The surface warfare insignia is a military badge of the United States Navy which is issued to U.S. Navy personnel who are trained and qualified to perform duties aboard United States surface warships. There are presently four classes of the surface warfare pin, being that of line, staff, special operations, and enlisted. The line and enlisted surface warfare badges may be earned by United States Coast Guard personnel assigned to Navy commands. The various badge types are as follows:

The surface warfare officer insignia is the first milestone qualification an eligible commissioned officer may receive in surface warfare. This device is commonly called the "SWO pin" in the U.S. Navy. Those receiving the pin must qualify as officer of the deck (both underway and in port), small boat officer, combat information center watch officer, and must be trained in shipboard engineering, naval history, and damage control. For further, enterprise-level training, officers will attend Surface Warfare Officers' School (SWOS) in Newport, Rhode Island between all sea tours. The surface warfare officer badge is typically a prerequisite for tactical action officer (TAO) training.

Junior officers, typically Ensigns, assigned to the surface warfare community are known as "unqualified" or "1160s" until they receive qualification as a Surface Warfare Officer and receive the SWO pin. Surface line personnel who are not yet qualified have the 1160 officer designator: once qualified they receive the 1110 designator for Regular Navy Officers and 1115 for Navy Reserve Officers. Prior to 2018, junior officers were granted 24 months to qualify as Surface Warfare Officers; failing to do so within the time period meant either separation from the service or applying to transfer to another warfare community. The collisions involving the USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) and the USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) brought about a change in qualification standards. Unqualified junior officers now have no official time limit to qualify within the two and a half years of their first tour, and now must qualify solely before they transfer to their next command. Failing to qualify prevents the officer from transferring. Officers who are separated from the SWO community go through a process called "Non-Attained" and this designation is entered into the officer's permanent military record.

The Surface Warfare Officer pin was designed to depict the traditional and typical elements of naval service: waves breaking before the bow of a ship overlaid on crossed U.S. Navy commissioned officer's swords, rendered in gold. The insignia was introduced in 1975.

On 1 December 1978, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral T.B. Hayward approved the enlisted surface warfare specialist (ESWS) qualification program. This approval followed immediately by the promulgation of OPNAV Instruction 1412.4, which provided the specific details of the program.

Since the introduction of the surface warfare officer (SWO) qualification program in 1975, a strong advocacy for a similar program for surface enlisted was started. The program was initiated in 1977 when the surface warfare commanders (DCNO Surface Warfare, COMNAVSURFLANT and COMNAVSURFPAC) gave their conceptual approval to the development of a surface enlisted qualification program.

Initial guidelines for the program at that time were:

The silver cutlass was available for the first time in April 1979.