Posts Tagged ‘Department of Defense’
The United States Department of Defense (DoD) is a federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies directly involved with national security and military affairs. The DoD is one of the largest tenants at The Pentagon and has three chief sub-departments, the Department of the Army, the Department of the Air Forceand the Department of the Navy.
Other DOD groups include the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the Missile Defense Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the infamous National Security Agency (NSA).
In terms of the department’s history, it was set up based on some specific ideas put forth by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and on 19 December 1945, President Harry S. Truman proposed the creation of a brand new unified Department of National Defense. The proposal was debated over and was not passed until 1947.
On July 26, 1947, President Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 which founded the National Military Establishment which would begin active operations in September, 1947. The Establishment had the ill-fated abbreviation NME which sounds like ‘enemy’ and it was, in 1949, renamed the DoD.
Before the creation of the DoD, US armed forces were separated into varied departments which diluted any real central authority. The USMC remained as a separate service under the Naval Department while the Coast Guard remained under the control of the Treasury Department.
The Department’s budget was about 7 billion in 2007 though this figure does not include tens of billions more in supplementary spending on things like nuclear weapons testing and design.
In time of war, the Department of Defense has authority over the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard is always considered one of the five branches of the US armed services, under the US Code. During times of declared war the Coast Guard operates as a branch of the Navy even though the Coast Guard has not been under the full control of Navy since World War 2.
The official command structure of the Department is defined by the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, which was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in October, 1986. The Act changed the chain of command of the US military and it introduced the most significant changes to the Department since it was established.
Under the Act, the command structure passes from the US President, through the Secretary of Defense, to the commanders of all military forces (COCOM). The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is chiefly responsible for readiness of the US military and acts as the President’s chief military adviser while remaining outside of the chain of command.