US Navy Secretary at the Pentagon John Phelan on Wednesday (April 22) quit his job suddenly, partly due to his differences with his superiors, including Secretary of War Pete Hegeseth, over a new warship programme he pushed for.
Phelan was in the position for just over a year and had helped plan for the new class of warships for US President Donald Trump, according to Western media reports.
The new class of battleships was tentatively named ‘Trump Class,’ and the project became a major source of friction between Phelan and Pete Hegeseth.
Phelan’s plan did not gel with Deputy Secretary of War Stephen Feinberg, too, because these battleships did not serve the Pentagon’s broader strategy to pivot towards smaller, cheaper unmanned boats, the report quoted unnamed sources as saying.
The ‘Trump Class’s ships would have cost the Pentagon billions of dollars to even begin designing and developing and were “not at all aligned with where Hegeseth and Feinberg want to go,” one of the unnamed sources said.
Before his exit, Phelan’s key responsibilities were curtailed, and Feinberg had taken over management of the US Navy’s submarine programme while the shipbuilding efforts were handed over to the Office of Management and Budget.
The White House did not immediately respond to the announcement of Phelan’s exit from office, and the Pentagon declined to comment, the reports said. Phelan, too, was unavailable for comment.
Phelan’s exit comes amidst the Iran war and following several sackings of General-ranked officers of the Pentagon in recent days. Hegeseth is also scheduled to testify before Congress on the Pentagon’s proposed $1.5-trillion budget, including on naval programmes, including Trump’s proposed ‘Golden Fleet’.
Phelan, a wealthy financier, was one of the businessmen tapped by Trump for top Pentagon posts, alongside Feinberg. He came aboard to handle the Navy, already plagued by shipbuilding problems, promising to do a shake-up. In his short time as Navy Secretary, he oversaw the cancellation of the troubled Constellation-class frigate and the announcement on the Trump-class ships.