Carter leaving No 2 post at DOD

Ashton Carter will step down in December as deputy defense secretary, DOD announced.

In a statement released Oct. 10, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said he was reluctantly accepting Carter’s resignation after his four and a half year stint at the Pentagon.

Carter is scheduled to step down on Dec. 4, Hagel said.

Prior to taking the No. 2 post at DOD, Carter served as undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics from April 2009 to October 2011. During the Clinton administration, he served as assistant secretary of defense for international security policy.

Carter previously chaired Harvard University’s international and global affairs faculty and also taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He served on the advisory boards of MIT Lincoln Laboratories and Draper Laboratory.

He holds a doctorate in theoretical physics from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

Carter recently led a DOD management review for dealing with budget sequestration cuts. He also led a DOD review of base security and personnel security clearance procedures in the aftermath of the Washington Navy Yard shooting on Sept. 16, 2013.

There was no immediate word on Carter’s future plans.