O'Neill On the Job

Malcolm O'Neill was sworn in today as the Army's new acquisition chief, according to Lt. Gen. William Phillips, the military deputy to O'Neill. Phillips appeared at a hearing of the House Armed Services air and land forces subcommittee.

O'Neill, a retired three-star Army general, was nominated in late 2009, but his confirmation was held up until last week, when Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) obtained “a unanimous consent agreement on the Senate floor . . . to approve six Department of Defense nominees,” his office announced.

O’Neill served as head of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization -- the precursor to the Missile Defense Agency -- in the 1990s. Before assuming his post as Army acquisition chief, he was working as a consultant and the chairman of the Army science and technology board of the National Academies. He succeeds Dean Popps, who became the acting assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology in January 2008.