SECNAV Hung Cao unveils plan for Navy to ‘out-learn and out

Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao recently signed off on a new Strategy to Weaponize Data and Artificial Intelligence that introduces more than a dozen instructions to integrate and deploy data and algorithms across the sea service — including by standing up a new AI War Council.

The seven-page blueprint, publicly released on Tuesday, frames data and AI as core warfighting assets that are as integral to modern U.S. combat operations as personnel, weapon systems and munitions.

“This strategy positions the Department of the Navy to out-learn and out-fight any adversary by rapidly deploying data and artificial intelligence,” Cao said in a statement. “It is our roadmap to building an ‘AI-first’ Fleet, one that turns information into warfighting advantage and enables faster, better decisions.”

The Navy has been bullish about incorporating data, advanced analytics and AI into its warfighting, supply chain, intelligence and other operations under the second Trump administration. Leadership considers the technologies vital to their ambitious vision for a next-generation “hybrid” fleet of versatile manned and unmanned systems.

“This strategy demonstrates our commitment and capability to rapidly leverage data and AI to maximize warfighter effectiveness at scale,” Navy spokesperson Lt. Jake Ryan told DefenseScoop on Wednesday. “The department continuously learns and adapts to changes in the information technology environment.”

A team led by the DON’s Chief Data and AI Officer (CDAO) produced the new plan after more than a year of preparation and engagements with stakeholders in Navy and Marine Corps AI communities. The CDAO is charged with developing and maintaining a department-wide “data and Al roadmap” to drive transparency, accountability, collaboration, and resourcing across the service in the months ahead.

Ryan confirmed that Dr. Ciro Lopez is currently serving as the department’s acting CDAO.

In the strategy’s foreword, Cao wrote that U.S. naval forces “have defeated hundreds of drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles from Iran and its proxies” this year and are “navigating the most compressed period of active learning and adaptation for combat operations at sea in recent memory.”

The new strategy therefore aims to set conditions that will “equip and empower all DON missions with the data and [AI] capabilities necessary to rapidly learn and adapt to fight better tomorrow.”

At the heart of the new plan is a digital adaptation framework — dubbed the Bits2Effects Cycle — that’s designed to help the Navy speedily transform the overwhelming amount of raw information (bits) it captures into meaningful battlefield outcomes (effects), through a streamlined five-step process.

The strategy also lays out a variety of directions, with deadlines, to bolster artificial intelligence integration through six overarching goals that broadly cover accelerating operational AI; improving data readiness; optimizing data and AI infrastructure; streamlining data and AI governance; building a data- and AI-ready workforce; and strengthening associated partnerships and collaboration.

Notably, among the underpinning instructions, Cao directs the department to “establish an Al War Council to prioritize use cases, align resources, and pre-authorize wartime modifications to data sharing, classification, and Al deployment authorities” by the first quarter of fiscal 2027.

Officials are also tasked to produce “a training and billet build plan” by that quarter, which will be designed to double the number of qualified data engineers, data scientists, and AI and machine learning engineers by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2029.

The Navy must additionally create and maintain an authoritative inventory of mission-aligned Al use cases that will be prioritized based on their feasibility, impact and alignment — and ultimately help scale adoption.

“Similar to traditional assets such as personnel, weapons systems, and munitions, our data and Al must be deliberately integrated and employed across the fabric of operations to realize the exponential warfighting advantage of the digital age,” Cao wrote.