U.S. Department of Defense

U.S. Department of Defense, executive division of the U.S. federal government responsible for ensuring national security and supervising U.S. military forces. Based in the Pentagon, it includes the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the departments of the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force, and numerous defense agencies and allied services. It was formed in 1947 by an act of Congress (amended 1949) combining the War and Navy Departments.

The mission of the Department of Defense is to provide, through its military strength, a solid foundation for the national policy of the United States. The forerunner of the Department of Defense, the National Military Establishment, was created by the National Security Act of 1947 and evolved from the experiences of World War II. While combat and service components of the Departments of the Army and the Navy fought together in various theatres of operation under unified direction of overseas commanders, the individual military departments reported separately to the president. The conflicting and competitive policies of these departments prevented a truly effective, coordinated, and unified military effort. To overcome this organizational deficiency, the National Military Establishment was created, and the cabinet post of secretary of defense was established to provide overall policy and direction of the military departments without destroying their individual identities. Concurrently, the Air Force was created as a third military department on a coequal basis with the Departments of the Army and the Navy.

The original National Security Act of 1947 provided the secretary of defense with limited authority and staff to exercise control. However, subsequent amendments to the basic act in 1949, 1953, and 1958 greatly strengthened the authority and ability of the secretary to direct defense policy. With the 1949 amendment, the modern Department of Defense was established. In the early 21st century the Department of Defense consisted of the secretary of defense; the deputy secretary of defense; undersecretaries and assistant secretaries holding various portfolios; the office of the inspector general; the Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force; and numerous defense agencies and field activity offices. These civilian officials and their subordinates represent the policy, research, analysis, and resource-management staff of the secretary of defense.

The civilian secretaries of the military departments (Army, Navy, and Air Force) are responsible for the administration of their particular departments and are responsible for training, equipping, and providing combat-ready forces to the combat commands. The combat forces of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps are under unified combat commands, organized on either a geographic or a functional basis. A unified command contains combat forces from more than one service, such as Central Command (CENTCOM), which is composed of all Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps units in Central and Southern Asia and the Middle East, or Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), which oversees special operations warfare.

The commanders of the unified commands are responsible to the president and the secretary of defense. By secretarial delegation, the Joint Chiefs of Staff exercise operational direction over the unified commands. The Joint Chiefs of Staff are the principal military advisers to the president, the National Security Council, and the secretary of defense. The Joint Chiefs of Staff consist of the chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is the nation’s highest-ranking military officer; the vice chairman; the chief of staff, United States Army; the chief of naval operations; the chief of staff, U.S. Air Force; the commandant of the Marine Corps; and the chief of the National Guard. The chiefs are appointed by the president to four-year terms. The Joint Chiefs of Staff are supported by the Joint Staff, which is limited by law to not more than 400 officers. This staff is organized along conventional military staff lines, and performs such functions as developing strategic concepts and war plans, reviewing the operating plans of the unified commands, and establishing unified doctrine for operations. An assignment to the Joint Staff provides military officers a unique opportunity to work on coordinated plans and to develop an understanding of the integrated effort required under the modern concept of joint operations.

In the early 21st century there were 20 defense agencies within the Department of Defense. These agencies were established to provide integrated and unified effort in support activities that generally cut across service lines. The defense agencies have consolidated functions that were previously fractionalized among the military services. Among these agencies were the National Security Agency (NSA), which held responsibility for signals intelligence and cryptography; the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), responsible for military research and development; the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), responsible for military intelligence; and the National Reconnaissance Office, which designs and maintains reconnaissance satellites for use by the Department of Defense and the intelligence community.

The need for the military to consider implications of political, economic, and scientific factors in the development of military plans and military advice requires that senior military officers have a broad education in these disciplines. To this end, the military departments have established an extensive continuing education system for their officers. Included in this educational system are joint-service schools such as the Joint Forces Staff College and National Defense University, as well as individual service schools such as the Naval War College, Air University, and Army War College. These schools offer graduate school-level programs to train future military leaders as broadly educated officers who understand the importance of political, economic, and scientific factors on military planning.

The Department of the Army, through its Corps of Engineers, also performs important civil functions in improving rivers, harbours, and waterways for navigation, in constructing flood-control and similar projects in various parts of the country, and in administering the laws governing navigable waters.