By Emelie Rutherford
The Navy will have a new acquisition chief soon, because the Senate on Wednesday approved the nomination of congressional staffer Sean Stackley to the post.
Stackley will assume his new duties as assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development, and acquisition “within the next few days,” after he is sworn in by service Secretary Donald Winter, Navy spokesman Lt. Clay Doss said late yesterday.
The Senate confirmed Stackley’s nomination Wednesday. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), a Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) member, sought and received unanimous consent to proceed to executive session to approve Stackley’s and three other Defense Department civilian nominations en bloc, according to the Congressional Record.
The four nominees’ confirmations were blessed by the SASC following a June 26 hearing. Yet their final Senate vote was stalled for a few weeks because Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) placed a hold on them, as he waited for information from Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Blackwater Worldwide, the controversial security consulting firm (Defense Daily, July 21).
Webb lifted the hold Monday, according to a copy of a letter from the senator to Gates provided by Webb’s office.
Stackley, a retired Navy officer, has been Republican staff lead for the SASC Seapower subcommittee for more than two years. Committee spokespeople yesterday were not able to provide the date of Stackley’s final day on the job.
In the Navy, Stackley served as the LPD-17 program manager from 2001 to 2005, with responsibility for all aspects of procurement for the major ship program. He served earlier in his career as production officer for the USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) and project naval architect overseeing design standards for the Canadian Patrol Frigate, HMCS Halifax (FFH 330), according to a SASC biography.
John Thackrah has been the acting Navy acquisition chief since Delores Etter left last November. President Bush nominated Stackley in May.
Stackley comes to the job at a turbulent time. A new Navy plan–unveiled this week by sources–to halt production of the DDG-1000 destroyers and build more of the older DDG-51 ships has spurred mix reactions on Capitol Hill (Defense Daily, July 24).
The House Armed Services Seapower subcommittee plans to hold a hearing next Thursday on the Navy’s changing destroyer plans. The list of people testifying had not been changed, as of yesterday, to add Stackley to the list.
The SASC Seapower subcommittee on which Stackley has worked in April supported maintaining the Navy’s official DDG-1000 plans, as spelled out in the White House’s FY ’09 budget request.
The HASC panel and full House have called for pausing DDG-1000 procurement and either buying more DDG-51s or further developing the DDG-1000.