WASHINGTON — John Phelan, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to become secretary of the Navy, has not served in the military or had a civilian leadership role in the service. While officials and defense experts said the Navy is present great need for a disruptor, they warned that Phelan’s lack of experience could make it more difficult for him to achieve Trump’s goals.
Trump on Tuesday nominated Phelan, a major donor to his campaign who founded the private investment firm Rugger Management LLC. Trump’s transition team did not respond to a request for comment on his qualifications. According to his biography, Phelan’s primary exposure to the military comes from an advisory position he holds in the military Spirit of America, a non-profit organization that supports the defense of Ukraine and the defense of Taiwan.
Not all service secretaries come to office with prior military experience, but he would be the first in the Navy since 2006. Current Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth also has no prior military service. However, she has spent her career in a variety of civilian defense positions.
The appointment comes at a crucial time for the Navy, which is under-deployed around the world and faces a shrinking fleet as the naval forces of its main rival, China, grow. Trump has campaigned on expanding the Navy and would have to fight bureaucratic inertia to do so. But it is uncertain whether a secretary with no military experience — either in uniform or as a defense civilian — would be well positioned to lead that effort.
“It will be difficult for anyone without experience in the Pentagon to take over the leadership of an agency and do a good job,” said Stacie Pettyjohn, senior fellow and director of the defense program at the Center for a New American Security. “Services are vast organizations with different cultures, subcultures and bureaucratic interests, and where decisions are made through many formal processes. To change the plans of a service, you have to understand this Byzantine landscape.”
Experts say Phelan’s appointment reflects Trump’s search for service department heads who won’t push back on his ideas — but Phelan’s lack of experience is likely to cause problems and delays of its own. They say the Navy can’t afford to waste time. One of the Navy’s biggest challenges is preparing for a possible military confrontation with China over Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims as its own.
” The stakes are highsaid Brad Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “The success or failure in addressing the key issues facing the U.S. Navy over the next few years could have a decisive effect on war and war. peace in the Taiwan Strait and elsewhere.”
Trump has called for a 350-ship Navy since his 2016 presidential campaign, but he has experienced firsthand the difficulty of achieving that goal given the challenges facing shipbuilding and Congress’ erratic and often delayed budget process .
There are just under 300 force ships in the fleet – ships that play a direct role in conducting combat operations.
“The navy extends over Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Ocean. Strategists have wanted to withdraw from Europe and the Middle East, but recent conflicts have prevented that,” said Mark Cancian, senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “So the next secretary will have a shrinking fleet, greater foreign obligations and an uncertain budget environment.”
The Marine Corps has called for 31 amphibious warships to maintain their near-shore presence around the world. The Navy has regularly had to increase the deployment of its aircraft carriers and escorting destroyers, for example in response to the unstable security situation in the Middle East.
Any expansion can create a ripple effect: ships are not maintained on time, and military forces grow tired of the lack of predictability for their families and leave the service.
Service department chiefs spend enormous amounts of time not only responding to the White House, but also satisfying members of Congress during frequent hearings on Capitol Hill, shaping budget requests, holding constant meetings on issues of the service members, attending industry conferences and filling speaker requests. All of this requires a nuanced understanding of the agency a secretary leads, because major changes in one of the offices often entail a lengthy process of revising past guidelines and policies. Any changes to the many weapons systems that the Navy and Marine Corps require and pursue are subject to long-standing contract award challenges.
“The Navy’s problem here is money,” Cancian said. “Even if the defense budget increases, only a relatively small increase will be available for shipbuilding. (If) the budget remains stable or decreases, then the Navy has a big problem. The fleet will continue to shrink.”
Trump has signaled his desire to cut through red tape through several appointments, such as his selection of SpaceX founder Elon Musk to co-lead a non-governmental Department of Government Efficiency. But the secretary of state can’t do that without going through Congress, which has created many of the rules and processes the military must follow.
“It might help that he has a personal relationship with the president. However, his lack of defense and Pentagon experience will hurt the Navy,” Cancian said. “It will take a while for him to master the levers of power.”