Long serving Naval Sea Systems Command commander, Vice Adm. Kevin McCoy retired after five years on duty as the Navy’s top military shipbuilder.
In a June 7 ceremony, McCoy handed command of NAVSEA over to Vice Adm. William H. Hilarides, formerly of the NAVSEA’s Program Executive Officer for Submarines.
McCoy’s tenure was largely defined by changes to the surface Navy. When he took over NAVSEA in 2008 the emphasis on war fighting was firmly rooted in Afghanistan and Iraq. With the global war on terror as a backdrop, McCoy was tasked with repairing the long-neglected surface navy that had languished under years of neglect.
“For years we had stopped looking hard at the condition of structure and tanks and when we got the ships on the dry dock blocks we found the tanks in particular were in bad condition. We experienced growth that was exceeding our budget and pushing schedules late.,” McCoy said in a May interview with Proceedings.
As head of NAVSEA, McCoy increased the size of the maintenance oversight at NAVSEA and put in place procedures to keep ships maintained to the end of their service lives.
“In spring 2012, I was able to testify before the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness that surface-navy maintenance was fully funded. Equally as important, we knew what the requirement was based on firm engineering rigor,” he said.
