Senate confirms Hung Cao as Navy undersecretary

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Senate confirms Hung Cao as Navy undersecretary

Cmdr. Hung Cao, commanding officer of the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center, explains the importance of compression chambers to Rep. Gwen Graham, D-Fla., in November 2015. (Fred Gray IV/U.S. Navy)

By Svetlana Shkolnikova
Stars and Stripes • October 1, 2025

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Hung Cao, a special operations veteran and former Republican congressional candidate, to serve as undersecretary of the Navy.

Cao was confirmed as the service’s second-ranking civilian leader in a 52-45 vote, reflecting the reservations many Democrats had about his nomination. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska also voted against Cao’s confirmation.


As a Senate candidate in Virginia last year, Cao extensively criticized the Defense Department’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and attacked a now-defunct Navy recruiting program that featured a drag-performing petty officer.

“When you’re using a drag queen to recruit for the Navy, that’s not the people we want,” Cao said in an election debate with Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. “What we need is alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat them and ask for seconds. Those are young men and women that are going to win wars.”

He has also criticized the Pentagon’s former coronavirus vaccination mandate and advocated for strengthening the U.S.-Mexico border, saying a migrant flow of “13,000 convicted murders and 16,000 convicted rapists” was a threat to democracy.


Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, expressed concerns in June about Cao’s record of controversial statements, including Cao “disparaging certain Navy personnel, sharply criticizing U.S. allies and advocating for the release of convicted Jan. 6 individuals.”

Republicans said Cao was highly qualified to serve as Navy undersecretary, citing his distinguished service as a special operations officer for explosive ordnance and disposal and diving along with his work in the private sector.

“Capt. Cao has a drive for public service that comes from his experience of living the American dream,” said Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.


Cao immigrated to the U.S. as a Vietnamese refugee in 1975 and spent part of his childhood in West Africa. He told senators during his confirmation hearing in June that his interactions with Marines during the Iranian Revolution in 1979 inspired him to join the military.

“The Marines brought us into the embassy and stood watch over us in case they had to do a new evacuation and the look in their eyes that night that said, ‘Nothing’s going to hurt you, not tonight, not on my watch’ — I wanted to be like those heroes,” he said.

Cao graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and served in the Navy for 25 years, deploying with special operations forces to defuse bombs in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia and working on the Navy budget process during assignments to the Pentagon.


He retired at the rank of captain before turning to politics.

In 2022, Cao ran unsuccessfully for Virginia’s 10th Congressional District and in 2024 lost the Senate election to Kaine, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Seapower subcommittee.


As Navy undersecretary, Cao is expected to play a key role in the daily management of the Navy and Marine Corps and help the Navy address its persistent problems with building and repairing an aging ship fleet.

He told senators he will focus on reversing years of neglect and mismanagement in the production and maintenance of vessels and munitions as well as restoring “the warrior spirit that my generation relied on as the core of our ethos.”

“I will deliver to the combatant commanders the most lethal Navy and Marine Corps the world has ever seen,” he said.



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From Stars and Stripes
Link: https://www.stripes.com/branches/nav...-19289861.html







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