The country’s largest maritime expo returned to celebrate its 60th anniversary this year, when the Navy League of the United States hosted its Sea-Air-Space Exposition. The event, which took place April 6-9 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, attracts about 16,000 attendees, including the U.S. defense industrial base, GovCon, and military decision-makers, to discuss what’s needed to ensure that the U.S. sea services maintain their edge and to show off the latest technologies and capabilities. This year, about 430 exhibitors had spots on the exhibit floor.
Adjustments in Acquisitions
Vice Adm. Mike Vernazza, commander, Naval Information Forces (NAVIFOR), joins fellow Information Warfare leaders for the “Fighting from the Maritime Operations Center – IW” speaker series during the 2025 Sea-Air-Space Exposition. (U.S. Navy photo by NAVIFOR Public Affairs)
Navy Secretary John Phelan, whom the Senate confirmed Feb. 27, gave his first major speech to industry at this milestone event. In it, he vowed to change the service’s procurement and acquisition processes, which he said have resulted in “complacency, bureaucracy, and in some cases, sub-optimal policy.”
“As the former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Elmo Zumwalt once stated, ‘I don’t give a damn where an idea comes from, all I care about is whether it works or not,’” added Phelan, who owns a private investment company. “That’s the approach I’m bringing to this office.”
Meanwhile, Vice Adm. Thomas Allan, the Coast Guard’s acting deputy commandant for operations, said that he was heartened by President Trump’s support of the Coast Guard and Navy’s joint effort to reconstitute its heavy icebreaker fleet for the polar region. He applauded the President’s promise of 40 new icebreakers in a Jan. 24 speech but added that the actual number needed is closer to eight or nine.
“It’s very exciting to see your boss point towards a vision that we’ve had for a long time,” Allan said, but “when you look at what the strategic studies have said for the Coast Guard, I kind of go back to that eight or nine [number].”
These would be in addition to the heavy polar icebreaker, medium polar icebreaker, a converted commercial icebreaking vessel, and several smaller ones that currently handle icebreaking missions.
The Case for Commercial Software
Jane Rathbun, Chief Information Officer at the Department of the Navy, said the agency is working with the Department of Government Efficiency to streamline its software practices. One approach may be to use commercial off-the-shelf software that has built-in capabilities for updates.
That would also cut down on the time the Navy spends on customizing software, Rathbun added. “We’re going to use it as it was intended to be used,” she said. “If we don’t do that, we will be in this state again of having really old software that hasn’t kept pace with what’s happening in the industry. That is costly and that is unsustainable.”
The Power of Uncrewed Systems
Acting Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James Kilby moderated the “Ready Our Platforms” panel at the Sea-Air-Space 2025 maritime exposition at the Gaylord National Convention Center, National Harbor, Maryland, April 7, 2025. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Vanessa White/Released)
Autonomous and uncrewed capabilities were hot topics at this year’s event. For instance, the Navy’s upcoming sixth-generation fighter jet, which is part of the F/A-XX development and acquisition program, may be the last to have a human crew, said Rear Adm. Michael Donnelly.
The new fighter will have AI and machine learning capabilities that will improve how warfighters make decisions and kickstart plans for the service to operate piloted and uncrewed aircraft more often.
“It will actually be at a point where we are more man-on-the-loop than man-in-the-loop, and be the bridge to fully integrating towards the hybrid air wing [combining crewed and uncrewed platforms] in the future, in the 2040s,” Donnelly said.
Adm. James Kilby, Acting Chief of Naval Operations, shared at the conference that the Navy aims to integrate uncrewed and crewed maritime vessels as part of Project Overmatch.
“The challenge for us is to really robustly lay out a road map to get there,” Kilby said. “We’ve had some fits and starts there, so we must do better. Our initial focus is 2027 though, [for a] capability that will help us in the Pacific.”
“I want to be able to communicate across every single modality I have at sea, based on prioritization of message,” Kilby added. “Comms-as-a-service and software-defined radios are a piece of that as well… This ability to communicate in a more effective manner at sea makes me more lethal, where I’m not having to wait for a certain prioritization of messages to go out — the system just understands the quickest means to do that and sends that message.”
The Marine Corps, too, is embracing autonomous devices — specifically, drones. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Benjamin Watson, who leads Training and Education Command, said the technology can take out targets at as little as 9 miles’ distance, rather than the 300 Marines can handle with precision weapons.
He pointed to the Marine Corps Attack Drone Team initiative to use first-person-view drones that “are paving the way for some of the policy, technology, and fiscal challenges into how we bring these in, at scale.”
We’re excited to see how all of these play out ahead of next year’s symposium!