What Deputy Defense Secretary Hicks is prioritizing during the presidential transition
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks is poised to complete her tenure at the Pentagon under the Biden administration — and she’s been in direct contact with officials on President-elect Donald Trump’s Agency Review Team preparing for the upcoming transition, according to her top public affairs advisor Eric Pahon.
In responses to questions from DefenseScoop this week, Pahon discussed Hicks’ plans and priorities for her final days helping steer the Defense Department’s major technology programs.
“Deputy Secretary Hicks’ priorities today remain the same as they have been since her first day in office: Foremost, in support of the secretary and president, she is maintaining her focus on ensuring that DOD can outpace strategic competitors like the [People’s Republic of China] by fielding more combat-credible capabilities at greater speed and scale, continually iterating on novel operational concepts, distributing and hardening our force posture, and leveraging our unparalleled ability to generate innovation with and through America’s private sector,” he said.
“She is also maintaining a laser focus on financial accountability, strengthening the department’s institutional pillars, including by ensuring a smooth and professional transition, and taking care of the DOD workforce,” Pahon added.
On Friday, Hicks is scheduled to speak at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies regarding lessons her team learned in their efforts associated with “strategic competition” and China, the spokesperson noted.
Hicks was sworn in as the 35th deputy secretary of defense in February 2021. She is the first Senate-confirmed woman to serve in the role and is the highest-ranking woman to have served in DOD to date.
As the Pentagon’s No. 2, Hicks launched the high-stakes Replicator initiative to accelerate the delivery of next-generation warfighting technologies in repeatable processes — beginning with thousands of drones to be fielded by August 2025 to counter China’s growing military prowess. She also set up the recently-sunset Task Force Lima to explore generative AI in a responsible manner and account for the seen and unknown risks it presents within the U.S. national security arena.
Among other high-profile moves, Hicks also created the DOD’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) in mid–2022 to investigate military-aligned reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).
Pahon confirmed that “Hicks made initial contact with the president-elect’s DOD transition team lead on Dec. 13,” noting that she’ll “remain at OSD through the end of the Biden-Harris Administration at noon on Jan. 20.”
Last month, Trump nominated billionaire investor Stephen Feinberg to serve as deputy defense secretary in his new administration. If they are both confirmed, Feinberg would report to the president-elect’s pick for defense secretary, television presenter Pete Hegseth.
“The deputy secretary conveyed the department’s commitment to conducting a smooth and professional transition with the incoming Trump administration,” Pahon said of Hicks.
