President Biden is expected to nominate Christine Wormuth, a former Obama administration official now at the RAND Corporation, to be secretary of the Army, the White House announced Monday.
If confirmed, she will be the first woman to lead the Army and the first person to fill one of the civilian service secretary positions in the Biden administration.
Ms. Wormuth is currently the director of RAND’s International Security and Defense Policy Center. Most recently, she worked on the Pentagon agency review team during the sometimes-rocky presidential transition.
She was undersecretary of defense for policy at the Pentagon from 2014 to 2016, advising Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and then his replacement, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter on a range of international security issues, including the campaign against Islamic State and the U.S. military’s reorientation to a focus on Asia.
As Army secretary, Ms. Wormuth will face a variety of challenges leading the service as it changes its focus from the Middle East to Europe and Asia to counter “great power” rivals China and Russia. The Army is already in the middle of a shift in priorities as it attempts to shed itself of outdated legacy weapon systems in favor of new priorities such as long-range precision fires, air and missile defense systems and next-generation combat vehicles and aircraft.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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