DON Creates Council to Help Secure Commercial Partners, Vendors

The Department of the Navy has formed the Maritime Economic Deterrence Executive Council to help protect the Navy’s commercial partners and vendors from adversarial foreign investments. 

MEDEC’s overall mandate, which Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro announced at an Aspen Institute event in New York, also includes protecting the supply chain, technology and innovation, as well as coordinating research efforts. 

The new council is co-chaired by Vice Adm. Francis Morley, DON’s principal military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, and Chris Diaz, the secretary’s chief of staff, Navy said Thursday.

The council is part of Del Toro’s maritime statecraft approach to help the growth of industries vital to maintaining U.S. maritime dominance. 

According to Del Toro, a speaker at a past Potomac Officers Club event, MEDEC will enable better synchronization of the Navy’s support to the business and investment communities, while also bringing the service branch to the forefront of the larger Department of Defense deterrence effort on adversarial investments.  

The DOD released on Jan. 11 its first National Defense Industrial Strategy to complement its National Defense Strategy to mitigate risks to the industrial base.