Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said President Biden nominated 7th Fleet commander Karl Thomas to become the next top Navy information warfare official.
If confirmed by the Senate, Thomas will become deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare, N2/N6, within the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations as well as Director of Naval Intelligence.
Thomas has been leading 7th Fleet since July 2021 and previously served as assistant deputy chief of naval operations for Operations, Plans, and Strategy and N3/5B and Task Force 70/Commander, Carrier Strike Group 5 (Defense Daily, April 15, 2021).
In that role, he has had experience in the Indo-Pacific region and dealing with interactions with Chinese military forces.
The Defense Department announced the nomination on March 8 while congressional records indicate the nomination was received by the Senate on March 6.
If confirmed, Thomas will succeed Vice Adm. Jeffrey Trussler, who has served as N2/N6 and Director of Naval Intelligence since June 2020.
In 2021, Trussler said he was concerned about adversaries’ ability to use jamming to feed misinformation into Navy assets via networks not directly controlled by the service (Defense Daily, Aug. 3, 2021).