The Independence-class littoral combat ship USS Santa Barbara (LCS-32) launches a LUCAS drone from its flight deck in December 2025. The Navy will continue to rely on manned vessels in the future, but must augment their strength with unmanned ones. (US Navy/Mass Communication Spc. Seaman Jarel McCants)

The Next Navy Secretary Has a Tremendous Opportunity—and No Margin for Error

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The US Navy confronts a now-or-never opportunity to invest in the development of unmanned systems. The next Secretary of the Navy must take it.

The firing of Secretary of the Navy John Phelan is more than a leadership change. It is a forcing function. The next Secretary of the Navy will step in at a time of unusual opportunity for the Navy and—as threats continue to proliferate, almost no margin for error. 

The opportunity is financial. The Department of Defense is moving tens of billions of dollars into autonomy, artificial intelligence, and unmanned systems. The constraint is primarily operational. The United States is at war with Iran, global sea lanes are contested, and the Navy is being asked to generate presence now, not at the end of a decade-long procurement cycle. That combination should clarify the task. This is not about designing the future fleet, but rather about using the current budget window to field a force that works today.

More Money Won’t Solve the Navy’s Shipbuilding Problem. Drones Might.

The problem confronting the Navy today is a cost trap of its own making. Modern ships are too expensive, take too long to build, and are too few to absorb losses—or even downtime during routine maintenance cycles. The result is a fleet that does not even look sufficient on paper,........

© The National Interest