United States Secretary of Defense | |
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![]() Seal of the department[1] | |
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since January 22, 2021 | |
United States Department of Defense Office of the Secretary of Defense | |
Style | Mr. Secretary (informal) The Honorable (formal) |
Abbreviation | SecDef |
Member of | Cabinet National Security Council |
Reports to | President of the United States |
Seat | The Pentagon, Arlington County, Virginia |
Appointer | The President with Senate advice and consent |
Term length | No fixed term |
Constituting instrument | 10 U.S.C. § 113 |
Precursor | Secretary of War Secretary of the Navy |
Formation | September 17, 1947 |
First holder | James Forrestal |
Succession | Sixth[3] |
Deputy | Deputy Secretary of Defense |
Salary | Executive Schedule, level I[4] |
Website | defense.gov |
The United States secretary of defense (SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense, the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high-ranking member of the federal cabinet.[5][6][7] The secretary of defense's position of command and authority over the military is second only to that of the president of the United States, who is the commander-in-chief. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a defense minister in many other countries.[8] The secretary of defense is appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate, and is by custom a member of the Cabinet and by law a member of the National Security Council.[9]
To ensure civilian control of the military, U.S. law provides that the secretary of defense cannot have served as an active-duty commissioned officer in the military in the preceding seven years, increased to ten years in the case of a general. Congress can grant waivers in such cases.[10]
Subject only to the orders of the president, the secretary of defense is in the chain of command and exercises command and control, for both operational and administrative purposes, over all service branches administered by the Department of Defense – the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force – as well as the Coast Guard when its command and control is transferred to the Department of Defense.[11][12][13][14][15] Only the secretary of defense (or the president or Congress) can authorize the transfer of operational control of forces between the three military departments (Department of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force) and the eleven Unified Combatant Commands.[11] Because the secretary of defense is vested with legal powers that exceed those of any commissioned officer, and is second only to the president in the military hierarchy, its incumbent has sometimes unofficially been referred to as "deputy commander-in-chief".[16][17][18] The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the principal military adviser to the secretary of defense and the president; while the chairman may assist the secretary and president in their command functions, the chairman is not in the chain of command.[19]
The secretary of state, the secretary of the treasury, the secretary of defense, and the attorney general are generally regarded as the four most important (and are officially the four most senior and oldest) cabinet officials because of the size and importance of their respective departments.[20]
The current secretary of defense is retired general Lloyd Austin, who is the first African American to serve in the position.[21]
It is hereby expressed as the intent of the Congress that the authority granted by this Act is not to be construed as approval by the Congress of continuing appointments of military men to the office of Secretary of Defense in the future. It is hereby expressed as the sense of the Congress that after General Marshall leaves the office of Secretary of Defense, no additional appointments of military men to that office shall be approved.
Defenselink bio Archived November 18, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved February 8, 2010; and Marshall Foundation bio Archived September 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved February 8, 2010.
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