Secretary of the Navy – Introduction
The Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) is the civilian head of the United States Department of the Navy, a statutory officer created under 10 U.S.C. § 8013 who serves as the chief executive over both the US Navy and the US Marine Corps. Appointed by the president with Senate confirmation, the Secretary reports directly to the Secretary of Defense and sits third in the line of succession within that department, overseeing everything from shipbuilding programs and personnel policy to the Navy’s massive annual budget. Unlike the military’s uniformed leadership, such as the Chief of Naval Operations, the Secretary of the Navy is a civilian political appointee, a structure designed to ensure the armed forces remain under elected, civilian control.
Established on 18 June 1798 — making it 227 years old as of 2026 — the office has existed since the earliest days of the American republic, when President John Adams appointed Benjamin Stoddert as its first holder to guide the young Navy through the undeclared naval war with France. Heading into the second half of 2026, the position finds itself in an unusually turbulent moment: the sitting Secretary was abruptly removed from office in April, the Navy is managing an enormous $377.5 billion budget request, and questions about who will next lead the department remain unresolved. This report covers the office’s salary structure, historical lineage, and the Navy’s current budget picture in full.
Key Secretary of the Navy Facts in 2026
| Fact | Figure |
|---|---|
| Current status (as of 2026) | Hung Cao, acting Secretary since April 22, 2026 |
| Office established | 18 June 1798, 227 years ago |
| First Secretary of the Navy | Benjamin Stoddert |
| Official salary level | Executive Schedule, Level II |
| Executive Schedule Level II salary (2024 baseline) | $221,900/year |
| Reports to | Secretary of Defense |
| Succession rank within Defense Department | 3rd |
| Term length | No fixed term |
| Most recent confirmed Secretary before 2026 vacancy | John C. Phelan, 79th Secretary |
| FY2026 proposed Navy budget | $377.5 billion |
Source: Wikipedia “United States Secretary of the Navy”; ZipRecruiter Secretary of the Navy salary data, July 2026; Stars and Stripes, April 22, 2026.
Taken together, these figures describe an office with genuine institutional weight — nearly two and a quarter centuries old, overseeing a department requesting well over a third of a trillion dollars in annual funding — currently operating without a Senate-confirmed leader. The jump from Benjamin Stoddert’s 1798 appointment to today’s acting leadership under Hung Cao spans 227 years and 79 confirmed secretaries, making this one of the longest-running civilian offices in American government.
What makes 2026 particularly notable is the timing of the current vacancy: John Phelan’s abrupt removal on April 22, 2026 came just one day after the Pentagon released its massive $1.5 trillion overall defense budget proposal, of which the Navy’s $377.5 billion share was a central component. With the Pentagon now facing the task of nominating and confirming a service secretary for the first time during President Trump’s second term, the office’s near-term future remains a genuinely open question even as the department’s budget and operational demands continue growing.
Secretary of the Navy Salary Statistics 2026
| Salary Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Official pay level | Executive Schedule, Level II |
| Executive Schedule Level II salary (2024) | $221,900/year |
| Under Secretary of the Navy pay level | Executive Schedule, Level III |
| Assistant Secretary of the Navy pay level (e.g., RDA) | Executive Schedule, Level IV |
| ZipRecruiter national average for “Secretary Navy” search term (July 2026) | $45,945/year (unrelated clerical roles) |
| ZipRecruiter typical range for that search term | $37,500-$52,500/year |
| Note on search confusion | Job-board averages often reflect clerical “secretary” roles, not the Cabinet-level office |
| Comparable Cabinet secretary pay structure | Executive Schedule tiers I through V across federal government |
Source: ZipRecruiter “Secretary The Navy Salary” data, July 2026; Wikipedia “United States Secretary of the Navy” infobox, citing Executive Schedule Level II.
Department of the Navy Civilian Leadership Pay Tiers (Executive Schedule)
Secretary of the Navy ████████████████████ Level II ($221,900)
Under Secretary of the Navy ██████████████████ Level III
Assistant Secretary (RDA) ████████████████ Level IV
The actual statutory salary for the Secretary of the Navy is set under the federal Executive Schedule, a standardized pay system covering senior political appointees across the entire executive branch, placing the position at Level II alongside other high-ranking sub-Cabinet officials, with a 2024 baseline salary of $221,900. This figure has remained relatively stable in recent years, adjusting only through periodic government-wide Executive Schedule increases rather than negotiation or merit-based raises common in private-sector executive compensation.
It’s worth flagging a genuine source of public confusion here: job-search platforms like ZipRecruiter show wildly different, much lower figures — averaging $45,945 annually — when users search generic terms like “Secretary Navy salary,” but these results overwhelmingly reflect administrative and clerical secretary positions at Navy facilities and related organizations, not the Cabinet-level SECNAV office itself. Anyone researching the actual Secretary of the Navy’s compensation should rely on the Executive Schedule Level II figure, not job-board aggregator averages, which conflate two entirely different roles that happen to share a job title.
History and List of Secretaries of the Navy Statistics 2026
| Historical Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Office established | 18 June 1798 |
| First Secretary of the Navy | Benjamin Stoddert (served May 1798 – March 1801) |
| Historical context of founding | Guided the Navy through the Quasi-War with France |
| Total confirmed secretaries through 2026 | 79 |
| 78th Secretary | Carlos Del Toro (Aug. 2021 – Jan. 2025, under President Biden) |
| 79th Secretary | John C. Phelan (March 2025 – April 2026, under President Trump) |
| Phelan’s background | Businessman, co-founder of MSD Capital, founder of Rugger Management |
| Del Toro’s background | US Naval Academy graduate, career Navy officer, first Cuban-American SECNAV |
| Non-veteran secretaries in the past 70 years | Phelan was the 7th |
Source: Wikipedia “John C. Phelan,” “Carlos Del Toro,” and “Benjamin Stoddert” entries; Military Times, April 23, 2026.
Timeline of Recent Secretaries of the Navy
1798 ● Benjamin Stoddert (1st) — office founded
2021 ● Carlos Del Toro (78th) — Biden administration
2025 ● John C. Phelan (79th) — Trump administration, confirmed March 2025
2026 ● Phelan removed April 22; Hung Cao acting
The office’s founding under Benjamin Stoddert in 1798 came at a genuinely precarious moment for the young United States, as the fledgling Navy found itself fighting an undeclared naval conflict with France known as the Quasi-War almost immediately after Stoddert’s appointment. That the office has continued in unbroken succession for 227 years, through 79 confirmed secretaries, reflects its constitutional durability even as the individuals holding it have ranged from career naval officers to private-sector businessmen with no prior military service.
John Phelan, confirmed in March 2025 by a 62-30 Senate vote, represented a notable departure from his immediate predecessor Carlos Del Toro — a US Naval Academy graduate and career Navy officer — since Phelan was, per Military Times, only the seventh non-veteran to hold the position in the past 70 years. This pattern of alternating between military-background and business-background appointees reflects the ongoing tension in how presidents balance operational naval expertise against management and industrial experience when selecting the department’s civilian leader.
Breaking: 2026 Secretary of the Navy Leadership Change
| Leadership Change Metric | Detail |
|---|---|
| Departure date | April 22, 2026, effective immediately |
| Departing Secretary | John C. Phelan, 79th Secretary |
| Acting successor | Hung Cao, previously Under Secretary of the Navy |
| Stated official reason | None given publicly by the Pentagon |
| Reported underlying reason (per senior official) | Trump and Defense Secretary Hegseth “agreed new leadership at the Navy is needed” |
| Contributing tension cited by reporting | Phelan’s promotion of the Trump-class battleship, seen by Hegseth as a distraction |
| Timing relative to budget release | One day after Pentagon’s $1.5 trillion defense budget proposal |
| Broader context | Part of a wider series of senior military/defense leadership departures in 2026 |
Source: DefenseScoop, USNI News, Stars and Stripes, Task & Purpose, and Military Times, April 22-23, 2026.
April 2026 Navy Leadership Transition Timeline
Apr 11 Phelan speaks at USS Harvey C. Barnum Jr. commissioning, Norfolk
Apr 21 Pentagon releases $1.5 trillion FY2026 defense budget proposal
Apr 22 Phelan removed "effective immediately"; Hung Cao becomes acting Secretary
Phelan’s departure came with unusual suddenness — Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced it late on a Wednesday with no stated reason, simply thanking Phelan “for his service to the Department and the United States Navy” and wishing him well. Multiple outlets later reported that a senior administration official told Military Times that President Trump and Secretary Hegseth “agreed new leadership at the Navy is needed,” with reporting from Wikipedia’s summary specifically pointing to friction over Phelan’s championing of the Trump-class battleship program, which Hegseth reportedly viewed as competing with his own preferred strategy emphasizing smaller, uncrewed naval vessels.
Hung Cao, a 25-year Navy combat veteran and US Naval Academy graduate who had served as Under Secretary since October 2025, stepped into the acting role immediately. Cao’s own path to the position is notable in its own right: he ran an unsuccessful 2024 US Senate campaign in Virginia against Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, during which he gave a speech at the Republican National Convention, making him one of several Trump-aligned political figures placed into senior Pentagon civilian roles during the administration’s second term. The Pentagon now faces the task of nominating and confirming a permanent successor — the first such vacancy among the military service secretaries during this presidential term. Readers interested in how personnel changes at this level intersect with broader institutional accountability may find useful parallel context in our coverage of International Criminal Court statistics, which examines a different but structurally comparable senior leadership and governance framework at the international level.
US Navy Budget Statistics 2026
| Budget Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| FY2026 proposed total Department of Defense budget | $1.5 trillion |
| FY2026 proposed Navy budget (Department of the Navy) | $377.5 billion |
| Stated funding priorities | Ballistic missile submarines, new military housing, fleet modernization |
| Budget release date | April 21, 2026 |
| Navy departments covered under this budget | US Navy and US Marine Corps |
| Signature modernization program referenced | Trump-class battleship initiative |
| Broader defense posture context (2026) | Three aircraft carriers deployed/heading to the Middle East |
| Additional 2026 Navy operational context | Heavy presence in the Caribbean, drug-boat interdiction campaign |
Source: Stars and Stripes, April 22, 2026; Federal News Network, April 2026.
FY2026 Defense Budget: Navy Share of Total Proposal ($ Trillions/Billions)
Total DoD Budget Proposal █████████████████████ $1.5 trillion
Navy Department Share █████ $377.5 billion (~25%)
The $377.5 billion Navy budget request, representing roughly a quarter of the entire $1.5 trillion Department of Defense proposal, covers an enormous scope of responsibility spanning shipbuilding, personnel, and modernization priorities — most notably continued investment in ballistic missile submarines and new military housing projects. This budget arrived at a genuinely active operational moment for the fleet, with three aircraft carriers deployed in or heading toward the Middle East and a sustained naval presence in the Caribbean supporting counter-narcotics operations against alleged drug trafficking vessels.
The budget’s release just one day before Phelan’s removal adds a layer of institutional continuity concern to the leadership transition: the Navy now must execute one of its largest peacetime budget requests in recent memory under acting rather than confirmed civilian leadership, a structural gap that historically can complicate long-term program planning and congressional relations, even when day-to-day operations continue largely uninterrupted under career military and career civil service staff. Readers interested in how large-scale government budget negotiations play out on the world stage more broadly may find our coverage of the G20 Summit a useful comparison point, since major economies routinely coordinate around exactly this kind of large fiscal commitment.
Secretary of the Navy Duties and Organizational Structure 2026
| Structural Metric | Detail |
|---|---|
| Constituting statute | 10 U.S.C. § 8013 |
| Appointer | President, with Senate advice and consent |
| Formal style/title | “Mister Secretary The Honorable” |
| Abbreviation | SECNAV |
| Principal civilian deputy | Under Secretary of the Navy (10 U.S.C. § 8015) |
| Military advisors/deputies | Chief of Naval Operations (Navy) and Commandant (Marine Corps) |
| Under Secretary formation date | August 22, 1940 |
| First Under Secretary of the Navy | James Forrestal |
| Current Under Secretary status (2026) | William Toti, performing duties since May 1, 2026 |
Source: Wikipedia “United States Secretary of the Navy” and “United States Under Secretary of the Navy” entries.
Department of the Navy Civilian-Military Leadership Structure
Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV)
├── Under Secretary of the Navy — Principal Civilian Deputy
├── Chief of Naval Operations — Navy Military Advisor/Deputy
└── Commandant of the Marine Corps — Marine Corps Military Advisor/Deputy
The Secretary’s formal duties center on serving as the chief executive officer of the Department of the Navy, a role that requires balancing civilian policy direction with the operational expertise of both the Chief of Naval Operations and the Commandant of the Marine Corps, who serve as the Secretary’s dedicated military advisors and deputies for their respective services. This dual-service structure is somewhat unusual among the military branches, since the Department of the Navy uniquely encompasses two distinct armed services — the Navy and Marine Corps — under a single civilian secretary, unlike the Department of the Air Force or Army, which each oversee a single branch.
The Under Secretary of the Navy, established in 1940 under James Forrestal — who would later become the first US Secretary of Defense — serves as the department’s principal civilian deputy and, notably, is currently the position from which acting Secretary Hung Cao himself was elevated. With William Toti now performing the Under Secretary’s duties as of May 2026, the department currently has both its top two civilian leadership positions filled on an acting or performing-duties basis rather than through full Senate confirmation, a genuinely unusual structural gap for an organization managing hundreds of billions of dollars in annual spending.
Secretary of the Navy Compared to Other Service Secretaries 2026
| Position | Executive Schedule Level | Department Overseen | 2026 Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Secretary of the Navy | Level II | Navy + Marine Corps | Acting (Hung Cao) |
| Secretary of the Army | Level II | US Army | Confirmed |
| Secretary of the Air Force | Level II | Air Force + Space Force | Confirmed |
| Secretary of Defense | Level I | Entire Department of Defense | Confirmed (Pete Hegseth) |
| Under Secretary of the Navy | Level III | Navy + Marine Corps (deputy) | Performing duties (William Toti) |
| Assistant Secretary of the Navy (RDA) | Level IV | Research, Development & Acquisition | Acting (William Mahan) |
Source: Wikipedia service secretary infoboxes; Federal News Network, April 2026.
Executive Schedule Pay Levels: Defense Department Leadership
Level I ████████████████████████████ Secretary of Defense
Level II ██████████████████████ Service Secretaries (Navy, Army, Air Force)
Level III ████████████████ Under Secretaries
Level IV ██████████████ Assistant SecretariesPlaced alongside its counterparts, the Secretary of the Navy sits at the same Executive Schedule Level II as the Secretaries of the Army and Air Force, reflecting a deliberately parity-based pay structure across the three military service secretary positions despite meaningful differences in the size and budget of each department. The Navy’s dual oversight of both a naval service and the Marine Corps arguably gives its secretary a broader organizational scope than either the Army or Air Force secretary manages individually, even though compensation remains formally equal across all three roles.
The fact that multiple senior civilian positions within the Department of the Navy are currently filled on an acting or “performing duties” basis — the Secretary, the Under Secretary, and the Assistant Secretary for Research, Development and Acquisition all lack permanent, Senate-confirmed leadership as of mid-2026 — represents a genuinely unusual concentration of leadership vacancies at the top of a single military department simultaneously. Federal News Network’s reporting specifically frames Phelan’s departure as “the latest in a series of shakeups” at senior Pentagon leadership levels throughout 2026, following earlier departures including the Army’s top uniformed officer and several other flag officers, suggesting this pattern of leadership turnover extends well beyond the Navy alone. This kind of sustained federal workforce disruption has ripple effects for the department’s much larger civilian employee base as well; readers researching broader federal employment protections may find our coverage of workers’ compensation statistics in the US useful context, since it covers the federal employee compensation programs that continue operating independently of political leadership turnover at the top.
Disclaimer: The data research report we present here is based on information found from various sources. We are not liable for any financial loss, errors, or damages of any kind that may result from the use of the information herein. We acknowledge that though we try to report accurately, we cannot verify the absolute facts of everything that has been represented.
