Obama readies nominations for top Navy posts

President Barack Obama is expected to nominate Ambassador Ray Mabus to be the next Secretary of the Navy and Robert Work to serve as the undersecretary of the Navy, reports DOD Buzz.

Mabus, who is a former democratic governor of Mississippi and was the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1994-1996, has passed vetting from Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ office and the administration has informed leaders on Capitol Hill of the nomination.

Work, a former Marine officer, is a well-known and respected strategy and naval analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment (CSBA).

In a February CSBA report, “The U.S. Navy: Charting a Course for Tomorrow's Fleet,” Work criticized the Navy's shipbuilding and modernization plan as unrealistic from budget and threat perspectives.