Fort Wayne, IN – Today, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan addressed the 4th Annual Northeast Indiana Defense Summit hosted by Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.). Secretary Phelan underscored Indiana’s vital role in rebuilding America’s naval strength through modernization, workforce development, and manufacturing readiness.
Click the image above to view Secretary Phelan’s full Address or watch it here (1:13:00 – 1:58:25)
Key Remarks:
Secretary Phelan: “We are rebuilding the fleet because the threat environment demands it. We are living through one of the most dangerous strategic environments in modern history. Warfare is being reshaped in real-time by drones, AI, autonomy, machine learning, and rapid iteration. A time where warfighters, coders, and manufacturers adapt capabilities midfight – and in some cases midday – to change the enemy’s calculus. The ability to adapt and iterate is no longer a competitive edge. It’s a key determinate of victory.”
Secretary Phelan: “We face a world characterized by China’s unprecedented military buildup and the direct threat it poses to the United States and its allies.”
Secretary Phelan: “This is a world that demands a combat credible naval force. Ready to fight, ready to win, anytime, anywhere, against any adversary.”
Secretary Phelan: “For too long, our shipbuilding enterprise has been slowed by red tape, supply chain fragility and a shrinking workforce…that era is ending…[President Trump] armed us with the authorities, resources, and urgency to modernize the fleet.”
Secretary Phelan: “Shipbuilding and readiness remain the department and my top priorities. We are driving shipbuilding initiatives to increase tonnage, strengthen allied production lines, and attack the longstanding chokepoints that have dragged our enterprise behind the power curve. We’re strengthening our shipyards across the country, but also the thousands of suppliers in states like Indiana who make the parts, forge the steel, and design the systems that keep the fleet alive. Every weld, every bolt, every circuit board built here contributes to sailors and marines’ safety halfway around the world.”
Secretary Phelan: “The Navy’s modernization effort isn’t just about ships, it’s about ensuring that when conflict comes – and history tells us it always does – we are ready on Day 1…That’s where manufacturing powerhouses like Indiana come in. You’re the quiet giants of America’s defense industrial base. Your machine shops, foundries, and innovation hubs, produce the materials and components that make our submarines silent, our ships survivable, and our sailors and marines unstoppable. This state turns university pipelines and veteran talent into high-tech power systems and mission components at scale. Indiana isn’t just America’s crossroads, it’s one of our key engine rooms. Nowhere is that clearer than Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane.100 square miles, the third largest naval installation by area, and a critical strategic center for the Department of Navy, Crane drives expeditionary warfare, electronic warfare, hypersonics, and advanced sensing. It’s a crown jewel for microelectronics and trusted hardware, and a crucial pillar of the Navy’s leg of the nuclear triad.”
Secretary Phelan: “Rebuilding America’s Navy is not a Navy project, it’s a national imperative. Together, we will prove that the might of our fleet is built on the might of our people. That freedom of the seas depends on the freedom to build. And when America decides to lead, no rival on earth can match our ingenuity or will.”
###