Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III, who played a key role in the U.S. military effort in Libya, has been tapped to be the next commander of the U.S. Pacific Command.
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced the nomination Wednesday. Locklear would be the 25th Navy admiral to lead the multi-service command since it was established by President Harry Truman in 1947.
Locklear was commander of Joint Task Force Odyssey Dawn, established to command U.S. forces supporting the international response to unrest in Libya.
He is currently commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe, U.S. Naval Forces Africa and Allied Joint Forces Command in Naples, Italy.
If approved by the U.S. Senate, Locklear would replace Adm. Robert F. Willard as head of the command at Camp Smith, the oldest and largest of the military’s six regional Unified Combatant Commands.
No date was released for a change of command.
The U.S. Pacific Command encompasses half the Earth’s surface, stretching from the ocean off the U.S. West Coast to the western border of India, from Antarctica to the North Pole, and including key nations such as Japan, North Korea, South Korea, China, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.
The command includes about 325,000 personnel, or about one-fifth of total U.S. military strength.
The next head of the Pacific Command will face a leadership succession in nuclear North Korea, an increasingly assertive China, the rise of India as a global power, cyberspace attacks, and piracy, smuggling and terrorism concerns — all in an era of reduced U.S. defense spending.
The Asia-Pacific region generates more than half of global output and nearly half of global trade. President Barack Obama said at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Honolulu that the "region is absolutely critical to America’s economic growth."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, said that with reductions in commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. is at a "pivot point" at which it will refocus on Asia and the Pacific.
Brad Glosserman, executive director of Honolulu’s Pacific Forum, the Asia-Pacific arm of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., said the head of the command is "one of the most senior American strategic figures" in the region.
"(Asia and the Pacific) is a region of increasing weight and significance in the strategic calculus," Glosserman said. "It’s a region of real uncertainty as well, given the dynamism, the changes, both the longer-term trends and the short-term phenomenon — and I say that as we watch the funeral of (North Korea leader) Kim Jong Il."
A 1977 U.S. Naval Academy graduate, Locklear was a surface warfare officer on two destroyers, a cruiser and aircraft carrier, and commanded the USS Nimitz strike group and the U.S. 3rd Fleet.
As Allied Joint Forces commander, Locklear has operational responsibility for NATO missions in the Balkans, Iraq and the Mediterranean.
Willard, a former F-14 Tomcat aviator, vice chief of naval operations and head of U.S. Pacific Fleet, took over as Pacific commander on Oct. 19, 2009. His next assignment has not been announced.
"I would like to thank Adm. Willard for his exemplary service and for his efforts to maintain peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region," U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye said.
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tried to buck the trend of Navy admirals heading the command with the selection of Air Force Gen. Gregory "Speedy" Martin for the job in 2004.
Martin subsequently asked that his name be withdrawn after being fiercely questioned by U.S. Sen. John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, about Martin’s role in a tainted Boeing Co. contract. It would have been the first time in 57 years that an officer other than a Navy admiral led the command.
Inouye had said previously that Pacific Command was a "water command" that should be led by an admiral.
