U.S. Senate confirms Ashton Carter as new Pentagon chief

The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed Ashton Carter as new defense secretary, approving his nomination to replace Chuck Hagel by a vote of 935.

Carter becomes the fourth Pentagon chief to serve under President Barack Obama after Hagel, Leon Panetta and Robert Gates.

The new defense secretary does not have the prominent political profile of his predecessors nor Hagel’s military background, although he has decades of experiences as a longtime Pentagon official and national security scholar.

The 60yearold physicist was the Defense Department’s secondranking civilian from 2011 to 2013 and the agency’s undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics between 2009 and 2011.

Carter will face a range of pressing issues, including the war against Islamic State militants, the civil war in Ukraine, and an unstable Middle East.

His experience as a technocrat also could prove useful in coping with automatic budget cuts to the Defense Department stemming from budget battles between Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

The ease with which Carter was confirmed bodes well for the Obama administration, which is seeking congressional authorization for military action against the Islamic State.