The U.S. Navy is creating a council meant to counter “adversarial economic activities,” such as intellectual property theft and exploitation of the supply chain, that harm the Navy and Marine Corps, according to the Navy secretary, Carlos Del Toro. The new council is co-chaired by Vice Adm. Francis Morley, the top uniformed advisor to the Navy’s acquisition community, and Chris Diaz, the secretary’s chief of staff, Del Toro said at an Aspen Strategy Group event in New York.
Del Toro said this group, using authorities already granted to the department, will focus on mitigating adversarial foreign investment risks, innovation and technology protection, supply chain integrity initiatives, and the coordination and protection of research efforts across both the government as well as the private sector.
He cited the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act as an early step to ensure American independence in critical technology and manufacturing sectors. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy this month released a 2024 list of critical and emerging technologies with national security importance, including artificial intelligence, hypersonics and quantum information.
Megan Eckstein is the naval warfare reporter at Defense News. She has covered military news since 2009, with a focus on U.S. Navy and Marine Corps operations, acquisition programs and budgets. She has reported from four geographic fleets and is happiest when she’s filing stories from a ship. Megan is a University of Maryland alumna.
