The US Navy just told us what’s on its tech wish list for the next several years

Navy CTO Justin Fanelli talks co-investing alongside VCs instead of funding early research himself, recent buys like a $562 million autonomous refueling deal, and the Navy's updated wish list — from AI to quantum — for where founders should be building next. Justin Fanelli, the Department of Navy’s chief technology officer, has spent the last three and a half years trying to make the U.S. Navy easier to do business with. When we first talked to him last year, he described a shift away from what he called “your granddaddy’s government” — a “spaghetti chart” of entry points for startups — into something closer to a funnel, where companies that show strong results get pulled into the Navy’s technology base as enterprise services.

This week, we caught up with him again on a video call, and this time, he wasn’t just looking again to further streamline the procurement process, he was sprinting, literally, to catch a flight he’d just been ordered onto with no destination shared. “You have an hour and 15 minutes to get on a plane,” Fanelli said, recounting what he’d just been told, speaking into his phone as he walked, the sun shining behind him. “I’m like, ‘Where?’ Oh my God! And they were like, ‘We’ll figure [the logistics], we’ll tell you as you get there.’ And