| United States Under Secretary of the Navy | |
|---|---|
 Seal of the Department of the Navy | |
 Flag of the under secretary of the navy | |
 | |
| 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 | Thepresident withSenateadvice 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 |
Theunder secretary of the navy is the second-highest ranking civilian official in theUnited States Department of the Navy. The under secretary reports to thesecretary of the navy (SECNAV). Before the creation of the under secretary's office, the second-highest civilian at the Department of the Navy was theassistant secretary of the navy.
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 | .jpg) | 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 | .jpg) | 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 | .jpg) | 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) |
| – | .jpg) | Thomas P. Dee (acting) | February 17, 2017[7] | December 4, 2017 | Richard V. Spencer | |
| 33 | .jpg) | Thomas B. Modly | December 4, 2017 | April 7, 2020[8][9] Serving as Acting Secretary of the Navy: November 24, 2019 – April 7, 2020 | ||
| – | .jpg) | Gregory J. Slavonic (acting) | April 24, 2020 | January 20, 2021 | James E. McPherson (acting) Kenneth J. Braithwaite | |
| – | _(cropped).jpg) | 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 |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link).Senior officials in theUnited States Department of Defense | ||
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