At Pentagon, Less Ideology, More Balance

Still, the shape of the new team seems to point to some significant shifts in emphasis and style.

England, in particular, has made clear his intention to return to the traditional model of a deputy who oversees the daily operations of the Pentagon. These management tasks never were the strong suit of Wolfowitz, a former academic and defense policy specialist who left the Defense Department in June to become president of the World Bank.

A veteran of the aerospace industry -- he held executive positions with General Dynamics Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. -- England has declared the Pentagon's existing systems for buying weapons overly complex and has signaled his determination to restructure the process. He set up a committee to recommend changes by November.

"Gordon England has believed since he was in industry that the acquisition system is broken," said Loren B. Thompson, chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute, an advocacy group. "If given the opportunity, he'll push to change almost every aspect of the way the Pentagon does business because he believes billions of dollars are being wasted."

Additionally, England has taken charge of a broad review this year of Pentagon force levels and weapons, an effort mandated by Congress every four years. He has narrowed the list of issues under consideration to about a dozen major decision areas and warned the military services -- nervous about losing pet projects -- that there will be no sacred-cow programs, according to several participants.

"In the past, we've said the burden is on making the case for change through analysis," said one associate authorized to speak only on the condition of anonymity. "He realizes you sometimes make the change on the basis of whatever information is available."

For all the recent staff changes, 12 of the 47 Pentagon jobs that require Senate approval remain unfilled. Among the most prominent vacancies, neither the Air Force nor Navy has a permanent secretary, and the Army still lacks an undersecretary.

Filling such positions has proved a chronic problem in recent years, with 15 to 25 percent of the available slots going empty, according to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

Part of the blame rests with policy disputes in which senators have put holds on some nominations. An argument over release of Iraq-related documents had blocked Edelman's confirmation, as well as that of Peter Flory for assistant secretary of defense for international security policy. Bush used his recess authority to install both officials this month.

England's confirmation was caught up in a dispute about a long-standing congressional requirement that Pentagon officials with pensions from former private employers buy a special insurance policy to protect the future value of their benefits and thus guard against potential conflicts of interest while in office. Just as this hurdle appeared to be cleared this month with a decision by Sens. John W. Warner (R-Va.) and Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) to move England's nomination out of the Armed Services Committee, Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) put a hold on it.

A spokesman for the senator said Snowe's action was prompted by objections to a range of shipbuilding and base-closing decisions by England during his time as Navy secretary. He has been serving as "acting" deputy defense secretary.

The administration has contributed to the vacancy problem by being slow to send some names to the Senate. Di Rita withdrew his nomination as assistant secretary for public affairs after being stalled in the Senate for a year, but expects to be nominated for Army undersecretary. He said the appointments process is hampered by redundant vetting and other systemic inefficiencies.

"It tends to be everybody doing the same things multiple times, and I'm not sure how much value is added at each level of the process," he said.

Last week, the White House announced that Bush intends to nominate Michael Wynne to be secretary of the Air Force, despite earlier Senate refusal to confirm him as the Pentagon's acquisition chief amid a swirl of Air Force weapons-buying scandals. The White House also reported plans to name Northrop Grumman Corp. executive Donald C. Winter as secretary of the Navy.