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Surface Navy 2025: US VCNO calls for better partnership with industry

By Michael Fabey |

Shipyards, like Newport News Shipbuilding pictured here, have had trouble recruiting and retaining workers. (Janes/Michael Fabey)

The US Navy (USN) should improve its relationship with industry to advance the pace at which it can bring new capabilities and technology to its fleet, according to Admiral James Kilby, vice chief of naval operations (VCNO).

“It's critical that we work more closely with industry as we develop the new technologies that are changing the nature of combat,” Adm Kilby said on 15 January during a keynote address at the Surface Navy Association National Symposium 2025.

“There is great innovation taking place in American industry, but for the navy to take full advantage of it, we need more than a piece of gear,” Adm Kilby said.

“We should be developing those concepts and plans with industry, as a team, in parallel with development of the technology itself,” he noted.

“This will require the navy to be less industry-phobic,” Adm Kilby said.

“Our goal is to always be fair and impartial,” he added. “But a healthy, symbiotic relationship between American industry and the military services is one of our greatest strengths.”

The navy needs industry partners to be aggressive problem solvers when dealing with new production or ship maintenance and repair, he said.

“I've visited every public shipyard at least once, and many private shipyards,” he said. “I've seen some great examples of this change at work: teams that are hungry to improve, are defining standards, measuring their performance against those standards, and are using the tools we're teaching to make impactful changes.”

At the navy's public shipyards, Adm Kilby said he meets with project supervisors and ship commanding officers

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