Phelan, who left his position as the civilian leader of the U.S. Navy on Wednesday shortly after delivering remarks to the media at the Sea-Air-Space symposium in Washington, said the service was looking at the future Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers, the USS William J. Clinton and the USS George W. Bush, to ensure that the finances behind the them align with the Navy’s budget and overarching goals.

“We are looking at 82 [CVN-82] and 83 [CVN-83] to review the costs, the designs, the systems, to make sure that they make sense,” Phelan said.

“I think that it’s a prudent and practical thing for us to do, given the costs of them as a percentage of the budget and how we are thinking about the force design and our needs going forward,” Phelan continued.

The service is not only looking at how much it will take to build the future ships, but also how much it will cost to sustain and maintain them as well.

The flagship Ford-class carrier USS Gerald R. Ford cost roughly $13 billion to manufacture.

The Bush is slated for procurement in 2034, according to Congress, which did not list a potential price tag.

The Clinton is slated for delivery in 2040, with a currently unavailable procurement cost. The Navy’s fiscal 2026 budget submission requested $612 million in advanced procurement funding for the ship.

Getting the appropriate bang for the Navy’s buck means questioning the degree to which the Ford is, in fact, superior to older Nimitz-class carriers, according to the former Navy secretary.

“Is the sortie rate generation that much greater?” Phelan said. “And then what are the cost implications of this electric catapult? Did it really generate the savings? The Navy would like to say we’ve saved $5 billion in terms of savings in number of men and maintenance. I just need to check that back up.”

Nimitz-class carriers use a steam-powered catapult system to propel jets forward off the ship, while Ford-class carriers use an electromagnetic aircraft launch system meant to provide increased dependability, better acceleration and a higher sortie rate due to a lower demand for maintenance.

A February Navy release said that the USS Gerald R. Ford’s electromagnetic aircraft launch system contributed to an “increased sortie generation rate,” though the service was still analyzing the data.

President Donald Trump criticized Ford-class carriers’ catapult system in 2025, claiming he was unsure if the system could continue to function if water got onto the magnets. He voiced his preference for the steam catapults.

This type of review isn’t just specific to carriers, Phelan said, and is being applied to every Navy program.

The carriers in question are the fifth and sixth of the Ford-class.

The USS Gerald R. Ford is currently the only Ford-class carrier in service, with the USS John F. Kennedy, USS Enterprise and USS Doris Miller in the pipeline and under construction.

The review is to be completed by the end of May 2026, Phelan said.

The Navy announced on Jan. 3, 2025, that it would name the two future Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers after the two former presidents.

The $1.5 trillion fiscal 2027 defense budget is seeking $65.8 billion for Navy shipbuilding, specifically 18 battle force ships and 16 auxiliary ships meant to fulfill the Golden Fleet initiative Trump announced last December.

Phelan left his position as the Navy secretary “effective immediately” on Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced in an X post.

While the Navy didn’t offer a rationale for his departure, a senior administration official with knowledge of the situation told Military Times that Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth decided it was time to go in another direction, as far as Navy leadership was concerned.

Phelan was informed of his firing shortly before Parnell made the news public, the official told Military Times.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith said at the 2026 Sea-Air-Space Conference during a Tuesday keynote that the two services are working together with a “unified sense of purpose” to increase the size and availability of the U.S. amphibious fleet through three methods.

“We’re in complete agreement that our current inventory of 31 amphibious ships is not sufficient to meet our new presence that our combatant commanders are requesting and requiring,” Smith said during his speech.

As of April 2026, there are four amphibious ships deployed across North America, the Caribbean and the Pacific, according to Navy data. Currently, the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli is in the Arabian Sea in support of the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, while the USS Boxer has deployed to the Middle East from the Pacific.

The Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group was sent to the Middle East in mid-March as reinforcements for the war in Iran.

In 2025, amphibious ships’ readiness rate crucial to Marine missions dropped to 41% amid increased U.S. operations in Latin America and the Caribbean to fight drug cartels. The lack of ships readily available caused a five-month delay in Marine Expeditionary Unit deployments last year.

During his speech, Smith said that the Navy and Marine Corps are “optimizing maintenance schedules” and fourth-generation runs to get more out of the ships they already have. Secondly, the two services will invest in service life extensions for the “best of breed” ships that are in the best mechanical and physical shape.

Lastly, Smith said that they are moving forward with the procurement of new and more capable ships with the help of Congress.

The commandant noted that they are seeking “increased, sustained and predictable investments” in the amphibious shipping industry to achieve this expansion and heightened availability of the fleet.

Smith also noted that the fiscal year 2027 budget proposed by President Donald Trump was a considerable “down payment” for this generational effort to build up the amphibious fleet, but it’s just a start.

“To build the amphibious fleet that our nation needs and deserves will require continued commitment of leaders in uniform and the support of leaders in our government,” Smith noted.

Smith said that they can “never walk away from” bolstering the traditional amphibious capabilities, but they are also focusing on littoral mobility — the ability for Navy and Marine forces to move and operate to and from shore.

Littorals encompass most of the Pacific, and the commandant referred to the Indo-Pacific as the world’s most challenging environment due to its scale.

In December 2025, the Navy and Marine Corps selected the Dutch shipbuilder Damen LST-100 design as their new medium landing ship, which Smith highlighted in his speech as having “game changing capability” for allowing the forces to maneuver and self-sustain in a resilient and reliable manner.

Navy Secretary John Phelan told reporters at a media roundtable at Sea-Air-Space 2026 in Washington that the Navy was facing a labor capacity problem at home and needed help remediating it.

“Everything’s on the table,” Phelan said. “We just need to look at it, understand it, understand the implications behind it and decide if we think that makes sense or not.”

The secretary cited previous successful maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) work with Korea and Japan as examples of how allies could alleviate pressure on the U.S. shipbuilding workforce.

South Korean shipbuilding companies HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hanwha Ocean have already won three MRO contracts from the U.S. Navy in 2026, according to The Chosun Daily, a South Korean publication.

The majority of South Korean MRO contracts are for U.S. Navy ships based in the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet, headquartered in Japan.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle met with South Korean shipbuilders in November 2025 during his first international trip as CNO, learning about shipbuilding practices that could help reinvigorate the U.S. maritime industrial base.

Phelan on Tuesday also said the Navy was going to try and revise contracting and the ways in which shipbuilders could be incentivized to work faster.

“One of the things we are going to do in our contracting is if you beat schedule, you’re going to get a bonus, but you’re going to share it with the workers,” Phelan said.

And there’s evidence to suggest companies are up for the challenge.

Contractors who received multi-ship orders were capable of shaving eight to 11 months off of building that same ship, Phelan said.

The proposed $1.5 trillion fiscal 2027 Defense Department budget is asking Congress for $65.8 billion to dedicate to shipbuilding, specifically 18 battle force ships and 16 auxiliary ships meant to fulfill the Golden Fleet initiative President Donald Trump announced last December.

The U.S. Navy’s current fleet sits at nearly 300 ships, but the service has previously announced a goal of boosting that number to 381 over the next 30 years.

The development of the Autonomous Warfare Command was mandated by SOUTHCOM Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan in an effort to further support the Trump administration’s national security objectives and SOUTHCOM’s operational dominance, per the statement.

Once fully operational, the new command will be tasked with engaging autonomous, semi-autonomous and unmanned platforms to “counter threats across domains.” The announcement did not specify when SAWC will reach operational status.

“From the seafloor to space and across the cyber domain, we fully intend to leverage the clear superiority of the American defense ecosystem by deploying cutting-edge innovation and working ever closer with our enduring partners in the region to outmatch those who threaten our collective peace and security,” Donovan said in the release.

The announcement stated that SAWC will work toward shared purposes with allies and partners in the region, such as missions focused on “degrading” narcoterrorist and cartel networks and responding to national disasters.

SOUTHCOM’s area of responsibility includes the Caribbean, South America and Central America.

“Our geographic area of responsibility has a wide range of conditions, varied terrain and diverse operational environments that make it an ideal setting in which to innovate,” Donovan said in the statement.

“It is also a region with very capable and committed security partners who lean forward, embrace technologies and are very eager to work collaboratively with us to support regional stability in new and effective ways,” Donovan continued.

SOUTHCOM, military services and the Department of Defense’s Defense Autonomous Warfare Group will collaborate ahead of SAWC’s full launch, the release noted.

The groups will strive to ensure that SOUTHCOM will be able to completely integrate the new command into their mission, while pinpointing necessary expertise and capabilities required for the new command’s commencement.

The addition of the unmanned-focused unit, meanwhile, continues a trend of increased U.S. emphasis in the region.

In January, the U.S. Space Force officially activated its southern component, formalizing Space Forces Southern’s role in space capabilities across the Western Hemisphere.

U.S. Space Command played an integral role in the recent high-risk operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, providing space-based capabilities such as satellite communications and position, navigation and timing.

Donovan assumed command of SOUTHCOM after the Maduro raid, replacing Navy Adm. Alvin Holsey, who retired last year amid increasing scrutiny over the Trump administration’s deadly strikes on alleged drug boats in the region, a remarkable extension of American power in Latin America.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The company released the Saildrone Spectre design, a vessel 54 meters long and 250 metric tons that’s capable of a speed up to 30 knots, making it the company’s “most capable” platform, Salidrone said.

Spectre is meant for ASW missions, which demand “extreme endurance and an ultra-quiet acoustic signature,” according to an advanced company release shared with Military Times. The release states that the vessel utilizes the wing system’s endurance and silent propulsion to fulfill ASW operations.

Richard Jenkins, Saildrone’s founder and CEO, revealed the two vessels, one without a wing and one with, to reporters at Monday’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition and said it marked the first time the company is selling a Saildrone vessel without a wing.

“While the Saildrone wing is very good for very long endurance, we do appreciate what other roles require more stealth, more speed, and don’t have a mission requirement for that exceptional endurance without the wing,” Jenkins told reporters on Monday.

Saildrone is partnering with Lockheed Martin, who works as a “mission integrator supporting the mission autonomy,” Paul Lemmo, a vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin, said to reporters Monday alongside Jenkins.

Lemmo described the vessel class as being a lower-priced way to put more “players on the field.”

The design was approved in principle by the American Bureau of Shipping, meaning it complies with High Speed Naval Craft class certification. The statement asserts that the two years of design and testing “entirely de-risked” the design and performance.

Jenkins said Spectre is completely self-funded, and each vessel is priced at around $40 million.

Construction is set to begin soon at the Fincantieri system of shipyards in Wisconsin, which is capable of manufacturing five Spectre vessels per year. The first of the sea trials is slated for early 2027.

The service plans to integrate the PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement interceptor into its Aegis Combat System for the first time, Lockheed Martin announced in a Tuesday statement, as demand for the missile grows and the Pentagon expands production.

The Army uses the interceptor missile, known as the PAC-3 MSE, in its Patriot air defense system, and the move will bring the interceptor aboard the Navy’s ships for use within the Aegis system to detect and intercept incoming aerial threats.

The Aegis is an automated naval weapons system incorporated onto destroyers and cruisers that uses an advanced radar system to identify and track and then guide missiles like Standard Missile surface-to-air weapons. It can track over 100 targets at a time.

Now, Lockheed Martin has been awarded a “multi-million” dollar contract to incorporate PAC-3 MSE missiles into the system, according to the company’s statement. It did not specify a specific dollar amount or timeline for the testing or integration.

“This integration further expands the capability of Aegis to engage missile threats at multiple layers, enabling a more comprehensive and effective defense against evolving threats, ensuring the warfighter has the strategic advantage,” Chandra Marshall, the vice president of the company’s multi-domain combat solutions, said in the statement.

The planned integration comes as the Department of Defense has ramped up production of PAC-3 MSE interceptors under a $4.7 billion dollar contract with Lockheed Martin that would up annual production from around 600 to as many as 2,000 interceptors over the span of seven years.

Recent contract announcements — including one from Boeing, which manufactures the interceptor’s PAC-3 seekers — come as the U.S. military’s reliance on expensive interceptors against cheap munitions, particularly those deployed by Iran during Operation Epic Fury, has come under heightened scrutiny.

PAC-3 missiles have an estimated price tag of $4 million and compared to Iranian Shahed drones, which cost around $35,000, the cost ratio heavily favors Iran.

The interceptor missiles work by colliding with incoming threats in flight, using a hit-to-kill approach instead of exploding. They are guided by onboard sensors to engage targets like ballistic or cruise missiles at a high speed.

The PAC-3 MSE is an upgraded version of the interceptor, with an extended range.

The missile interceptor is “combat proven” when used against ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and hypersonic and airborne threats, Lockheed Martin said in the statement.

As of now, the U.S. has at least four medium-sized unmanned service vessels that previously completed deployments in the region.

In just four years, that amount could be approximately seven times larger, according to U.S. Navy Capt. Garrett Miller.

Speaking on a panel about uncrewed maritime systems on Monday’s Sea-Air-Space Conference, Miller, the commodore of Surface Development Group 1, said that based on the service’s 2045 force vision, people can expect to see over 30 medium USVs in the Indo-Pacific.

At the conference, he said that alongside the medium USVs, the service expects there to be thousands of small USVs and any number of unmanned aircraft systems that are operating from either manned or unmanned ships in that region.

The four USVs that were deployed in the Indo-Pacific for five months in 2024 were the Sea Hunter, Sea Hawk, Mariner and Ranger vessels, and all four are still being used to further develop the Navy’s USV program.

In early 2026, Miller announced at the Surface Navy Association’s 38th National Symposium the creation of three USV divisions and that the Sea Hawk and Sea Hunter medium USVs were slated to be deployed this year.

While answering an audience member’s question about the service’s ambition for an uncrewed fleet size during Monday’s conference, Miller clarified that those numbers are strictly for the Indo-Pacific and nowhere else at this point.

The service is “figuring out” what those numbers will look like elsewhere, Miller said on the panel.

Miller said that the service has a “holistic approach” of how they are discussing the number of vessels in regards to where they should house and maintain the potential medium USVs.

The commodore explained that the service needs to look at the numbers in a “broader way” and look toward the Robotic and Autonomous Systems strategy, which aims to build a fleet of manned and unmanned vessels.

He said that the service is going down a path that will allow them to expand at a faster pace than thought previously with any other type of vessel.

“I think you’re going to see things overseas. You’re going to see things in theaters, right?” Miller said.

“These unmanned circuit special squadrons in these theaters are going to be operating and maintaining a lot of those things, along with a contractor-led higher-level maintenance,” Miller concluded.

The munition, called the GBU-75 Joint Direct Attack Munition Long Range, or JDAM-LR, was operated from an F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter during testing at the Navy’s Point Mugu Sea Range, California.

The JDAM-LR builds on the existing Joint Direct Attack Munition, a Boeing-developed guidance kit that converts unguided “dumb” bombs into precision-guided munitions. Standard JDAMs rely on a tail control system and GPS while functioning as gravity bombs with ranges of roughly 15 nautical miles, depending on release conditions.

The long-range variant is an upgraded version of this guidance kit that adds a compact propulsion system, including a small Kratos-made turbojet engine and deployable wings by Ferra Engineering, that extend the bomb’s range to hundreds of miles.

The system is designed to integrate with existing aircraft already capable of hosting JDAM weapons, which allows for rapid fielding.

The JDAM-LR’s successful flight demonstrations included validating safe separation from aircraft, testing its ability to conduct controlled flight while navigating to its target, and ensuring compatibility with existing onboard systems, according to an April 20 Navy release.

The April 1 test involving the F/A-18 Super Hornet saw the munition fly approximately 200 nautical miles in 34 minutes and strike within meters of its intended target, according to Boeing.

For the next test, on April 3, teams flew a second planned flight profile that included altitude changes and weapon maneuvering, while the rest of the flight remained similar.

Capt. Sarah Abbott, the program manager for Precision Strike Weapons (PMA-201), said the capability allows pilots to “engage targets from significantly safer distances, maintaining a tactical advantage in contested environments.”

In a company statement, Boeing said that the extended-range capability provides a low-cost option for long-range strike missions and builds on existing inventory.

“This weapon brings the cruise missile concept to the JDAM family at a lower cost, enabling large production quantities,” said Boeing’s Bob Ciesla, Precision Engagement Systems vice president, in a statement.

The JDAM-LR team is now focused on additional testing and integration efforts as the Navy moves toward operational deployment of the capability.

The Danish version of the system will be equipped with the Thales Ground Fire 300 radar, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. The purchase officially makes Denmark the third country to join the club of SAMP/T NG clients, alongside France and Italy, Thales said.

Denmark in September picked the SAMP/T system over the American-made Patriot. That decision looks increasingly fortuitous after the United States government flagged possible delays linked to the Iran war in deliveries of weapons and ammunition to the Baltic countries, and after Switzerland said in March it faces delays in Patriot deliveries of four to five years.

“Denmark will benefit from the increased production capacity for the SAMP/T NG system and the production of Aster missiles, with deliveries scheduled to begin in 2028,” Thales said.

Missile maker MBDA plans to double production of the Aster family of air-defense missiles in 2026 in response to surging demand. In addition to arming the ground-based SAMP/T system, the missiles are used for high-end air defense by the French, Italian and British navies. MBDA declined to comment on the timing of delivering Aster missiles to Denmark.

Thales recorded the Danish SAMP/T contract as one of its “large orders” with a value of more than €100 million (US$118 million) in the first quarter, with the French company supplying the radar and command-and-control system as well as the seeker for the Aster missile.

The SAMP/T system is made by Eurosam, a joint venture between Thales and MBDA’s French and Italian branches. The upgraded system will work with MBDA’s Aster 30 Block 1 New Technology interceptor, with a range of 150 kilometers, a new Ka-band seeker and designed to intercept medium-range ballistic missiles as well as hypersonic missiles.

The first test firing of the updated Aster missile was conducted in October 2024 in a “complex scenario” with several targets, with a second qualification firing in July 2025 to validate the interceptor’s long-range capability. The fire-control unit of the SAMP/T NG received new software to work with the Aster 30 B1NT missile.

The Thales Ground Fire radar family has a claimed range of up to 400 kilometers with 360° coverage, using a rotating S-band active electronically scanned array (AESA) antenna. The company says the radar and its associated power generator are standard-container sized and can be set up in less than 15 minutes.

After Italy and France ordered ten and eight of the next-generation systems in September 2024, respectively, the Italian Army took delivery of its first SAMP/T NG in January. The Italian version comes equipped with Leonardo’s Kronos Grand Mobile HP radar, with an air-surveillance instrument range of at least 300 kilometers.

France’s Air Warfare Center received its first system in February, kicking off a period of operational testing, to be “quickly followed” by gradual integration of SAMP/T NG into the French armed forces. The center, known by its French acronym CEAM, will test aspects including mobility, energy autonomy and integration of the new system into an air-defense chain.

Ukraine expects to receive a SAMP/T NG system this year and will start testing it against ballistic missiles, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in March.

Switzerland said in March it would acquire a second model of long-range air-defense system, preferably produced in Europe, in the face of delayed delivery of its previously ordered Patriot systems. SAMP/T is the only European alternative to Patriot.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands rushed through a Patriot order in March to avoid losing its production spot, which the country said could push delivery back to 2033.

Turkey will resume talks with Italy about buying the SAMP/T system, including technology transfer and joint production, Turkish pro-government newspaper Yeni Şafak reported earlier this month, without saying where it got the information. That’s after NATO air defenses in March intercepted at least four ballistic missiles from Iran that entered Turkish airspace.

After Turkey signed a declaration of intent with Italy and France in 2017 to strengthen cooperation in jointly producing air-defense systems, France stalled progress in response to Turkish operations in Syria in 2019. Buying the SAMP/T system would give Turkey a NATO-compatible ballistic-missile defense capability.

Thales reported seven large orders with a unit value of more than €100 million in the first quarter, including the Danish SAMP/T order, for a total amount of €1.62 billion. The company’s overall first-quarter order intake rose 23% to €4.65 billion, while sales climbed 7.2% to €5.32 billion, Thales reported on Tuesday.

“Following the successful completion of our critical design review, construction on our first ASV is underway, and the ship is on track to be in the water and tested by the end of this year,” according to an Anduril statement to Military Times.

Anduril has been conducting daily at-sea testing to give insights into moving the vessel from production to operation, as it collects open-water operation data that will transfer to the first production hull when it delivers, per the statement.

Alongside HD Hyundai, Anduril is joining forces with Edison Chouest Offshore, a maritime transportation company, to produce the ASVs at their U.S. shipyards.

Speaking with reporters at the Sea-Air-Space Exposition on Monday, Anduril’s General Manager and Vice President of Surface Dominance Cory Emmons did not give a specific number of the ship’s production rate.

The vessel being built right now is set to be in the water this October, Emmons said, and its testing and sailing takes place from there. Anduril will be taking ownership of the vessel for testing off the U.S. coast by the end of 2026.

Emmons declined to comment on the vessel’s price tag.