President Trump has chosen Adm. Daryl Caudle as the next chief of naval operations, nearly four months after firing Adm. Lisa Franchetti with no explanation.
Caudle, the head of U.S. Fleet Forces in Norfolk, Va., would replace Adm. James Kilby, the vice chief of naval operations who stepped in to serve as the acting chief of naval operations in February.
The Senate Armed Services Committee received the nomination Tuesday.
Caudle, a career submariner from North Carolina, has been head of U.S. Fleet Forces Command since December 2021 and also has held leadership positions with Submarine Forces, Submarine Force Atlantic, and Allied Submarine Command.
His nomination comes after he voiced support in March for the Trump administration using a Navy warship to secure the U.S. southern border. Caudle said the deployment “marks a vital enhancement to our nation’s border security framework.”
Separately, Trump nominated Gen. Christopher Mahoney, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, to serve as the vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as announced in a separate congressional notification.
Mahoney, a career aviator, has been the Marines’s second in command since November 2023.
Mahoney also performed the duties of acting commandant of the Marine Corps from November 2023 to March 2024 after Gen. Eric Smith suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized.
Trump in February removed Franchetti, the first woman to lead the Navy, along with five other top officials: Joints Chiefs of Staff Chair Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Vice Chief of the Air Force Gen. James Slife, and the top judge advocate generals for the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.
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