Obama to tap new Defense secretary Friday

Posted 2014-12-05 13:54 by Grunt Report

WASHINGTON — President Obama will formally nominate Ashton Carter as new Defense secretary Friday, replacing the outgoing Chuck Hagel, officials said.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest declined to identify Obama’s pick — “the president will announce for himself who the nominee is” — but other administration officials said the president has decided on Carter.

Carter’s name leaked out earlier this week. Hagel announced his plans to resign on Nov. 24.

Carter, who must be confirmed by the Senate, served as deputy secretary of Defense from October 2011 until his retirement in December 2013. His specialties include science, technology and developing the Defense budget in tight economic times.

From 2009 to 2011, Carter — a Yale graduate with a degree in physics — served as undersecretary for acquisition, specializing in procuring equipment to meet emerging threats.

Before he left the Pentagon, Carter was the military’s top weapons’ buyer and pushed hard for gear that troops needed to stay alive on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan: Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles to protect them from roadside bombs, surveillance equipment to spy on insurgents and bomb-sniffing dogs to find the buried mines that killed and maimed troops on foot patrols.

Regarded as smart, capable, and wonkish, Carter also led the Pentagon review of its budget with a look toward cuts.

In fiscal year 2001, adopted before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Pentagon’s budget was $297 billion. Ten years later, it had ballooned to $687 billion, including funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At the Pentagon on Thursday, Hagel described his resignation as “a mutual decision” based on private talks he had with Obama. The outgoing secretary said the Pentagon faces new challenges, and that he considers the president a friend.

“Friends can talk plainly to each other,” Hagel said. “I think you have to know when to leave, too.'”

At the White House, Earnest said the next Defense secretary’s challenges will range from the battle against the Islamic State to the fight against Ebola to efforts to reduce sexual assaults among military personnel.

Asked about reports that some Pentagon officials feel micro-managed by the White House, Earnest said the military has bigger problems with Congress because it refuses to pass needed budget reforms.

Tensions between the White House and Pentagon are common to all presidencies, Earnest said, but the bottom line is civilian control of the military.

The next Defense secretary “will be very clear about what the chain of command is,” Earnest said, and understand that “the president of the United States is the commander in chief and sits at the top of the chain of command. That means the president bears significant responsibility for what happens at the Pentagon and the Department of Defense.”

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Source: Army Times