"This realignment is only possible because of the fundamental mindset shift that resulted across the Navy in recognition of IW as a critical warfighting domain at all levels of warfare," the Navy’s administrative note read.
The Navy has disestablished its single information warfare directorate — the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare, known as N2N6 — and redistributed its duties across three newly created OPNAV directorates. Effective today, the roles and responsibilities that lived under the N2/N6 construct have been split into three distinct billets and organizations intended to separate intelligence, policy/IT/space/cyber advice, and programmatic requirements and resourcing for information warfare (IW).
Director of OPNAV Intelligence Division (N2): Steve Parode and a four-branch intelligence structure
The Navy established a new Director of OPNAV Intelligence Division (N2), naming Steve Parode to lead the organization. Parode is described in the administrative note as most recently the deputy director of naval intelligence and a retired rear admiral whose career was in intelligence. The new N2 will comprise four branches to handle discrete intelligence functions: N21 (Fleet Requirements), N22 (Threat Analysis), N23 (Global Intelligence Operations and Engagements), and N2T (Strategic Integration).
By grouping fleet requirements, threat analysis, global operations and strategic integration under one directorate, the Navy has put a clear institutional label on intelligence responsibilities separate from other IW missions now assigned elsewhere in OPNAV.
Assistant DCNO for IW Requirements and Capabilities (N6N9C): Jennifer Edgin as the policy and CIO link
Jennifer Edgin, most recently the deputy N2/N6, will serve as Assistant Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (ADCNO) for Information Warfare Requirements and Capabilities — designated N6N9C. That office is defined as the chief of naval operations’ top advisor for information warfare policy and matters related to information technology, space and cyber. The role also carries the concurrent duty as the Department of the Navy deputy chief information officer.
Placing policy and IT/space/cyber advisory responsibilities with the ADCNO and linking it formally to the Department of the Navy deputy CIO role signals an intent to centralize policy advice and enterprise IT oversight in a single OPNAV advisor role.
Director for Information Warfare (N99): Rear Adm. Susan Bryer Joyner and the IW resourcing portfolio
Rear Adm. Susan Bryer Joyner will lead the Director for Information Warfare (N99), the Navy’s designated office for information warfare requirements and resource sponsorship across the service’s IW portfolio. The administrative note lists the portfolio comprehensively: tactical warfighting intelligence programs, electronic warfare, cyber, networks, space, oceanography, meteorology, positioning, navigation, and timing, Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3), and Maritime Operations Center and Maritime Headquarters Staffs.
N99 will be subdivided into six branches with specific program and capability responsibilities: N99C for C3 (command, control and communications) covering tactical and enterprise networks and NC3; N99E for Oceanography and Navigation; N99P for IW Resources and Manpower; N99Q for Intelligence Capabilities; N99W for Integrated IW Fires; and N99X for IW Future Capabilities. That lineup groups resourcing, manpower, and future-capabilities sponsorship alongside current operational systems and intelligence capability acquisition under one directorate.
What this means for technologists, policymakers, and fleet operators
- Technologists and security teams: Responsibility for tactical and enterprise networks and NC3 now sits explicitly in N99C, meaning procurement and resource sponsorship for those systems will be channeled through the N99 structure.
- Policymakers and enterprise IT leaders: With N6N9C designated as the top OPNAV advisor on policy and also holding the Department of the Navy deputy CIO role, policy guidance for IT, space and cyber operations will originate from a single advisor position in OPNAV.
- Fleet operators and operational staffs: Fleet requirements and threat analysis are grouped under the N2’s N21 and N22 branches, while resourcing for operational IW capabilities falls to N99 — creating an intentional division between intelligence production and programmatic sponsorship.
The Navy framed the change as reflecting a service-wide "mindset shift" that treats IW as a critical warfighting domain at all levels. The move also follows a comparable change in another service: the Air Force split a similar intelligence-and-networks posting in 2024, a trend the administrative note cited as context for the Navy’s reorganization.
By splitting the old N2N6 across three directorates — N2 for intelligence; N6N9C for policy, IT, space and cyber advice and the Department of the Navy deputy CIO duty; and N99 for requirements, resource sponsorship and program management across a wide IW portfolio — the Navy has drawn clearer institutional lines around who advises, who produces intelligence, and who funds and fields capabilities. How those lines operate in practice, particularly where responsibilities for NC3, networks, and Maritime Operations Center staffs intersect between N99 and the advisory role of N6N9C, will be watched as the new directorates stand up.
