{"id":48526,"date":"2026-04-22T21:51:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2026\/04\/22\/pentagon-removes-john-phelan-as-navy-secretary\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T17:11:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T17:11:01","slug":"pentagon-removes-john-phelan-as-navy-secretary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/naval\/2026\/04\/22\/pentagon-removes-john-phelan-as-navy-secretary\/","title":{"rendered":"John Phelan out as Navy secretary, Pentagon says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2026\/04\/22\/navy-going-to-study-possibility-of-building-ships-outside-us-phelan-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2026\/04\/22\/navy-going-to-study-possibility-of-building-ships-outside-us-phelan-says\/\">John Phelan<\/a> is out as the secretary of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2026\/04\/20\/us-navy-destroyer-fires-on-cargo-vessel-attempting-to-sail-to-iranian-port\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2026\/04\/20\/us-navy-destroyer-fires-on-cargo-vessel-attempting-to-sail-to-iranian-port\/\">Navy<\/a>, the Pentagon announced Wednesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Phelan, who this week attended the Navy League\u2019s annual Sea-Air-Space symposium in Washington, is departing the role \u201ceffective immediately,\u201d Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SeanParnellASW\/status\/2047064432564482188\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SeanParnellASW\/status\/2047064432564482188\">announced<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. Navy Undersecretary Hung Cao, a former Virginia Senate candidate and special operations veteran, will assume the role of acting secretary of the Navy, Parnell added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOn behalf of the Secretary of War and Deputy Secretary of War, we are grateful to Secretary Phelan for his service to the Department and the United States Navy,\u201d Parnell wrote. \u201cWe wish him well in his future endeavors.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the Pentagon provided no reason for the move in their initial announcement, a senior administration official told Military Times that \u201cPresident Trump and Secretary Hegseth agreed new leadership at the Navy is needed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSecretary Hegseth informed John Phelan of this news prior to it being made public,\u201d the official said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just yesterday, Phelan spoke with reporters at a media roundtable about the Navy\u2019s prioritizing of ship building capacity as the service looks to double its vessel requests, according to the 2027 fiscal defense budget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He also delivered a lengthy keynote address at the conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Phelan, who was confirmed as the Navy secretary in March 2025 by a 62-30 vote, was just the seventh non-veteran to serve in the role in the past 70 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A founder of the investment firm Rugger Management LLC, Phelan was the first service secretary pick to be announced by President Donald Trump following his return to the Oval Office. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, however, was the first service secretary to be confirmed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Phelan\u2019s abrupt dismissal comes as the sea service continues to grapple with the ongoing conflict with Iran and in the Strait of Hormuz. On Sunday, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2026\/04\/16\/how-the-us-military-could-clear-mines-from-the-strait-of-hormuz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2026\/04\/16\/how-the-us-military-could-clear-mines-from-the-strait-of-hormuz\/\">U.S. Navy<\/a> destroyer operating in the Arabian Sea enforced the service\u2019s ongoing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2026\/04\/18\/vessels-report-being-hit-by-gunfire-as-iran-says-strait-of-hormuz-shut-again\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2026\/04\/18\/vessels-report-being-hit-by-gunfire-as-iran-says-strait-of-hormuz-shut-again\/\">naval blockade of Iranian ports<\/a> when it fired its Mk-45 gun at a cargo vessel attempting to sail toward an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2026\/04\/14\/us-blockade-halts-ship-traffic-to-iranian-ports-centcom-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2026\/04\/14\/us-blockade-halts-ship-traffic-to-iranian-ports-centcom-says\/\">Iranian port<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wednesday\u2019s announcement also comes less than three weeks after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asked U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George to step down and immediately retire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That April 2 move involving George, one of three significant changes made by Hegseth on the same day, cut short George\u2019s tenure, which began in September 2023, well before the end of the typical four-year term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gen. David Hodne, a former Army Ranger who had been overseeing the Army\u2019s Transformation and Training Command, and Maj. Gen. William Green, the Army chief of chaplains, were also removed from their roles on April 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since taking office, Hegseth has fired over a dozen generals and admirals, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Phelan was the Navy\u2019s 79th service secretary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cao, meanwhile, is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy. He deployed with special operations forces to Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia during a military career that spanned 25 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Military Times reporter Tanya Noury contributed to this report. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pentagon provided no reason for the move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":111068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":16,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,16,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3498,3478],"class_list":["post-48526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-naval","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"E737R6WLZBBR3E6BUCEM2K2YFU","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2026\/04\/22\/pentagon-removes-john-phelan-as-navy-secretary\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>John Phelan out as Navy secretary, Pentagon says - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Pentagon provided no reason for the move.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"John Phelan out as Navy secretary, Pentagon says\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Pentagon provided no reason for the move.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/naval\/2026\/04\/22\/pentagon-removes-john-phelan-as-navy-secretary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-22T21:51:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T17:11:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"J.D. 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