President Biden elected Adm. Lisa Franchetti will lead the Navy, a senior official said Friday. If confirmed, she would be the first woman to become chief of the US military service.

Biden’s decision to tap Franchetti, an admiral with broad command and managerial experience,

as chief of naval operations

goes against the recommendation of his Pentagon chief. But he selects an officer whom insiders had deemed the best choice for the job. Francetti, de

Navy

current vice chief of operations

for the Navy

would become the first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III recommended Biden to Adm. Samuel Paparo, current commander of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet

for the mail

, several US officials said last month. But instead, the administration official said Biden is nominating Paparo to lead

the

US Indo-Pacific Command. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the nomination has not been made public.

The administrative officer said Biden chose Franchetti based on the breadth of her experience at sea and ashore, including a number of high-level policy and administrative jobs that give her deep knowledge of budgeting and leading the department.

At the same time, the official acknowledged that Biden understands the historic nature of the nomination and believes Franchetti will be an inspiration to sailors, both men and women.

Franchetti’s nomination will join the list of hundreds of military moves being blocked by Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville. He blocks confirmation from military officers’

promotions

in protest of a Department of Defense policy that pays for travel when a soldier has to

travel from their assigned base to leave the state to come

an abortion or other reproductive care.

She is scheduled to serve as acting chief starting next month when Adm. Michael Gilday, the current top Navy officer, is retiring as planned.

Several women have served as military service secretaries as political appointees, but never as their highest-ranking uniformed officer. A woman, Adm. Linda L. Fagan, is currently the Commander of the Coast Guard. However, she is not a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The president, the official said, believes Franchetti is the right person for the job and that moving Paparo to head Pacific Command also puts the right person in that post.

The official declined to comment on Austin’s recommendation. But news last month that the Chief of Defense had recommended Papara stunned many in the Pentagon because Franchetti had long been believed to be eligible for the top job in the Navy.

She is a surface warfare officer and has commanded at all levels, leading the US 6th Fleet and the US Naval Forces Korea. She was the second woman ever to be promoted to four-star admiral, and she made multiple deployments, including commanding a naval destroyer and two stints commanding an aircraft carrier.

Paparo, who if confirmed would replace Adm. John Aquilino, is a naval aviator and a

Top GunTOP GUN

Graduated with more than 6,000 hours of flight time in Navy fighter jets and 1,100 carrier landings. A native of Pennsylvania, he graduated from Villanova University and was commissioned into the Navy in 1987.

Prior to his Pacific tour, he served as Commander of Naval Forces in the Middle East, based in Bahrain, and previously served as Director of Operations at US Central Command in Florida.

The administrative officer said Biden also wants to nominate Vice Adm. James Kilby becomes Vice Chief of the Navy and taps Vice Admiral. Stephen Koehler in command of the Pacific Fleet.