US Navy Removes Officer in Charge of Building Frigates and Unmanned Ships

 

The U.S. Navy has removed the admiral who was in charge of its new frigate program and its unmanned-vessel programs, the service announced Tuesday. 

In a statement, the Navy said that Rear Adm. Kevin Smith - program executive officer for unmanned and small combatants (PEO USC) - was relieved of command on Tuesday. The message was unusually specific: the Navy said that the action was "based on a complaint substantiated by an Office of the Naval Inspector General investigation." It is very rare for the service to acknowledge an investigation when it announces the removal of a senior officer.

PEO USC designs, buys and maintains the Navy's small surface combatants. This includes the troubled and truncated Littoral Combat Ship program; the much-delayed Constellation-class frigate program; and the service's endeavor to design, build and use unmanned vessel technology, like the proposed Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV). 

The decision to remove Adm. Smith was made by Dr. Brett Seidle, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, an experienced career official with years of service in running and auditing Navy R&D programs. 

For now, Rear Adm. Smith's former command will be headed by its most senior civilian leader - Melissa Kirkendall, the executive director of the division. Kirkendall, an electrical engineer by training, has 30 years of experience in the Navy's R&D establishment. No uniformed officer has been named to step into Rear Adm. Smith's post. 

Rear Adm. Kevin Smith spent much of his career in NAVSEA's Integrated Warfare Systems program office, working on the AEGIS system and then on the truncated DDG 1000 (Zumwalt) destroyer program. He ran the Constellation-class frigate acquisition program from its early phases through 2023, when he took over as head of PEO USC.