Admiral Sam Paparo
Commander, U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet
Samuel John Paparo, Jr. was born in 1964 in Morton, Pennsylvania. He earned an undergraduate degree and was part of the ROTC program at Villanova University. He earned an M.A. from Old Dominion University, an M.S. from the Naval Postgraduate School, and has graduated from other educational opportunities afforded him by the U.S. military.
Throughout his Navy career, Paparo has held numerous commands, including for Carrier Air Wing Seven, Carrier Strike Group 10, the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, the U.S. Fifth Fleet, and he presently commands the U.S. Pacific Fleet. He has deployed to the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War.
In the News…
Admiral Scott Paparo, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet recently said that China has equipped six Jin-class submarines with JL-3 intercontinental ballistic missiles “to threaten the United States.”
The U.S. had not previously acknowledged that China has such weapons on its nuclear-powered submarines. The estimated range of the JL-3 is more than 10,000 kilometers, close to three thousand kilometers greater than China’s prior model. A report in the spring of 2022 stated the JL-3 missiles would allow China to hit the American homeland “from a protected position within the South China Sea.”
As part of the Pentagon’s hypersonic research, two rocket test launches were conducted last month. Funding has also been expanded for hypersonic weapons. Navy officials expect Zumwalt-class Destroyers to be armed with hypersonic weapons by 2025.
