United States Secretary of Defense
Head of the US Department of Defense
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Key Takeaways
- The United States secretary of defense ( SecDef ), secondarily titled the secretary of war ( SecWar ), is the head of the United States Department of Defense (DoD), the executive department of the U.
- 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.
- The president appoints the secretary of defense 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.
The United States secretary of defense (SecDef), secondarily titled the secretary of war (SecWar), is the head of the United States Department of Defense (DoD), the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high-ranking member of the cabinet of the United States. 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. The president appoints the secretary of defense 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.
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 DoD-administered service branches – 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. 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.
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