United States Under Secretary of the Navy

United States Under Secretary of the Navy
Seal of the Department of the Navy
Flag of the under secretary of the navy
Incumbent Hung Cao since October 3, 2025
Department of the Navy
Style	Mr. Under Secretary The Honorable (formal address in writing)
Reports to	Secretary of the Navy
Seat	The Pentagon, Arlington County, Virginia, United States
Nominator	The president with Senate advice and consent
Term length	No fixed term
Constituting instrument	10 U.S.C.   § 8015
Formation	August 22, 1940
First holder	James Forrestal
Succession	17th in SecDef succession by seniority of appointment
Deputy	Deputy Under Secretary of the Navy
Salary	Executive Schedule, Level III [1]
Website	Official website

The under secretary of the navy is the second-highest ranking civilian official in the United States Department of the Navy. The under secretary reports to the secretary of the navy (SECNAV). Before the creation of the under secretary's office, the second-highest civilian at the Department of the Navy was the assistant secretary of the navy.

List of under secretaries of the navy, 1940–present

The following men and women have held the post: ^[2]

No.	Portrait	Name	Assumed office	Left office	President appointed by	Secretary served under
1		James V. Forrestal	August 22, 1940	May 16, 1944	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Frank Knox
2		Ralph A. Bard	June 24, 1944	June 30, 1945		James Forrestal
3		Artemus Gates	July 3, 1945	December 31, 1945	Harry S. Truman
4		John L. Sullivan	June 17, 1946	September 18, 1947
5		W. John Kenney	September 19, 1947	September 24, 1949		John L. Sullivan
6		Dan A. Kimball	May 25, 1949	July 31, 1951		Francis P. Matthews
7		Francis P. Whitehair	August 7, 1951	January 29, 1953		Dan A. Kimball
8		Charles S. Thomas	February 9, 1953	August 5, 1953	Dwight D. Eisenhower	Robert B. Anderson
9		Thomas S. Gates Jr.	October 7, 1953	April 1, 1957		Robert B. Anderson Charles Thomas
10		William B. Franke	April 17, 1957	June 7, 1959		Thomas S. Gates Jr.
11		Fred A. Bantz	June 8, 1959	January 20, 1961		William B. Franke
12		Paul B. Fay	February 16, 1961	January 15, 1965	John F. Kennedy	John Connally Fred Korth Paul Nitze
13		Kenneth E. BeLieu	February 26, 1965	July 1, 1965	Lyndon B. Johnson	Paul Nitze
14		Robert H. B. Baldwin	July 2, 1965	July 31, 1967
15		Charles F. Baird	August 1, 1967	January 20, 1969		Paul Robert Ignatius
16		John Warner	February 11, 1969	May 4, 1972	Richard Nixon	John Chafee
17		Frank P. Sanders	May 5, 1972	June 29, 1973		John Warner
18		J. William Middendorf	August 3, 1973	June 20, 1974
19		David S. Potter	August 28, 1974	April 1, 1976	Gerald Ford	J. William Middendorf
20		David R. Macdonald	September 14, 1976	February 4, 1977
21		R. James Woolsey Jr.	March 9, 1977	December 7, 1979	Jimmy Carter	W. Graham Claytor Jr.
22		Robert J. Murray	February 7, 1980	September 29, 1981		Edward Hidalgo John Lehman
23		James F. Goodrich	September 29, 1981	August 6, 1987	Ronald Reagan	John Lehman
24		Henry L. Garrett III	August 6, 1987	May 15, 1989		Jim Webb William L. Ball
25		J. Daniel Howard	August 7, 1989	January 20, 1993	George H. W. Bush	Henry L. Garrett III Sean O'Keefe
26		Richard J. Danzig	November 29, 1993	May 30, 1997	Bill Clinton	John Howard Dalton
27		Jerry MacArthur Hultin	November 13, 1997	July 14, 2000		John Howard Dalton Richard Danzig
28		Robert B. Pirie Jr.	October 12, 2000	June 6, 2001		Richard Danzig
29		Susan M. Livingstone	July 26, 2001	February 28, 2003	George W. Bush	Gordon R. England
30		Dionel M. Aviles	October 8, 2004	May 19, 2009 [3]		Gordon R. England Donald C. Winter
31		Robert O. Work	May 19, 2009	March 22, 2013	Barack Obama	Ray Mabus
–		Robert C. Martinage (acting)	March 22, 2013 [4]	January 15, 2014 [5]
–		Thomas W. Hicks (acting)	January 15, 2014	March 17, 2016
32		Janine A. Davidson	March 17, 2016	January 20, 2017
–		Thomas W. Hicks (acting)	January 20, 2017 [6]	February 17, 2017	Donald Trump	Sean Stackley (acting)
–		Thomas P. Dee (acting)	February 17, 2017 [7]	December 4, 2017		Richard V. Spencer
33		Thomas B. Modly	December 4, 2017	April 7, 2020 [8] [9] Serving as Acting Secretary of the Navy: November 24, 2019 – April 7, 2020
–		Gregory J. Slavonic (acting)	April 24, 2020	January 20, 2021		James E. McPherson (acting) Kenneth J. Braithwaite
–		James F. Geurts (acting)	February 4, 2021	August 24, 2021	Joe Biden	Thomas Harker (acting)
–		Meredith A. Berger (Performing the Duties of)	August 25, 2021	April 13, 2022		Carlos Del Toro
34		Erik Raven	April 13, 2022	August 2024
–		Thomas Mancinelli (acting)	August 20, 2024 [10]	January 20, 2025
–		Victor Minella (acting)	January 22, 2025	April 16, 2025	Donald Trump	Terence G. Emmert (acting) John Phelan
–		Brett A. Seidle (acting)	April 16, 2025	October 3, 2025		John Phelan
35		Hung Cao	October 3, 2025 [11]	Incumbent

References

1. 5 U.S.C.   § 5315
2. "Official U.S. Navy web page". Archived from the original on July 24, 2006. Retrieved October 29, 2008..
3. "Undersecretary of Navy resigns to take new job". Stars and Stripes.
4. "Navy says farewell to Under Secretary". 27 March 2013.
5. "Acting Under Secretary of the Navy Martinage Resigns". 15 January 2014.
6. "Acting SECNAV, Other Navy Leaders Announced Following Presidential Inauguration". America's Navy. 20 January 2017. Archived from the original on 22 January 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
7. "Navy.mil Leadership Biographies". America's Navy. Archived from the original on 22 June 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
8. "United States Navy biographies". United States Department of the Navy. November 25, 2019. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
9. "United States Navy biography (Under Secretary of the Navy)". United States Department of the Navy. November 25, 2019. Archived from the original on November 25, 2019. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
10. "Thomas J. Mancinelli".
11. https://www.wric.com/news/virginia-news/hung-cao-confirmed-under-secretary-navy/