Articles Due: December 8, 2025
Week Dates: January 5-9, 2026
Story Length: 1,500-3,000 Words
Submit to: Content@cimsec.org

By Dmitry Filipoff

The U.S. Surface Warfare Officer community has operated on a generalist career path since 1899. SWOs are responsible for matters of both operational and material readiness, while the surface fleets of other navies, as well as some other U.S. naval warfare communities, have specialized career tracks. While SWO Warfare Tactics Instructors specialize in specific warfare areas, the vast majority of Surface Warfare Officers have no distinct specialization.

The career path of a community holds major implications for that community’s ability to raise its warfighting standards, and sets the limits of what knowledge and skill can be reasonably expected of its officers. A 2021 GAO study surveyed SWOs on the topic, and found that 65 percent believe specialized career paths would best prepare them for their duties, while 16 percent believed the current generalist model is best. That same year, the Surface Warfare Officer Leadership Enhancement Act was proposed by members of Congress and included specialized career tracks.

Arguments in favor of the generalist career path often claim it facilitates cross-functional expertise that better prepares SWOs for higher levels of responsibility. Arguments for specialization often claim that technical and tactical matters have reached a level of complexity that outstrips the ability of generalists to effectively keep pace with, resulting in officers who are too stretched thin to achieve higher readiness across multiple areas.

Should the U.S. Surface Warfare Officer community specialize? Is the generalist career track effectively pacing the threat environment and the growing complexity of surface platforms? How does the generalist track compare against the specialized tracks of other warfare communities and surface navies? Authors are invited to consider these questions and more as they weigh in on the SWO specialization debate.

Send all submissions to Content@cimsec.org.

Dmitry Filipoff is CIMSEC’s Director of Online Content. Contact him at Content@cimsec.org.

Featured Image: PACIFIC OCEAN (Nov. 12, 2017) The guided-missile destroyer USS Chafee (DDG 90), right, leads USS Stethem (DDG 63), the guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton (CG 59) and USS Sampson (DDG 102) while transiting in formation. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Cole Schroeder)