President Obama said this week that he will nominate Ashton B. Carter, the Pentagon’s head of weapons acquisitions, to be deputy secretary of defense. Carter’s experience as the Pentagon’s in-house expert on weapons purchases and management practices made him a front-runner for this key job. If confirmed, which is considered likely, Carter will face the daunting task of streamlining defense budgets in the next 10 years, apportioning cuts that are estimated to go as high as $1 trillion. As deputy to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Carter will act as a liaison between the White House and Congress while overseeing the vast Pentagon bureaucracy.
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