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Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on April 12, 2021 at 5:35 PM
Obama Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel (left) swears in Christine Wormuth for her previous high-profile Pentagon job in 2014.
UPDATED with Hill, AUSA endorsements WASHINGTON: The Biden Administration has tapped a veteran bureaucratic infighter to be the first female Secretary of the Army. Christine Wormuth not only headed Biden’s own defense transition team, taking over from DepSecDef nominee Kathleen Hicks. She’s been in and out of the Pentagon since 1996, with stints at the National Security Council and as director of International Security & Defense Policy at RAND, the influential thinktank. That gives her extensive first-hand experience in how the policy sausage gets made – and deep personal knowledge of the players at the Biden Pentagon.
Rep. Anthony Brown, a 30-year Army veteran and member of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that “Wormuth has the experience and knowledge necessary to lead the United States Army through the complex and multifaceted challenges we face today.
By
Paul McLeary on April 12, 2021 at 7:59 PM
By
Paul McLeary on March 08, 2021 at 3:33 PM
Multinational navy ships and a submarine steam in formation during a group sail off the coast of Hawaii during RIMPAC 2020
WASHINGTON: Over the weekend, the White House announced the promotion of two Navy admirals to lead military operations in the Pacific, a swap of commanders that comes as the Biden administration looks for ways to put its own imprint on the intensifying competition with China in the Pacific region.
The nominations of Adm. John Aquilino to lead the Indo-Pacific command, and Vice Adm. Samuel Paparo to run Pacific Fleet, had been expected for some time. But the two will assume command as the Pentagon looks to reframe and remake its mix of forces and deterrent initiatives, while potentially pumping billions into new weapons systems and training ranges spread across the region.
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Thomas Spoehr on March 05, 2021 at 10:20 AM
President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris announcing the China Task Force at the Pentagon
President Joe Biden has released his interim National Security Strategic Guidance to “convey my vision for how America will engage with the world.” Unfortunately, much of the document’s 24 pages are dedicated to topics such as voting rights, clean energy, climate change, and racial justice that are only tangentially related to national security. Still, it covers enough defense and foreign policy issues to give a good idea of where the new administration intends to head.
Lt. Gen. (ret.) Thomas Spoehr