Sec. Richard Spencer Calls for Increased, Faster Innovation Across Navy

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer wants to improve how the service branch plans its spending, finds partnerships and speeds up the deployment of new technologies to boost the capabilities of its service members, USNI News reported Wednesday. Spencer said he’s looking for ways to increase the budget and accelerate the acquisition process to empower sailors and the civilian workforce. 

“We’re not going to have more money; we’ve got to be smarter with what we have,” the secretary said during an event at the Center for a New American Security. 

He called on Navy officials to work with innovators outside the Pentagon to help research and development projects. 

“And I will tell you that almost 90 percent of the problems, 95 percent of the problems, someone outside the building has either solved that problem or has an algorithm to solve the problem that you can apply yourself,” he said.

Spencer also noted the Navy as well as the Marine Corps should prioritize shorter timelines to increase innovation, determine and fix more problems across the service branches. 

“I’ve got to make sure that the whole system understands the urgency,” he said. “We have the dollars we, finally, need. We have the resources. Time is something that we can’t buy, and we have to have everyone focus on that.”