US Navy space command becomes information warfare command

The US Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWARSYSCOM) is now Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWARSYSCOM), Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson has announced.

Official US Navy logo for Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWARSYSCOM)

The name change was announced at the Information Warfare Senior Leadership Symposium in Washington D.C., June 3. The change is effective immediately.

“We have been on a steady drumbeat since the issuance of the Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority to further normalize information warfare into the way we do operations and warfighting in the Navy,” said Richardson.

“Today, we will take an important step in that direction as we rename the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command to the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command. This new name more accurately describes the full totality of the mission, supporting naval warfare — from seabed to space.”

The intent of the name change is to recognize the power that information warfare brings to the fight. The change aligns the command name with the command mission to identify, develop, deliver and sustain information warfare capabilities and services that enable naval, joint, coalition and other national missions.

“In this era of great power competition, information is a fundamental element of warfare, an essential concept of the Navy’s strategy, and a warfare area that transcends the traditional domains of air, sea, land and space,” said NAVWARSYSCOM Commander Rear Admiral Christian Becker.

In February 2019, NAVWARSYCOM’s two Echelon III commands, formerly ‘systems centers’ in Charleston, South Carolina and San Diego, California changed their names to Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic and NIWC Pacific respectively.

The change of SPAWARSYSCOM to NAVWARSYSCOM is the second name change in the command’s history. In May of 1966, the Department of the Navy established the Naval Electronic Systems Command. The command was one of five systems commands placed under the cognizance of the Naval Material Command. In May of 1985, the Department of the Navy disestablished the Naval Material Command, and the Naval Electronic Systems Command became Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, an Echelon II command under the Chief of Naval Operations.