SECNAV Del Toro As-Written Remarks at the San Francisco Fleet Week Office of Small Business Programs Event

Introduction/Thank You

Good afternoon, everyone!

It is great to be here with you all here in San Francisco.

Ms. Washington, thank you for your kind introduction, and for your work removing barriers to entry for our small business partners—and for your tireless efforts growing their number.

Mr. Horton, Mr. Manalisay, thank you for helping coordinate this wonderful event and all the work you do on behalf of our small business partners.

Most importantly, I would like to thank you all—the members of our nation’s small businesses—for being here and engaging with us. 

From my vantage point as Secretary of the Navy, a healthy, diverse industrial base made up of companies of all sizes—founded by American entrepreneurs from all walks of life—is absolutely crucial to the success of our Navy and our Marine Corps.

I look forward to meeting with several of you today—to hear your business stories and to learn more about your products and services. 

I encourage all of you to engage with our DON Office of Small Business Programs team to identify ways we can work together.

We in the Department of the Navy are laser-focused on building and maintaining relationships with the small businesses that comprise our defense ecosystem.

DON Small Business Goals FY24/FY25

We are committed to investing in your businesses, procuring the goods and services our Department needs to be successful in our assigned missions.

In Fiscal Year 2024, we spent nearly $21 billion on contracts with small businesses. Breaking that number down further, we spent:

$7.9 billion on contracts with Small Disadvantaged Businesses,

$3 billion on contracts with Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses,

$3 billion on contracts with Women Owned Small Businesses,

and $2 billion on HUBZone prime contracts with small businesses.

The overall, Small Disadvantaged Business, Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business and HUBZone amounts are all records for the Department of the Navy.

We didn’t just break records—we exceeded our goals for the percentage of contract dollars awarded to small businesses across all four of the subcategories.

Those are the facts—and we aim to set new records and exceed our goals again in Fiscal Year 2025.

And these contracts didn’t just go to companies that already have existing contracts or relationships with the Navy either.

In Fiscal Year 2024, we had 1,538 new small businesses join our ecosystem nationwide—and they were awarded contracts worth a total of $1.22 billion.

Here in the Bay Area, the Office of Naval Research is working with companies like Atomic—headquartered in Pleasanton—for the design, development, and building of atomic clocks to reduce the size, weight, and power of the clocks while ensuring it still operates at peak performance at sea.

That contract alone is worth $2.89 million.

Or, as another example, Naval Information Warfare Systems Command is working with Arize AI—headquartered in Berkeley—for AI machine learning to develop algorithms for underwater threat detection.

That contract is worth $451 thousand.

While the Fiscal Year 2024 numbers aren’t finalized yet for this area, I can tell you that in Fiscal Year 2023, we partnered with Small Businesses here on contracts worth a total of $526 million.

I don’t know how many of you remember the total nationwide number I mentioned earlier—but contracts awarded to Bay Area small businesses make up a full two percent of Department of the Navy small business contracts.

Closing

There are very few areas of our country as critical to the success of our Navy and Marine Corps—and the health and wellbeing of our Sailors and Marines—than this area.

There are no shortages of engagements on the horizon between our Department and this community.

I look forward to working with our small businesses to provide our Navy and Marine Corps team with the support, systems, and platforms we need to confront the global challenges we face today.

I’m excited to meet with all of you today and learning about what the Department of the Navy can do to remove the barriers to entry for your businesses—and what you can do to help the Department!

Thank you again, and may God bless our Sailors, Marines, civilians, and their families.