Ashton Carter confirmed as new defense chief

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate confirmed Ashton Carter as the new Secretary of Defense on Thursday.

The vote was 93-5 in approval of Carter after he received unanimous support from the Armed Services Committee earlier this week to succeed Chuck Hagel.

"I think Dr. Carter will be a good secretary of Defense, who will always keep faith with our men and women in uniform and work tirelessly on their behalf and that of our national security," the chairman of the committee, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Thursday.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., also on the committee, said Carter "is the right leader at the right time."

Sen. Roy Hunt, R-Mo., was one of the five senators who voted against Carter's confirmation. He said he also decided to vote against President Obama's pick for attorney general, Loretta Lynch.

"Unfortunately, I believe both of these nominees will simply continue to uphold President Obama's flawed agenda at these important agencies," he said in a statement.

Obama praised Carter's confirmation, touting his "decades of experience" in a statement.

"As secretary of defense, Ash will play a central role in our work with Congress to find a more responsible approach to defense spending that makes the department more efficient, preserves military readiness, and keeps faith with our men and women in uniform and their families," Obama said. "We have the strongest military in history of the world, and with Secretary Carter at the Pentagon and our troops serving bravely around the world, we're going to keep it that way."

Carter has bachelor's degrees in physics and medieval history from Yale University and a doctorate in theoretical physics from Oxford University. He was a Rhodes Scholar.

He served as deputy defense secretary from October 2011 to December 2013. His policy ideas seem to be in line with Obama's focus on making partnerships with Asia and fighting cyber crime and the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

During last week's confirmation hearings, Carter told the Senate panel cuts to the Defense Department budget are "risky" because they imply diminished U.S. projection of power overseas.

"Sequester is risky to our defense, it introduces turbulence and uncertainty that are wasteful, and it conveys a misleadingly diminished picture of our power in the eyes of friends and foes alike," Carter said during the first day of his confirmation hearing.

Instead, Carter said he wants to see the U.S. spend more on defense, but noted the Pentagon has a history of wasteful spending that must be curbed.

"The taxpayer cannot comprehend, let alone support, the defense budget when they read of cost overruns, lack of accounting and accountability, needless overhead and the like," he said. "This must stop."

Tyler Pager and Aileen Graef contributed to this report.