U.S. Navy Aegis Technician Convicted of Attempted Espionage

A senior enlisted Navy servicemember has been convicted of attempted espionage for delivering classified information to a foreign government, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service said Friday. 

In January, Chief Fire Controlman (Aegis) Bryce Steven Pedicini was charged with multiple counts of attempted espionage for mishandling or disclosing classified information. 

Pedicini was a former destroyer crewmember who worked on the Aegis system, the Navy's integrated radar and weapons control platform. The most capable Aegis variants can target ballistic missiles in mid-flight. In his LinkedIn biography, Pedicini described himself as a ballistic missile computer technician. 

In 2022, while assigned to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center (MARMAC) in Norfolk, Pedicini allegedly passed classified documents to an "employee and national of a foreign government" seven times. The contents could "be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of a foreign nation," prosecutors said.

In 2023, while stationed in Yokosuka, Pedicini allegedly entered a secure information room aboard a Navy barge with a personal electronic device. He then allegedly tried to transfer photographs of a high-security computer screen to a foreign government employee. He was arrested shortly after and court-martialed in January.  

On Friday, after a seven-day trial, Pedicini was found guilty of attempted espionage, failure to obey a lawful order and attempted violation of a lawful general order. Sentencing is scheduled for early next month.    

“This guilty verdict holds Mr. Pedicini to account for his betrayal of his country and fellow service members,” said NCIS Director Omar Lopez. “Adversaries of the United States are unrelenting in their attempts to degrade our military superiority."