USA: President nominates Lisa Franchetti as new CNO

Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Mike Gilday, US Navy. Photo: schreenshot news

US President Joe Biden has nominated Admiral Lisa Franchetti to succeed Admiral Michael Gilday as Chief of Naval Operations (CNO - Chief of Staff U.S. Navy), who has been in office since August 2019. If the decision is confirmed, she would be the first woman to head a branch of the US military and also the first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She is currently Gilday's deputy, who will soon be retiring.

Competition

Biden's nomination of Franchetti comes as a surprise. In doing so, he overrode a recommendation from his defence minister Lloyd Austin, who, according to information from the Pentagon in June, had spoken out in favour of Admiral Samuel Paparo as the highest-ranking naval officer. He currently commands the US Pacific Fleet and is experienced in dealing with the growing challenges posed by China's current behaviour. According to Biden's plan, Paparo will soon become commander of the Indo-Pacific Military Area (US Indo-Pacific Command/USINDOPACOM, Honolulu/Hawaii), one of the eleven Unified Combatant Commands of the US armed forces.

Selection

For Biden, Franchetti's experience both at sea and in political functions was obviously important. The 59-year-old has broken through a number of "concrete ceilings" in the course of her career and was the first woman to serve in high positions in the US military. However, she was in no way born into the Navy, having joined via a degree in journalism and a chance encounter with the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) on the university campus in 1981. Her leadership qualities had already stood out in her first posts and she had repeatedly demonstrated these qualities in her career on destroyers and aircraft carriers as well as in operational posts ashore. Before taking up a post at the Pentagon for the second time, she was commander of the US Sixth Fleet in Naples from 2018 to 2020. She would be the first woman to hold the highest position in the US Navy in its 247-year history.

Blockade

In the USA, however, such appointments must be approved by the Senate. However, one of the senators in the chamber of Congress, Republican Tommy Tuberville, has been blocking hundreds of military nominations for some time. He is thus protesting against a Pentagon regulation according to which soldiers and employees receive travel benefits for abortions if they cannot have them in their state and have to go to another one. As unanimity is required for a large number of votes in the US Senate, individual members of parliament can hold up certain procedures. The White House criticised Tuberville's blockade on the grounds of national security, because he was not able to protect his personal domestic political agenda over the operational capability of the US armed forces.