United States Deputy Secretary of Defense

Deputy Secretary of Defense of the United States of America
Seal of the Department of Defense
Flag of the Deputy Secretary of Defense
Incumbent Robert O. Work since May 1, 2014
U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Secretary of Defense
Style	Mister Deputy Secretary The Honorable (formal address in writing)
Reports to	Secretary of Defense
Seat	The Pentagon, Arlington County, Virginia, U.S.
Appointer	The President with the advice and consent of the Senate
Term length	No fixed term
Constituting instrument	10 U.S.C. § 132
Inaugural holder	Stephen Early[1]
Formation	1949 see article for further dates[1]
Succession	1st in SecDef succession
Salary	Executive Schedule, Level II[2]
Website	defense.gov

The Deputy Secretary of Defense (acronym: DEPSECDEF) is a statutory office (10 U.S.C. § 132) and the second-highest-ranking official in the Department of Defense of the United States of America.

The Deputy Secretary is the principal civilian deputy to the Secretary of Defense, and is appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Deputy Secretary, by statute, is designated as the DoD Chief Management Officer and must be a civilian, at least seven years removed from service as a commissioned officer on active-duty at the date of appointment.^[3]

The Deputy Secretary of Defense position is currently held by Robert O. Work, a retired Marine colonel who previously served as Under Secretary of the Navy from 2009 to 2013.^[4]

History

Public Law 81-36, 2 April 1949, originally established this position as the Under Secretary of Defense, however Public Law 81-2 16, August 10, 1949, a.k.a. the 1949 Amendments to the National Security Act of 1947, changed the title to Deputy Secretary of Defense. Former Assistant to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Stephen Early, became the first officer holder when he was sworn-in on May 2, 1949.^[1]

Public Law 92-596, October 27, 1972, established a Second Deputy Secretary of Defense position, with both deputies performing duties as prescribed by the Secretary of Defense. The second deputy position was not filled until December 1975. Robert F. Ellsworth, serving from December 23, 1975 until 10 January 1977, was the only one to ever hold that office. Public Law 95-140, 21 October 1977, the law establishing two Under Secretaries of Defense, abolished the second deputy position.^[1]

Responsibilities

By delegation, the Deputy Secretary of Defense has full power and authority to act for the Secretary of Defense and to exercise the powers of the Secretary of Defense on any and all matters for which the Secretary is authorized to act pursuant to statute or executive order.^[1] The Deputy Secretary is first in the line of succession to the office of Secretary of Defense.

The typical role of the Deputy Secretary of Defense is to oversee the day-to-day business and lead the internal management processes of the $500 billion plus Department of Defense, that is as its chief operating officer and chief management officer; while the Secretary of Defense as the chief executive officer focuses on the big issues of the day, ongoing military operations, high-profile congressional hearings, attending meetings of the National Security Council, and directly advising the President on defense issues.

The Deputy Secretary, among the office's many responsibilities, chairs the Senior Level Review Group (SLRG), before 2005 known as Defense Resources Board (DRB), which provides department-wide budgetary allocation recommendations to the Secretary and the President. Traditionally, the Depauty Secretary has been the civilian official guiding the process of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR).

The Deputy Secretary of Defense chairs the Special Access Program Oversight Committee (SAPOC), which has oversight responsibilities and provides recommendations with respect to changes in status of the Department's Special Access Programs, for either the Deputy Secretary Defense or the Secretary of Defense to make.

List of Deputy Secretaries of Defense

No.	Image	Name	Term of Office			Secretaries of Defense serving under:	President appointed by:
			Began	Ended	Days of Service
1		Stephen Early	2 May 1949 10 August 1949[1]	9 August 1949[lower-alpha 1] 30 September 1950[lower-alpha 2][1]	516	Louis A. Johnson George Marshall	Harry S. Truman
2		Robert A. Lovett	4 October 1950	16 September 1951	316	George Marshall
3		William Chapman Foster	24 September 1951	20 January 1953	484	Robert A. Lovett
4		Roger M. Kyes	2 February 1953	1 May 1954	453	Charles E. Wilson	Dwight D. Eisenhower
5		Robert B. Anderson	3 May 1954	4 August 1955	458
6		Reuben B. Robertson, Jr.	5 August 1955	25 April 1957	629
7		Donald A. Quarles	1 May 1957	8 May 1959	737	Charles E. Wilson Neil H. McElroy
8		Thomas S. Gates	8 June 1959	1 December 1959	176	Neil H. McElroy
9		James H. Douglas, Jr.	11 December 1959	24 January 1961	410	Thomas S. Gates Robert McNamara
10		Roswell Gilpatric	24 January 1961	20 January 1964	1091	Robert McNamara	John F. Kennedy
11		Cyrus Vance	28 January 1964	30 June 1967	1249		Lyndon B. Johnson
12		Paul Nitze	1 July 1967	20 January 1969	569	Robert McNamara Clark Clifford
13		David Packard	24 January 1969	13 December 1971	1053	Melvin R. Laird	Richard Nixon
14		Kenneth Rush	23 February 1972	29 January 1973	341
15		William P. Clements, Jr.	30 January 1973	20 January 1977	1451	Elliot Richardson James R. Schlesinger Donald Rumsfeld
17		Charles W. Duncan, Jr.	31 January 1977	26 July 1979	906	Harold Brown	Jimmy Carter
18		W. Graham Claytor, Jr.	24 August 1979	16 January 1981	511
19		Frank Carlucci	4 February 1981	31 December 1982	695	Caspar Weinberger	Ronald Reagan
20		W. Paul Thayer	12 January 1983	4 January 1984	357
21		William Howard Taft IV	3 February 1984	22 April 1989	1905	Caspar Weinberger Frank Carlucci Dick Cheney
22		Donald J. Atwood Jr.	24 April 1989	20 January 1993	1367	Dick Cheney	George H. W. Bush
23		William J. Perry	5 March 1993	3 February 1994	335	Les Aspin	Bill Clinton
24		John M. Deutch	11 March 1994	10 May 1995	425	William J. Perry
25		John P. White	22 June 1995	15 July 1997	754	William J. Perry William Cohen
26		John J. Hamre	29 July 1997	31 March 2000	976	William Cohen
27		Rudy de Leon	31 March 2000[5]	1 March 2001[5]	335	William Cohen Donald Rumsfeld
28		Paul Wolfowitz	2 March 2001[6]	13 May 2005[6]	1533	Donald Rumsfeld	George W. Bush
29		Gordon R. England	13 May 2005 4 January 2006[6]	3 January 2006[lower-alpha 3] 11 February 2009[6]	236 1134	Donald Rumsfeld Robert Gates
30		William J. Lynn III	12 February 2009[6]	5 October 2011[6]	965	Robert Gates Leon Panetta	Barack Obama
31		Ashton B. Carter	6 October 2011[6]	4 December 2013[6]	789	Leon Panetta Chuck Hagel
Acting		Christine Fox	5 December 2013[6]	1 May 2014[6]	149	Chuck Hagel
32		Robert O. Work	1 May 2014	Incumbent	967	Chuck Hagel Ashton Carter

See also

• Defense Acquisition Board
• Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee
• Deputy's Advisory Working Group, a panel chaired by the Deputy Secretary of Defense
• Packard Commission

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

• Department of Defense Directive 5100.1: Functions of the Department of Defense and Its Major Components (PDF). Department of Defense Directive. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Defense. 2010-12-21. 
• Department of Defense Key Officials 1947–2015 (PDF). Washington DC: Office of the Secretary of Defense, Historical Office. 2015. 
• Deputy Secretary of Defense position profile at Prunes Online

External links

• defense.gov

United States Deputy Secretaries of Defense
	Early Lovett Foster Kyes Anderson Robertson Quarles Gates Douglas Gilpatric Vance Nitze Packard Rush Clements Duncan Claytor Carlucci Thayer Taft Atwood Perry Deutch White Hamre de Leon Wolfowitz England Lynn Carter Work

Senior officials in the United States Department of Defense
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work Secretaries of the Military Departments Secretary of the Army: Eric Fanning Secretary of the Navy: Ray Mabus Secretary of the Air Force: Deborah James Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, USMC Under Secretaries of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics: Frank Kendall Policy: James Miller Comptroller/Chief Financial Officer: Robert Hale Personnel and Readiness: Jessica Wright (Acting) Intelligence: Michael Vickers Deputy Chief Management Officer Elizabeth McGrath Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Paul Selva, USAF Chiefs of the Military Services Chief of Staff of the Army: Mark Milley Commandant of the Marine Corps: Robert Neller Chief of Naval Operations: John Richardson Chief of Staff of the Air Force: David Goldfein Chief of the National Guard Bureau Frank Grass, USA

United States Department of Defense
Headquarters: The Pentagon Ashton Carter, Secretary of Defense Robert Work, Deputy Secretary of Defense
Office of the Secretary of Defense (including Defense Agencies and DoD Field Activities) Deputy Secretary of Defense Deputy's Advisory Working Group Office of Net Assessment Special Access Program Oversight Committee Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Director, Defense Research and Engineering Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Missile Defense Agency Defense Contract Management Agency Defense Logistics Agency Defense Technical Information Center Defense Threat Reduction Agency Office of Economic Adjustment Defense Acquisition University Defense Acquisition Board Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Defense Security Cooperation Agency Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) Defense Contract Audit Agency Defense Finance and Accounting Service Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Defense Commissary Agency Department of Defense Education Activity DoD Human Resources Activity Military Health System Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute Office of the Chancellor for Education and Professional Development Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Defense Intelligence Agency Defense Security Service Defense Information Systems Agency National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency National Reconnaissance Office National Security Agency (Director) Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Defense Media Activity (American Forces Press Service, American Forces Radio and Television Service, Stars and Stripes, The Pentagon Channel) General Counsel of the Department of Defense Defense Legal Services Agency Director of Administration and Management Pentagon Force Protection Agency Washington Headquarters Services
Military Departments Department of the Army Secretary of the Army The Secretariat: Under Secretary of the Army Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology Assistant Secretary for Civil Works Assistant Secretary (Financial Management and Comptroller) Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs General Counsel of the Army The Administrative Assistant The Army Staff: Chief of Staff of the Army Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Sergeant Major of the Army Deputy Chief of Staff G-8 Chief of Chaplains Judge Advocate General Provost Marshal General Surgeon General U.S. Army field organizations: see Structure of the United States Army Department of the Navy Secretary of the Navy The Secretariat: Under Secretary of the Navy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Financial Management and Comptroller) Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Installations and Environment) Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisitions) General Counsel of the Navy Judge Advocate General Naval Criminal Investigative Service Naval Inspector General Headquarters Marine Corps: Commandant of the Marine Corps Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Chaplain U.S. Marine Corps field organizations: see Organization of the United States Marine Corps Office of the Chief of Naval Operations: Chief of Naval Operations Vice Chief of Naval Operations Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Director of Naval Reactors Chief of Chaplains Chief of Naval Personnel Surgeon General United States Navy field organizations: see Structure of the United States Navy Department of the Air Force Secretary of the Air Force The Secretariat: Under Secretary of the Air Force Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Acquisition) Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Financial Management & Comptroller) Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Installations, Environment & Logistics) Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Manpower & Reserve Affairs) General Counsel of the Air Force Air Force Office of Special Investigations The Air Staff: Chief of Staff of the Air Force Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Chief of Chaplains Chief of Safety Chief Scientist Judge Advocate General Surgeon General U.S. Air Force field organizations: Major Commands Direct Reporting Units Field Operating Agencies
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman Joint Requirements Oversight Council Director of the Joint Staff Joint Staff National Military Command Center Alternate National Military Command Center National Defense University
Combatant Commands Africa Command Central Command European Command Northern Command Pacific Command Southern Command Special Operations Command (Joint Special Operations Command) Strategic Command (Cyber Command) Transportation Command
National Guard Bureau Chief of the National Guard Bureau Air National Guard Army National Guard
Office of the Inspector General Defense Criminal Investigative Service