Former army officer Mike Kelly will be Australia's next defence minister if Labor wins the federal election.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has anointed Dr Kelly, currently the Minister for Defence Materiel, as the best choice to replace Defence Minister Stephen Smith, who is not standing for re-election.
But that's only if Labor holds government and Dr Kelly manages to fend off a strong challenge from prominent coalition candidate Peter Hendy to hold his NSW electorate of Eden-Monaro.
"It's important that we have strong hands around that particular responsibility," Mr Rudd told Fairfax Radio in Melbourne.
If Dr Kelly does become defence minister he will be the first with actual military service since Jim Killen in the Fraser government.
Dr Kelly, a lawyer, joined the army in 1987 and subsequently served in Somalia, East Timor, Bosnia and Iraq.
He concluded his military career in 2007 as director of army legal services with the rank of colonel.
He won Eden-Monaro at the 2007 election.
Dr Kelly welcomed Mr Rudd's backing but said he would still need to be endorsed by Labor's caucus.
He said defence had been his passion for the last quarter century and he would be honoured to continue that work.
"This provides quite a degree of comfort and certainty to the community and the defence organisation that potentially there is a succession plan in place," Dr Kelly told Sky News.
Dr Kelly said he would want to ensure defence personnel returned safely from Afghanistan and that an appropriate framework was in place for a future Afghan engagement.
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