Navy League 2026: CNO targets greater integration to shape future fleet

USS Savannah is shown here conducting a live-fire test with containerised launching system. The US Navy wants more containerised systems. (US Navy)

The US Navy (USN) wants industry to focus more on true integration of systems, platforms, and assets than on traditional platform development in order to create the future fleet, according to Admiral Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations (CNO)

“Our biggest constraint is not technology, it's integration and adoption by the fleet,” Adm Caudle said on 20 April during his keynote speech at the Navy League Sea Air Space maritime exposition in National Harbor, Maryland.

“It's about the total risk we accept when a system or capability arrives incomplete, unintegrated, and not ready to fight as a system-of-systems,” Adm Caudle added.

The CNO said he has created and the USN has begun to implement the Fleet Introduction Operating System (FIOs).

“This is how we change the way this navy builds and fights,” Adm Caudle said. “Under FIOS, when the Navy receives a new capability, subsequent updates and upgrades should be as seamless as updating an app on your phone.”

He explained: “That means common interface standards. It means modularity, open architecture, virtualisation with digital twins, familiar look and feel, and modern training content that matches the style of what we are doing in the career training continuum — built in from day one. Sustainment designed before steel is bent.”

The introduction of FIOS means the fleet does not have to be an “integration lab”, Adm Caudle said, adding, “If a capability shows up, it's ready to fight [on] day one.”