From January 1, 2019, Patrick Shanahan, the incumbent US Under Secretary of Defense, will temporarily perform the duties of the head of the Pentagon. This was stated by American President Donald Trump.
“I am pleased to announce that starting from January 1, 2019, our very talented Deputy Minister of Defense Patrick Shanahan will take on the tasks of the Acting Minister of Defense. Patrick has a very long list of achievements both during his work as a deputy and at Boeing, ”he wrote on his Twitter.
I am pleased that I’m not happy if I’m not happy. ” He will be great!
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2018Now the post of head of the Pentagon is James Mattis. Earlier, he announced his resignation. Mattis noted that he was leaving his post so that Trump could pick a person for his position with positions similar to those of the presidency.
"Since you have the right to the Minister of Defense, whose views are more similar to yours on these and other issues, I think I have the right to resign from my post," wrote Mattis in his letter to the President.
Trump then stated that the head of the Pentagon will resign at the end of February. The President also noted that in two years Mattis had achieved a lot of progress “especially in terms of the purchase of new weapons”.
- Reuters
- © Leah Millis
In the American media, they say that Mattis’s departure two months before the announced date is associated with a letter from the head of the Pentagon, in which he criticized Trump’s position.
“After Mattis handed Trump a letter of resignation saying that he would leave on February 28, people in Washington were shocked at how determined the Secretary of Defense denounced the president’s position on issues such as foreign alliances and relations with opponents,” - writes The Hill.
"He is a businessman"
Patrick Shanahan was born in 1954 and has worked at Boeing since 1986. He rose to leadership positions in the corporation and, in particular, oversaw the development program for the Boeing 787 during problematic periods of project development, for which he gained a reputation as an effective crisis manager.
In early 2016, he became Boeing's senior vice president of supply chains and served on the executive board of the corporation. In March 2017, Trump offered Shanahan to become deputy defense minister. This is the second oldest position in the US military that a civilian can hold.
In his December 9 article for Defense News, Shanakhan identified three main areas on which the Pentagon will concentrate: missiles, space and cyberspace. Among more specific areas, he listed medium-range cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.
“In space, we will move forward with the legislative proposal to create Space Forces as the sixth part of the US armed forces and create a military space command. At the same time, we will create a space development agency, a joint development unit that will bring together various space systems and technologies, ”he wrote.
From the cybersecurity point of view, Shanahan focused on artificial intelligence, the development and application of which will become one of the main tasks of the Pentagon in 2019.
In the face of an increase in the US military budget, Shanakhan was responsible for the growth in the number of troops. At the same time, the deputy minister has a trusting relationship with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, reports Defense News, citing sources.
“He is not a politician or geopolitician. "He is a businessman," said the agency interlocutor. - But he spent the last year learning from the best. Besides, Shanahan is known for his good relations with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. ”
If Shanakhan intends to gain a foothold in the position of head of the Pentagon, he will have to agree on everything with the owner of the White House, noted American political scientist Mikhail Sinelnikov-Orishak.
“If a person wants to become a full-fledged chief of the Pentagon without the“ acting ”prefix, then now is not the time to clash with the president. Because they can still look at this quite sideways in the Senate, where certain procedures will have to go, ”he told RT.
The arrival of Shanakhan to such a post may be temporary, said Vladimir Bruter, an expert at the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies, in a conversation with RT.
“The departure of such key figures of the team as Brett McGurk (US Special Representative on the fight against the IG *. - RT ) creates no less problems than the departure of Mattis. Therefore, the arrival of Shanakhan will most likely be short-term and conditional, ”the expert emphasized.
Recall McGurk resigned on Sunday, December 23. He explained his departure by Trump’s decision, taken shortly before, to withdraw American troops from Syria.
“The recent decision of the president was a shock and a fundamental change in the political course. Because of him, our coalition partners and military allies were confused, ”the Associated Press cited part of McGurk’s appeal to his subordinates.
Bruter believes that the further fate of Shanakhan as the acting minister of defense depends on the development of the situation in Syria.
* “Islamic State” (IG, ISIL) - the organization is recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated December 29, 2014.