The following is the text from the Jan. 20, 2021 message from Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Harker sent to the Department of the Navy. Read More

The following is the text from the Jan. 20, 2021 message from Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Harker sent to the Department of the Navy. Read More
The following is the final message to the Navy and Marine Corps from the Secretary of the Navy Kenneth, published on Jan. 19, 2021, and filmed in Wake Island. Thomas Harker, assistant secretary of the Navy for financial management and comptroller, will become acting head of the Department of the Navy today. Read More
This post has been updated to clarify that Thomas Harker was performing the duties of the undersecretary of defense and comptroller.
Thomas Harker, who for the last few years has served as the Department of the Navy’s chief civilian financial official, will assume the role of acting Navy secretary once President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in, a Navy official confirmed to USNI News. Read More
Sailors take the Navy wide advancement exam aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68) on Sept. 3, 2020. US Navy Photo
The United States Naval Community College will begin serving its first class of about 600 students, under a pilot program running from January through June. Read More
U.S. Marines with Marine Rotational Force-Europe 21.1, Marine Forces Europe and Africa, conduct a safety of use memorandum (SOUM) on an assault amphibious vehicle in preparation for Exercise Reindeer II, Reindeer I, and Joint Viking in Setermoen, Norway, Nov. 19, 2020. US Marine Corps Photo
The Navy and Marine Corps released a new Arctic strategy today, calling to extend their new focus on day-to-day competition with Russia and China into the Arctic as it becomes more navigable and therefore more congested in the coming decades. Read More
Attack boat Vermont (SSN-792) float-off on March 29, 2019. General Dynamics Electric Boats Photo
This post is part of a series of stories looking back at the top naval news from 2020.
2020 may be among the most consequential years for Navy acquisition in recent memory, with the service making big moves in support of its Distributed Maritime Operations operating concept. Read More
This post has been updated to include additional information from Adm. Gilday’s remarks.
After it took the better part of nine months to convince Mark Esper’s Pentagon that the naval force needed greater investment to be ready to deter or defeat China and Russia – even if that investment came at the expense of the Army or the Air Force – the Navy and Marine Corps will have to start anew with the incoming Biden administration, the chief of naval operations said today. Read More
USS America (LHA-6) conducts a replenishment at sea with the dry cargo and ammunition ship USNS Cesar Chavez (T-AKE-14) on Aug. 12, 2020. US Navy Photo
The Navy and Marine Corps need to grow their capacity to move people and supplies to and around a contested sea space – using both manned and unmanned ships and aircraft – and the service leaders asked lawmakers today for help in creating a supply chain that can stand up to a peer competitor. Read More
USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), left, and Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Forrest Sherman (DDG-98) transit behind the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG-60) in the Atlantic Ocean on July 10, 2019. US Navy Photo
The Navy plans to rename U.S. Fleet Forces Command to the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, harkening back to a time when the Navy was fully focused on maritime operations in the Northern Atlantic rather than the Global War on Terror, the secretary of the Navy told a Senate panel today. Read More
This post has been updated with additional historical details.
The Navy decided to scrap the amphibious assault ship that burned for nearly five days earlier this year, concluding after months of investigations that trying to rebuild and restore the ship would take too much money and too much industrial base capacity. Read More