BOEING TIES

Shanahan has been serving in an acting capacity since the start of the year, making him the longest acting defense secretary ever. He joined Boeing in 1986 and spent more than three decades there, working on the 737 and 787 Dreamliner commercial airplanes.

Shanahan was also the president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems and worked on the Apache, Chinook and Osprey military aircraft.

Trump himself has been a strong proponent of military products made by US defense companies. In phone calls and public appearances with world leaders, Trump has gone further than any of his predecessors to act as a salesman for the US defense industry.

A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Shanahan believed that he was answerable to Trump and it was his job to implement decisions made by the president.

In February, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator James Inhofe, said he did not think Trump would nominate Shanahan. But since then, officials say Inhofe has privately told Shanahan he would back him.

"We need a confirmed leader at the Department and, after working with him closely over the last few months, I welcome his selection," Inhofe said in a statement on Thursday.

During Shanahan's Senate confirmation hearing to be deputy defense secretary in 2017, the committee's then-chairman, John McCain, voiced deep concern about giving the deputy job to an executive from one of the five corporations accounting for the lion's share of US defense spending.

"I have to have confidence that the fox is not going to be put back into the henhouse," said McCain, who died in August.

Reuters