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John Phelan: “About 30% of our civilian bureaucracy is ex Navy.”

Featuring: John Phelan, Secretary of the Navy | National

Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan

Published July 15, 2026 | Video Starts at 12:03

Businessmen always say why are we doing that? And then what? Why, why, why, why? That's very anathema to a military person. And About 30% of our civilian bureaucracy is ex Navy. So we don't have a lot of business. We don't have a lot of people asking why. (12:03–12:07)

CLAIM

Asserts that approximately 30% of the civilian bureaucracy consists of former Navy personnel.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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John Phelan

“China today builds over 1700 ships a year. We build about five. They're all military ships.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 07:44-07:53
“At the start of the century, we had twice as many warships as China. China passed us in 2021.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 07:52-07:59
“We have one company that builds aircraft carriers. We have two companies that build submarines. We've one that builds destroyers.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 15:10-15:19
“We have hollowed out manufacturing in America. We make very few things in this country.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 04:57-05:04
“We were the dominant shipbuilding country for a long time.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 05:20-05:24
“We won [World War II] because we overwhelmed them with numbers.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 05:26-05:33
“Germany and Japan had much better technology, better tanks, better missiles, better submarines, better planes [during World War II].”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 05:35-05:42
“When Covid hit, a number of workers left [the shipbuilding industry].”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 05:46-05:53
“You now make more money working at a Buc EE's than you would welding all day.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 05:56-06:01
“Korea has adopted more modern technology and robotics in particular [in shipbuilding].”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 06:09-06:14
“Every ship [China builds] is dual use. It can be converted to military very quickly or not, and stay commercial.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 08:57-09:05
“We started to pay fair wages at the shipyards. We were way too under waged.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 09:59-10:04
“We should also pass the Ships for America act, which would also be very powerful for as a signal to the maritime industrial base.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 10:21-10:29
“I canceled [the Constellation program], which was a frigate that was based on an Italian design.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 11:00-11:06
“We need some more new shipyards. We need more labor. We need to train people better.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 13:37-13:42
“In terms of number of ships, we need a lot more.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 13:37-13:39
“We don't have digital twins on a lot of our designs.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 14:00-14:04
“When we consolidated the defense industry into five, there's no incentive to innovate or mess that up.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 15:21-15:27
“We very early on stood up a thing called the Rapid Autonomous Group, ras or Rapid Autonomous Systems.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 16:21-16:31
“I took one of our promising admirals, promoted her and put her in charge of [the Rapid Autonomous Group].”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 16:30-16:39
“I had rewritten a number of our precepts in order to try to get those promotions.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 19:40-19:45
“The military, thank God, is one of the most Mericratic organizations I've seen.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 20:54-21:01
“If we're at war and Admiral Paparo tells you he needs [the new frigate] tomorrow, we could get it down to probably two years in design and…”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 22:10-22:21
“We have bureaucracy after bureaucracy on top of this stuff, and it's turf defending as opposed to getting out there.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 22:55-23:02
“We need to prevent a war, and by preventing a war, we need to get shipbuilding back up.”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 23:24-23:28
“We need to be able to sustain [shipbuilding].”
Fireside Chat with John C. Phelan | Uploaded July 15, 2026 | 23:28-23:31