WASHINGTON (NYTIMES, BLOOMBERG) - President Joe Biden has picked Ms Christine E. Wormuth to be the first woman to serve as secretary of the Army, Pentagon officials said on Monday (April 12).

If approved by the Senate, Ms Wormuth, who was the Defence Department's top policy official at the end of the Obama administration, would take control of the largest branch of the military at a time when the armed services are wrestling with a range of challenges, including weeding out right-wing extremists from their ranks and confronting rising threats from China and Russia.

Ms Wormuth, who was on Mr Biden's Pentagon transition team after the election, would join other women appointed to top Pentagon jobs, including Ms Kathleen Hicks, the deputy defence secretary, and Ms Kelly Magsamen, chief of staff to Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The Biden administration has come under criticism for its slow pace of nominating officials to top Pentagon jobs, including high-ranking civilian positions overseeing the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. In many cases, the service branches and other important parts of the Defence Department have been run by acting officials in the administration's first months.

Ms Wormuth, whose nomination was reported earlier on Monday by Politico, began her government career in 1996 in the Pentagon policy office, which she eventually led from 2014 to 2016. Earlier in the Obama administration, she served as the main liaison from the White House's National Security Council to the Pentagon on defence issues.

Ms Wormuth has also worked in senior positions dealing with international security and defence policy at the Rand Corp. and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, two research institutions in Washington.

Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that Ms Wormuth's "deep expertise will be critical in addressing and deterring today's global threats, including the pacing challenge from China and nation-state threats emanating from Russia, Iran and North Korea".

As undersecretary for policy, Ms Wormuth was a regular at former president Barack Obama's White House and focused on the campaign to counter Islamic State, the re-balance to Asia and US relations with countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

In 2007, Ms Wormuth served as the staff director for the Independent Commission on the Security Forces of Iraq, also known as the "Jones Commission".

She travelled with the commission to Iraq, focusing on the readiness of Iraqi police forces.