WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will announce Thursday that he’s tapping a history-making Air Force fighter pilot with years of expertise in shaping U.S. defenses to fulfill China’s rise to function the nation’s subsequent high army officer, in response to a senior U.S. official.
The nomination of Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. has been lengthy anticipated. If confirmed by the Senate, he would exchange the present chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Mark Milley, whose time period ends in October.
Brown’s affirmation would imply that, for the primary time, each the Pentagon’s high army and civilian positions could be held by African Americans. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the primary Black Pentagon chief, has been within the job for the reason that starting of the administration. The solely different Black individual to function Joint Chiefs chairman was Army Gen. Colin Powell.
Brown is a profession F-16 fighter pilot with greater than 3,000 flight hours and command expertise in any respect ranges. He has damaged limitations all through his profession. He served because the army’s first Black Pacific Air Forces commander, the place he led the nation’s air technique to counter China within the Indo-Pacific as Beijing quickly militarized islands within the South China Sea and examined its bomber attain with flights close to Guam.
Three years in the past he turned the primary Black Air Force chief of workers, the service’s high army officer, which additionally made him the primary African American to guide any of the army branches.
For the final yr Brown has been broadly considered because the frontrunner to interchange Milley, because the Pentagon shifts from getting ready for the main land wars of the previous to deterring a possible future battle with Beijing.
• Associated Press author Aamer Madhani contributed reporting.
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