Obama picks Carter for Pentagon

Long the rumored nominee, Ashton Carter, 60, would replace Chuck Hagel, the former Republican senator and Vietnam war veteran who resigned last month.

"Ashton Carter is one of our foremost national security leaders, "Obama said on Friday, making the nomination official.

Carter was previously the Pentagon's chief arms buyer and an assistant secretary of defense under former President Bill Clinton. He also served as undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics from 2009 to 2011.

Carter received a doctorate in theoretical physics from Oxford University and has taught at Harvard and Stanford, and Obama joked that "as a physicist, he knows how many of our defense systesms work. "

Hagel was widely believed to have been pushed out by the White House after nearly two years as head of the Pentagon. It was reported that he was sharply critical of the US strategy against the”Islamic State” and in relation to Syria's regime.

When he tendered his resignation as defense secretary in November, after just 21 months on the job, Hagel said in a brief statement that it had been the "great privilege of my life to lead and most importantly to serve the men and women of the Defense Department." Obama said that he was "extraordinarily lucky" to have had the "exemplary defense secretary" by his side.

ra/mkg (dpa, AFP)