and has served aboard several ships, served at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. Northern Command, and most recently served as the chief of staff at the Office of Naval Intelligence, according to his official biography.
O’Connor vowed the new unit would exceed the Navy’s standards for excellence.
“Our mission demands it,” he told his new unit’s sailors on Friday, according to the Navy release. “We are here to strengthen the readiness, lethality and survivability of our Carrier Strike Groups by integrating our advanced IW capabilities.
“This is about warfighting, pure and simple.”
