Vice Adm. Karl Thomas was nominated in October 2025 to lead the United States Fleet Forces Command, the Navy’s intelligence, information and war planning hub. Thomas, who also was recommended for promotion to four-star admiral, brings a deep knowledge of 21st-century technological advances in warfare and the importance of assessing information and acting on it quickly from a naval career that includes leading Naval Intelligence and commanding the 7th Fleet during a time of increasing tension with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The military affairs publication, Defense Scoop, reported Thomas’ nomination. His role in leading the U.S. Fleet Forces Command will proceed to Senate confirmation. Fleet Forces Command coordinates the training and deployment of combat-ready forces and the commanding and controlling of forces in support of the chief of naval operations. Thomas also will play a critical role in providing operational planning and coordination support for the U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Strategic Command. Thomas also will plan and execute joint missions with USNORTHCOM, according to the Navy.
Thomas, 61, entered the Navy through the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York where he received his undergraduate degree in management systems in 1986. He later earned a master’s degree in information technology at the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterrey, California.
Thomas began his naval career flying the E-2C Hawkeye, an airborne early warning aircraft that carried sophisticated radar and intelligence-gathering technology. He led a carrier-based command and control squadron during the Gulf War and later commanded the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in Operation Inherent Resolve in the fight against the Islamic State. While commanding Carrier Strike Group 5 on the USS Ronald Reagan, Thomas led the U.S. freedom of navigation efforts in the South China Sea as the CCP began to intimidate its neighbors in the region.
After a stint as assistant deputy chief of naval operations, plans, and strategy, Thomas took command of the U.S. 7th Fleet in 2021. Before his promotion, Thomas served as deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare and as director of naval intelligence, according to his official biography.
His current post in naval intelligence and information warfare has emphasized “decision advantage,” by having better information than U.S. adversaries. “To ensure that we maintain our warfighting advantage, our commanders have to have information and decision advantage. Our maritime operations centers is where we fuse that information. It’s where we make warfighting decisions, it’s where we outthink, it’s where we outmaneuver the adversary and where we generate orders to the fleet,” Thomas said earlier in 2025 at a naval conference, according to Defense Scoop. “In all cases, the complexity and the speed of the fight will rely on us synthesizing vast amounts of information. The amount of information that is flowing now compared to what it was in the past is a tremendous order of magnitude difference.”