United States Department of Defense | |
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Created 26 July 1947 | |
Headquarters | Pentagon Arlington, Virginia |
Jurisdiction | United States Government |
Budget | $664 billion (2010) |
Personnel | |
Active-duty military | 1,473,900 |
Reserves | 1,458,500 |
Civilian employees | 700,000 |
Civilian Leadership | |
Commander in Chief | President Barack Obama |
Secretary of Defense | Robert Gates |
Deputy Secretary of Defense | William J. Lynn III |
Secretary of the Army | John M. McHugh |
Secretary of the Navy | Ray Mabus |
Secretary of the Air Force | Michael B. Donley |
Military Leadership | |
Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff |
ADM Michael Mullen |
Chief of Staff Army |
GEN George W. Casey, Jr. |
Chief of Naval Operations | ADM Gary Roughead |
Chief of Staff Air Force |
GEN Norton A. Schwartz |
Commandant of the Marine Corps |
GEN James T. Conway |
The United States Department of Defense (DoD) is the government department in charge of managing matters involving military operations and national security. It was formerly known as the War Department. The current Secretary of Defense is Robert Gates.
Technology
The DoD has developed significant technology that has been re-purposed for civilian use, such as the modern digital computer, the Internet, and the Global Positioning System. Artillery trajectories were calculated by "computers", that is, actual human beings who did the math by hand, until military necessity accelerated development of "electronic brains" such as the ENIAC (see also UNIVAC). The Internet was created and promoted by the Pentagon, largely because of the need to have redundant lines of communication to survive enemy attack on phone and telegraph systems. The GPS satellites originally broadcast encrypted signals to support logistics, but a less precise signal is now also broadcast for hikers, taxi cab drivers and commuters.