On Thursday, the US Senate confirmed President Barack Obama's pick to run the Pentagon. The 60-year-old Ashton Carter, a physicist by training, had served as deputy defense secretary, the Pentagon's No. 2 position, from 2011 to 2013.

At his confirmation hearing on February 4, Carter underscored his determination to boost the US defense budget, drive down the cost of new weapons and make sure troops received new technologies quicker. He also told lawmakers that he favored providing arms to Ukraine's military but later cautioned that the focus of the international community's efforts to handle the crisis must remain on pressuring Russia economically and politically.

Carter, Obama's fourth defense secretary in six years, will succeed Chuck Hagel, a Vietnam War veteran and former Republican senator who struggled with the administration's tight-knit group of national security advisers and resigned under pressure last year. As defense secretary, Carter will face the unenviable task of steering the nation's military as the US tries to defeat the "Islamic State," stop separatists in Ukraine and wind down the war in Afghanistan. He also will face a smaller Pentagon budget than previous defense secretaries had.

mkg/rc (Reuters, AP)