2024 Navy Information Warfare (IW) Industry Day Recap

On January 12, the DCNO for Information Warfare (N2N6), Naval Intelligence Professionals (NIP), and AFCEA International co-sponsored the 2024 Navy Information Warfare (IW) Industry Day at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Campus East in Springfield, Virginia.

The Navy IW Industry Day is an annual forum where the N2N6 team, led this year by Assistant DCNO for IW, Jen Edgin, meets face-to-face with industry representatives to outline the Navy’s greatest IW needs and challenges. This direct engagement allows the private sector to assess where it can best support the IW enterprise to meet its warfighting requirements. More than 400 people registered to attend this collaborative opportunity.  

This year marked the 12th iteration of Navy IW Industry Day and was the first held at the TS/SCI classification level. The higher classification encouraged in-depth briefings and conversations about the current and future threat, an aspect that proved most valuable to a majority of attendees according to post-event feedback. Edgin and the new Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence, Rear Admiral (Ret) Steve Parode, were particularly impactful in detailing the dynamic threat environment that informs the CNO’s recent warfighting priorities as well as the Navy’s contribution to the joint force. The latter was briefed in illuminating detail by Vice Admiral James Pitts, DCNO for Warfighting Requirements and Capabilities.  

NIP Chair Vice Admiral (Ret) Bob Sharp and AFCEA Intelligence Committee Chair Lewis Shepherd contributed valuable on-the-spot feedback and commentary throughout the event day in support of N2N6 messaging and engagement.     

In addition to hearing directly from many of the IW enterprise stakeholders, the event was a tremendous opportunity to make new professional connections and to re-establish links with former colleagues.   

The next AFCEA Intelligence event is the TS/SCI-level Spring Intelligence Symposium on March 19-20, 2024 at the NGA Campus East in Springfield, Virginia. The theme for this year’s Spring Intelligence Symposium is Transforming Our Intelligence Advantage: The Pivot to Data Centricity. Additional information on the Spring Intelligence Symposium is located here: https://www.afcea.org/events/2024-spring-intelligence-symposium