Navy Undersecretary Hung Cao will become the Acting Secretary of the Navy. He is a retired naval officer with combat experience. He will be taking over the duties of Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan who is departing the administration immediately.
On the evening of April 22, 2026, Spokesman Sean Parnell tweeted on X:
“Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan is departing the administration, effective immediately. On behalf of the Secretary of War and Deputy Secretary of War, we are grateful to Secretary Phelan for his service to the Department and the United States Navy. We wish him well in his future endeavors. Undersecretary Hung Cao will become Acting Secretary of the Navy.”
There is no official reason for the departure of Secretary Phelan.
Hung Cao is:
- Retired Navy captain and EOD officer with SOF experience
- Served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia
- Former Under Secretary of the Navy
- Now Acting Secretary of the Navy (April 2026)
Hung Cao was sworn in as Under Secretary of the Navy on October 3, 2025. As a Naval officer, Cao served as an Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Officer serving in assignments around the world to include Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia. Cao was a qualified EOD and Diving Officer, Naval Parachutist, and Surface Warfare Officer. In his role as an EOD officer he served alongside SOF units supporting Naval Special Warfare as well as U.S. Special Operations Command. Cao worked in counter-IED, ordnance disposal, exploitation and sensitive activities, and counter-drone missions. He retired from the Navy in October 2021 as a Captain.
- 1989 – Enlists in Navy
- 1996 – Commissioned officer
- 2000s–2010s – deployments in support of GWOT
- 2021 – Retires as Captain
- 2025 – Under Secretary of the Navy
- 2026 – Acting Secretary of the Navy
He holds a bachelor’s degree in Ocean Engineering from the Naval Academy, a master’s degree in Applied Physics from the Naval Postgraduate School, and was a Fellow with MIT Seminar XXI and Harvard Kennedy School.
Cao was born in 1971 in Saigon, South Vietnam. In 1975, at age 4, Cao came with his family to the United States as refugees. As a child, he spent several years in West Africa where his father worked with the U.S Agency for International Development. He entered the U.S. Navy as a seaman recruit in 1989 and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1996.
Cao has been active in the political arena, running as a candidate for the U.S. Senate. He later served in senior civilian leadership roles, including Under Secretary of the Navy prior to assuming his current position as Acting Secretary of the Navy.
Unlike traditional surface warfare or aviation leaders, Cao’s background in explosive ordnance disposal and irregular warfare provides a different perspective in areas relevant to maritime conflict in the Middle East and Indo-Pacific.
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References:
Biography, “The Honorable Hung Cao”, Navy.
Hung Cao – Wikipedia
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