The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) is overhauling its intelligence operations, replacing its Fleet Intelligence Command with the soon-to-be-established “Fleet Information Warfare Command.”
In a major restructuring move, several key JMSDF units — including the Fleet Intelligence Command, Oceanography ASW Support Command, Guard Post, and Communications Command — will be merged into a single, unified entity focused on information warfare.
The new Fleet Information Warfare Command will then comprise two groups, Operational Intelligence and Cyber Defense.
It will carry out a broad range of information warfare (IW) duties, such as enemy movement analysis, submarine sound signature analysis, cyber warfare, electronic warfare, and C4ISR.
This reorganization will enable Japan’s Navy “to strengthen response capabilities to information warfare, including in the cognitive domain, and to establish a system capable of rapid decision-making,” according to the country’s Ministry of Defense.
Former JMSDF intelligence officer Kenji Yoshinaga revealed to Naval News that this new command was modeled after the US Fleet Cyber Command/US 10th Fleet.
Preparations have been underway since the JMSDF conducted the first-ever joint Japan-US IW training in 2021. The plan for the command’s establishment was stated in the approved Defense Buildup Program in December 2022.
In an additional reorganization, the JMSDF’s Fleet Escort Force and the Mine Warfare Force will be replaced by a new “Fleet Surface Force” by March 2026.
Strategic Partnerships
Last April 2024, the JMSDF, US Pacific Fleet, and Royal Australian Navy signed the Trilateral Maritime Information Warfare Memorandum.
The agreement was intended to strengthen cooperation on “non-kinetic information operations related to intelligence, communications, meteorology/oceanography, electromagnetic, cyber and space domains, in addition to kinetic operations of the three fleets, for a ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific.’”
Since then, the three countries have joined forces for their first information warfare event, Exercise Blue Spectrum, held in Sydney in July 2024.
External Threats
In the 2024 Defense of Japan white paper, territorial disputes with China, North Korea’s missile tests infringing on Japanese territory, and China-Russia joint activities involving operating aircraft and vessels around Japan were identified among the country’s security threats.
Japan’s largest-ever reorganization of its maritime self-defense force and enhanced strategic partnerships are responses to the current security landscape.
