And to echo what BigRed says, I wouldn't pat yourself on the back when it comes to ship procurement, with both the current CG and DDG fleets originating during the Cold War when the senior-most SWO leadership today was still JO's, if even out of college yet.
To be fair, there have also been good procurement decisions in recent years too. They're just less obvious because it's all stuff internal to the more visible platform hardware.
But likewise, there appears to be some "getting better" on the VFA side as well...but we don't need to talk about that.
That's what I meant by "luck" though...the platforms we had after the Cold War ended had a lot of growth/development potential, which is why we've been able to get them where they are today, with relatively minor modifications (in the modernized hulls in particular).
Having said that, our (IMO) biggest wins have come about when we improved the interoperability between Surface/Aviation to maximize value of advances in both communities.
I would bet they at least know the basics of what weapons and sensors were carried by both though, which is more than I can say for several post-command SWO's that I have dealt with.
OK, I guess that depends on how much you expect them to know.
I'd expect the average SWO to at a minimum know a Hornet has a radar, a variety pack of missiles, bombs, pods, and a gun. Typical career path, they're not going to pick up much more detailed knowledge than that unless they're looking on their own.
DH school will cram some book learning shit down their throat, but knowing who has an APG-73 vice 79 (which they get taught) is about as meaningful to teach a SWO as asking an aviator the difference between SPY-1A and SPY-1D(V)...without context, it's useless SWO board trivia for Stump the Chump games.
Probably would be more useful to teach them what the VFA guys has to deal with in the cockpit...but that would require aviators and SWOs in the Training world to talk to each other.
When you deal with the "dumbass" AEGIS TAO, understand they have to be up to speed on like 5 or 6 different warfare areas and the relevant C2 structure, TTPs, and platform Caps & Lims simultaneously, with significant limitations to their experience in many, if not all, warfare areas.
So it's not (always) because the guy or gal's a complete mouthbreathing idiot...it just takes time to get even a reasonably intelligent human being up to speed on that much shit. And the SWO reindeer games, routine ship shit, and undermanned enlisted ranks don't help them deal with that at all. So by the time they get reasonably competent at it, they're ready to transfer back to shore.
And with SWO's, often the SWO's actually AREN'T who you need to be talking to get shit done. The community relies heavily on LDO's/CWO's to do a lot of the legwork for the details.