Executive Mosaic is honored to name U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro to the 2023 Wash100 list for spearheading Navy infrastructure modernization initiatives, reforming acquisition processes and driving technology innovation across the service branch.
This marks Del Toro’s debut on the Wash100 list, which annually recognizes distinguished public and private sector leaders shaping the government contracting landscape and advancing critical government missions.
Vote for Carlos Del Toro as your favorite 2023 Wash100 Award winner! Visit Wash100.com to cast your votes. Voting ends April 28.
While the Wash100 Award is a forward-looking accolade that names individuals who are anticipated to have great impact in the GovCon sector in the coming year, it also takes into account each winner’s previous accomplishments and current influence.
Presently, Del Toro is putting into place a 30-year plan to modernize naval infrastructure and address some of the major structural asset-related threats facing the Department of the Navy. The strategy, which will give the Navy long-term, medium-term and short-term visibility into the service’s most urgent issues, focuses on the recapitalization and reconfiguration of shipyards.
“If we’re going to get better as a Navy, as a military, as a nation, we’ve got to get real about the infrastructure problems that we face,” Del Toro shared.
Del Toro achieved notable progress in 2022 in refreshing the Navy’s acquisition guidance. In April the Navy secretary updated the service branch’s acquisition policy, the SECNAV Instruction 5000.2G manual, for the first time in three years, providing the Navy with improved pathways for commercial technologies to be acquired and integrated into programs.
“This updated instruction empowers our Navy and Marine Corps acquisition professionals to aggressively develop promising technologies into capabilities our warfighters need to maintain maritime dominance,” said Del Toro.
In addition to acquisition reform efforts, Del Toro has targeted emerging and advanced technologies and has prioritized adopting and implementing them within the Navy. Unmanned systems and drones are technologies that Del Toro said could be beneficial to the service, especially in a threat environment rife with “rapid mobility, anti-access/aerial denial systems and cyberwarfare.”
“Drone technology over the last 20 years has been transformational on the battlefield and [it’s] exactly the kind of technology we need to embrace,” Del Toro urged.
The Navy leader is putting maturity and cost-effectiveness at the forefront as he drives the adoption of these technologies. In December 2022, Del Toro said the service will test technologies in development for some of its larger programs before pursuing large-scale production.
“So, my hope, in the Department of the Navy and the Marine Corps, is that before we move forward with producing the next DDG(X), SSN(X) and NGAD, is that we have designed maturity on these platforms,” said the 2023 Wash100 Award winner.
As the Navy is working on developing a new class of guided-missile destroyers, its next-generation nuclear attack submarine and future fighter and unmanned combat aircraft, Del Toro said the service will be paying close attention to cost performance and risk management.
Executive Mosaic congratulates Carlos Del Toro and the U.S. Navy for their selection to the esteemed Wash100 list.
