The Hill News

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in a new piece published Monday that he's likely to retire next year.

Gates, the Defense secretary who has served since late 2006, told Foreign Policy magazine that he would likely retire in 2011.

"I think that it would be a mistake to wait until January 2012," Gates said. "This is not the kind of job you want to fill in the spring of an election year."

The Defense secretary took office almost four years ago under Republican President George W. Bush, and was the most high-profile Bush administration official to be retained by President Obama.

Obama has looked to Gates as one of his top military advisers since taking office, and sided with the Defense secretary, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton! , and others in his administration on last year's decision to send a "surge" of troops to Afghanistan.

Gates noted that if he were to stay around much longer, he will have spent more time on the job than most previous people to hold the position.

"If I stay until January 2011...I will have been in the job longer than all but four of my predecessors. And those four are Robert McNamara, Don Rumsfeld, Cap Weinberger, and Charles E. Wilson," he said.