A Confusing Mess, The DoD in the post T2K period

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Primary source material from the 18th Edition of the Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet by Norman Polmar as well as the Congressional Records.


Defense Organization

The USA has a unified defense establishment that is responsible for the conduct of military operations, in support of the National Security Strategy. The basic structure was organized in 1947 and has several major modifications during and subsequently to the Cold War and into the current war against terrorism.

Under the provisions of the U.S. Constitution, the president is the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces. The president’s primary advisers in this daunting role, are the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In addition (by federal law), the president is also assisted by the National Security Council which provides advise on a wide range of intelligence and national security matters. The permanent chair is the President and includes the Vice President, the Secretaries of Defense, State and Treasury, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The individual who coordinates NSC activities and directs its staff is the president’s National Security Advisor.

Traditionally, the National Command Authorities are the ‘terms’ for the President and the Secretary of Defense, as well as their deputized alternates and successors. The NCA has the constitutional authority to direct the armed forces and to order the release of nuclear weapons. NO ONE ELSE in the U.S. chain of command has the responsibility and the authority to order the launch of these weapons.

The principal components of the defense establishment are:
1) The Department of Defense
2) The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Joint Staff
3) The military departments and their subordinate services
4) The unified combatant commands

Four of the U.S. military services are within the Department of Defense. The fifth, the U.S. Coast Guard, is currently part of the Department of Homeland Security and has responsibilities to both departments.

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This department is headed by the Secretary of Defense who is a civilian appointee and a member of the president’s cabinet as well as the National Secretary Council. This appointee is always a civilian.

The principal deputies under the Secretary of Defense are the Deputy Secretary and the four Under Secretaries. There are eight Assistant Secretaries of Defense and other civilian officials at this level who also report the Secretary and Deputy Secretary. The four Under Secretaries are supported by twenty-three Deputy Under Secretaries.

Supporting this collection is the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) with approximately 465 military personnel and 1,560 civilians assigned. In addition, there are 15 separate agencies under the Secretary of Defense that support the Department of Defense and the military services. These agencies perform the general functions that affect all U.S. military activities. Of these agencies, eight are headed by military officers (indicated by asterisks) and seven by civilians:

1) Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
2) Defense Commissary Agency*
3) Defense Contract Audit Agency
4) Defense Contract Management Agency
5) Defense Finance and Accounting Agency
6) Defense Information Systems Agency*
7) Defense Intelligence Agency*
8) Defense Legal Services Agency
9) Defense Logistics Agency*
10) Defense Security Cooperation Agency*
11) Defense Threat Reduction Agency*
12) Missile Defense Agency* (formerly the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization)
13) National Imagery and Mapping Agency* (formerly the Defense Mapping Organization)
14) National Security Agency*
15) National Security Service

In addition to performing intelligence analysis for the OSD, the Defense Intelligence Agency also serves as the intelligence staff for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (equivalent of a J-2 staff). The National Security Agency (NSA) performs electronic intercept and cryptological activaties in support of the U.S. intelligence community, as well as the defense establishment. This agency also supervises the cryptologic activities of the Army, Navy. Marine Corps and Air Force.

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Congress established the War Department (1789) and the Navy Department (1798). These two departments administered the U.S. armed forces with their secretaries reporting directly to the president and were members of the president’s cabinet.

The 1947 National Security Act, created the National Military Establishment, the National Security Council and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Departments of the Army, Navy (and Marine Corps) and Air Force were established as cabinet-level departments, with the newly created Secretary of Defense acting as coordinator of these military departments.

Amendments to the National Security Act in 1949 established the Secretary of Defense as the principal assistant to the president in defense affairs and changed the National Military Establishment into the Department of Defense (DoD). These amendments also made the three military departments subordinate to DoD and removed their secretaries from cabinet level. Latter amendments have taken away many of the decision making prerogatives of the military departments and reassigned them to OSD and to various defense agencies.

The Defense Reorganization Act of 1958 established a new chain of command from the President and Secretary of Defense to the unified and specified commanders-in-chief, who were given full operational control over the forces assigned to them. However, the Secretary of Defense can delegate operational command over forces to the Joint Chiefs of Staff when deemed appropriate.

While there are five military services, there are seven reserve components: the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard Reserve organizations and the Army and Air National Guard. The National Guard organization are under state control during peacetime but can be called into federal service at the direction of the President.