The White House on Tuesday nominated Air Force Gen. John Hyten as vice chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, opening up a vacancy at both the nation’s top nuclear command post and on the joint Pentagon-Department of Energy body that oversees nuclear weapons procurement.
Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command since November 2016, “was nominated this morning to be our next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Heather Wilson, outgoing secretary of the Air Force, said Tuesday at the annual Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo.
If confirmed by the Senate for his new job, Hyten will leave the military chain of command to serve a two-year term as the second-highest-ranking member of the Pentagon’s top advisory and policy group. He would replace Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, whose two-year term as vice chairman of the all-services body ends this year.
The White House had not nominated anyone to succeed Hyten at deadline Tuesday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
In his new job, Hyten would remain a member of the six-person Nuclear Weapons Council, which sets policy for nuclear weapons acquisition. Hyten’s replacement as head of Strategic Command — traditionally an Air Force general or Navy admiral — will change the makeup of the council by adding one new face.
Besides military-funded delivery and carrier vehicles such as missiles, aircraft, and submarines, the Nuclear Weapons Council considers procurement related to both the nuclear weapons funded by the civilian agency’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and of the civilian-owned infrastructure required to maintain those weapons.
Vivienne Machi contributed to this story from Colorado Spring for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing affiliate publication Defense Daily.
