United States Department of Defense
Seal of the Department of Defense (using secondary title, preferred by department)[a] | |
Logo of the Department of Defense (using secondary title)[a] | |
An aerial view of the Pentagon | |
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| Formed | 18 September 1947 (as National Military Establishment) |
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| Type | Executive department |
| Jurisdiction | U.S. federal government |
| Headquarters | The Pentagon Arlington County, Virginia, U.S. 38°52′16″N 77°3′21″W / 38.87111°N 77.05583°W |
| Employees |
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| Annual budget | $842 billion FY2024 |
| Agency executives |
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| Child agencies |
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| Website | war.gov |
| United States Armed Forces |
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| Executive departments |
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| Military departments |
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| Military services |
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| Command structure |
The United States Department of Defense (DoD[2]), secondarily referred to as the Department of War[b] (DoW), is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the U.S. Armed Forces—the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, and, for some purposes, the Coast Guard—and related functions and agencies. Headquartered at the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., the Department of Defense's stated mission is "to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security".[3][4] The current secretary of defense is Pete Hegseth.
The Department of Defense is headed by the secretary of defense, a cabinet-level head who reports directly to the president of the United States. The president is commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces. Beneath the Department of Defense are three subordinate military departments: the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, and the Department of the Air Force. In addition, four national intelligence services are subordinate to the Department of Defense: the Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency (NSA), National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and National Reconnaissance Office.
Other Department of Defense agencies include the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Defense Logistics Agency, Missile Defense Agency, Defense Health Agency, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, Space Development Agency and Pentagon Force Protection Agency, all of which are subordinate to the secretary of defense. Additionally, the Defense Contract Management Agency is responsible for administering contracts for the Department of Defense. Military operations are managed by eleven regional or functional unified combatant commands. The Department of Defense also operates several joint services schools, including the Eisenhower School and the National War College.
As of November 2022, the department has over 1.4 million active-duty uniformed personnel in the six armed services.[5] It also supervises over 778,000 National Guard and reservist personnel, and over 747,000 civilians, bringing the total to over 2.91 million employees.[1] In 2025, President Donald Trump authorized "Department of War" as a secondary, unofficial title for the department and said his administration will seek an official name change via an act of Congress.[6]
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- ^ a b "DoD Personnel, Workforce Reports & Publications". Defense Manpower Data Center. 30 June 2024. Archived from the original on 3 November 2022. Retrieved 20 January 2025.
- ^ "Manual for Written Material" (PDF). Department of Defense. p. 9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 August 2004. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
- ^ "U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE > Our Story". www.defense.gov. Archived from the original on 7 October 2018. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
- ^ Szoldra, Paul (29 June 2018). "Trump's Pentagon Quietly Made a Change to the Stated Mission It's Had for Two Decades". Task & Purpose. Archived from the original on 30 June 2018. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
- ^ "The World's Biggest Employers". Statista. 11 November 2022. Archived from the original on 8 April 2024. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
- ^ "Trump to Sign Order Renaming the Defense Department as the Department of War". 4 September 2025. Retrieved 8 September 2025.