US President Barack Obama plans to nominate Ashton Carter, the Pentagon's acquisition executive since 2009, to a top Department of Defense (DoD) post. The White House announced on 2 August that it would propose Carter to become the next Deputy Secretary of Defense to replace William Lynn, who resigned on 1 July but agreed to stay on until a new deputy was named. Congress must approve Carter's nomination. In two years as the acquisition chief, Carter has vocally supported efforts that began under former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates - and continue under Leon Panetta - to find practicable cost savings in the DoD budget through improve- ments to the acquisition process and by redirecting funds to support the requirements of deployed troops for new technology and equipment.
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