Frankly, 6 mo. at Dam Neck is an unrealistic expectation for the current 1835 ENSs and LTJGs.
IMHO, the quality of the current training is sub-par and is not consistent with the active duty cadre. We have the same problem in the IP/1825 community which is why all new IP's are required to go to the active duty school. No exceptions.
It would detract from the Navy more than the Navy gains by elongating the reserve training. The Navy knows it would lose access to a huge talent pool if it treats all 183Xs the exact same. Current reserve intel JOs are DASDs, PhD professors, and authors of national security nonfiction - they can’t/won’t join if the schooling isn’t able to be balanced against their family and civilian obligations. You won’t find a reserve intel O-1 in the Marines, Army, or Air Force who is anywhere near the experience level of a DASD, FBI supervisory agent, or PhD university professor, yet that type of expertise is not uncommon for butter bars in the Navy reserve - and that’s why DCO (and the 42 age max) is a differentiator for the Navy.
Intel officers who come in and who are PhDs, DASD, FBI, etc., [insert super duper qualification] provide no more value to the Navy than any other candidate. The Navy just likes to tell DCO candidates this to increase the number of applications as well as to make the DCO process look more shiny. It's called marketing. The biggest one is speaking multiple languages. When I was an 1835 I knew several who spoke multiple languages and who got commissioned thinking they were going to be utilized in that capacity. Guess how often they used that skill?
The IP community is notorious for advertising stuff like this. That is, they want comms/cyber experts with PhD's and multiple certifications, etc., etc. None of that is needed to do the job on the Reserve side or when you mobilize. It's just another marketing ploy so the Navy can tell people how shiny they are. Frankly, these things are not even needed to get qualified or to succeed as an IP officer.
Aside from very rare exceptions in certain communities (SEAL, SOF, HUMINT, NCIS), guess who cares about some O1's day job? Nobody. Sure, people are "impressed" by your day time credentials, but at the end of the day, you are still a "no nothing" JO.
The Reserve [IWC] community would feel zero operational impact if these PhD's, DASD, and FBI agents did not get commissioned.
I'm not trying to minimize anyone's skills or credentials, however, if you can get through college with a decent degree and have drive, you will succeed as an IWC officer in any designator.
The Navy Reserve likes to recruit people with special civilian skills but, frankly, in my 10 years in the Reserve, I've never seen the "utilization" match the "stated advertising." If the Reserve force were more aligned with the Active Duty side, things would be different.