United States Deputy Secretary of Defense

The deputy secretary of defense (acronym: DepSecDef) is a statutory office (Template:UnitedStatesCode) 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.<ref name="UnitedStatesCode|10|132">Template:UnitedStatesCode.</ref>

History

Template:USPL, April 2, 1949, originally established this position as the under secretary of defense, however Template:USPL 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.<ref name="DODKO:15">Department of Defense Key Officials 1947–2015: p. 15.</ref>

Template:USPL, 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 Ellsworth, serving from December 23, 1975, until January 10, 1977, was the only one to ever hold that office. Template:USPL, October 21, 1977, established two under secretaries of defense and abolished the second deputy position.<ref name="DODKO:15"/>

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.<ref name="DODKO:15"/> The deputy secretary is first in the line of succession to the 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 budget, that is as its chief operating 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.

Prior to February 1, 2018, the deputy secretary of defense also served as the department's chief management officer, to whom the deputy chief management officer reported, but those responsibilities were split into a new chief management officer of the Department of Defense position (disestablished on 1 January 2021).<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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 deputy 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.

As James Mattis was selecting officials as Donald Trump's first secretary of defense, Michèle Flournoy talked with Trump-affiliated officials about joining as deputy secretary. She did not in the end do so.

List of deputy secretaries of defense

No.	Image	Name	Term of office			Serving under Secretaries of Defense	Appointed by President
			Began	Ended	Time in office
1	File:Portrait of Stephen T. Early.jpg	Stephen Early	Template:Highlight August 10, 1949<ref name="DODKO:15" />	Template:HighlightTemplate:Efn September 30, 1950Template:Efn<ref name="DODKO:15" />	Template:Ayd	Louis A. Johnson George C. Marshall	Harry S. Truman
2	File:Robert Lovett, photo portrait, 1951.jpg	Robert A. Lovett	October 4, 1950	September 16, 1951	Template:Ayd	George C. Marshall
3	File:WilliamCFoster.jpg	William Chapman Foster	September 24, 1951	January 20, 1953	Template:Ayd	Robert A. Lovett
4	File:Roger-M-Kyes-DepSecDef.jpg	Roger M. Kyes	February 2, 1953	May 1, 1954	Template:Ayd	Charles Erwin Wilson	Dwight D. Eisenhower
5	File:Robert B Anderson (cropped).jpeg	Robert B. Anderson	May 3, 1954	August 4, 1955	Template:Ayd
6	File:Reuben-B-Robertson-Jr-DepSecDef.jpg	Reuben B. Robertson Jr.	August 5, 1955	April 25, 1957	Template:Ayd
7	File:Donald A. Quarles.jpg	Donald A. Quarles	May 1, 1957	May 8, 1959	Template:Ayd	Charles Erwin Wilson Neil H. McElroy
8	File:Thomas Gates official DoD photo.jpg	Thomas S. Gates Jr.	June 8, 1959	December 1, 1959	Template:Ayd	Neil H. McElroy
9	File:James H. Douglas Jr. (cropped).jpg	James H. Douglas Jr.	December 11, 1959	January 24, 1961	Template:Ayd	Thomas S. Gates Jr. Robert McNamara
10	File:Roswell Gilpatric.PNG	Roswell Gilpatric	January 24, 1961	January 20, 1964	Template:Ayd	Robert McNamara	John F. Kennedy
11	File:CyrusVanceSoS.jpg	Cyrus Vance	January 28, 1964	June 30, 1967	Template:Ayd		Lyndon B. Johnson
12	File:Paul Nitze.jpeg	Paul Nitze	July 1, 1967	January 20, 1969	Template:Ayd	Robert McNamara Clark Clifford
13	File:David-Packard-DepSecDef.jpg	David Packard	January 24, 1969	December 13, 1971	Template:Ayd	Melvin Laird	Richard Nixon
14	File:Kenneth-Rush-1977.jpg	Kenneth Rush	February 23, 1972	January 29, 1973	Template:Ayd
15	File:Clements Deputy DoD.jpg	Bill Clements	January 30, 1973	January 20, 1977	Template:Ayd	Elliot Richardson James R. Schlesinger Donald Rumsfeld
16	File:Robert F. Ellsworth.jpg	Robert Ellsworth	December 23, 1975<ref name="DODKO:16">Department of Defense Key Officials 1947–2015: p. 16.</ref>	January 10, 1977<ref name="DODKO:16" />	Template:Ayd	Donald Rumsfeld	Gerald Ford
17	File:Secretary Duncan (cropped).jpg	Charles Duncan Jr.	January 31, 1977	July 26, 1979	Template:Ayd	Harold Brown	Jimmy Carter
18	File:W. Graham Claytor 1984.jpg	W. Graham Claytor Jr.	August 24, 1979	January 16, 1981	Template:Ayd
19	File:Frank Carlucci.jpg	Frank Carlucci	February 4, 1981	December 31, 1982	Template:Ayd	Caspar Weinberger	Ronald Reagan
20	File:W-Paul-Thayer-portrait.jpg	W. Paul Thayer	January 12, 1983	January 4, 1984	Template:Ayd
21	File:William Howard Taft IV, Deptuty Secretary of Defense, official portrait (cropped).jpg	William Howard Taft IV	February 3, 1984	April 22, 1989	Template:Ayd	Caspar Weinberger Frank Carlucci Dick Cheney
22	File:Donald J. Atwood, Jr.jpg	Donald J. Atwood Jr.	April 24, 1989	January 20, 1993	Template:Ayd	Dick Cheney	George H. W. Bush
23	File:William Perry official DoD photo.jpg	William Perry	March 5, 1993	February 3, 1994	Template:Ayd	Les Aspin	Bill Clinton
24	File:John Deutch, Undersecretary of Defense, 1993 official photo (cropped).JPEG	John M. Deutch	March 11, 1994	May 10, 1995	Template:Ayd	William Perry
25	File:John P. White, official DoD portrait (cropped).jpg	John P. White	June 22, 1995	July 15, 1997	Template:Ayd	William Perry William Cohen
26	File:Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre, official portrait (cropped).jpg	John Hamre	July 29, 1997	March 31, 2000	Template:Ayd	William Cohen
27	File:Deputy Secretary of Defense Rudy de Leon, official portrait (cropped).jpg	Rudy de Leon	March 31, 2000<ref name="DODKO:17">Department of Defense Key Officials 1947–2015: p. 17.</ref>	March 1, 2001<ref name="DODKO:17" />	Template:Ayd	William Cohen Donald Rumsfeld
28	File:Paul Wolfowitz (cropped).jpg	Paul Wolfowitz	March 2, 2001<ref name="DODKO:18" />	May 13, 2005<ref name="DODKO:18" />	Template:Ayd	Donald Rumsfeld	George W. Bush
29	File:Gordon England portrait (cropped).jpg	Gordon R. England	Template:Highlight January 4, 2006<ref name="DODKO:18" />	Template:HighlightTemplate:Efn February 11, 2009<ref name="DODKO:18" />	Template:Ayd Template:Age in days	Donald Rumsfeld Robert Gates
30	File:Deputy Secretary of Defense Lynn (cropped).jpg	William J. Lynn III	February 12, 2009<ref name="DODKO:18" />	October 5, 2011<ref name="DODKO:18" />	Template:Ayd	Robert Gates Leon Panetta	Barack Obama
31	File:Ashton Carter DOD photo (cropped).jpg	Ash Carter	October 6, 2011<ref name="DODKO:18" />	December 4, 2013<ref name="DODKO:18" />	Template:Ayd	Leon Panetta Chuck Hagel
—	File:Christine Fox (cropped).jpg	Christine Fox Acting	December 5, 2013<ref name="DODKO:18">Department of Defense Key Officials 1947–2015: p. 18.</ref>	May 1, 2014<ref name="DODKO:18" />	Template:Age in days	Chuck Hagel
32	File:Robert O. Work DoD photo (cropped).jpg	Robert O. Work	May 1, 2014	July 14, 2017	Template:Ayd	Chuck Hagel Ash Carter Jim Mattis
33	File:Patrick M. Shanahan official portrait (cropped).jpg	Patrick M. Shanahan	July 19, 2017	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Template:Ayd	Jim Mattis Himself (acting)	Donald Trump
—	File:David L. Norquist official portrait (cropped).jpg	David Norquist Acting	January 1, 2019	July 23, 2019	Template:Ayd	Patrick M. Shanahan (acting) Mark Esper (acting) Richard V. Spencer (acting)
—	File:Richard V. Spencer official photo (cropped).jpg	Richard V. Spencer Acting	July 23, 2019	July 31, 2019	Template:Ayd	Mark Esper
34	File:David L. Norquist – Deputy Secretary of Defense (cropped).jpg	David Norquist	July 31, 2019	February 8, 2021	Template:Ayd	Mark Esper Lloyd Austin
35	File:Kathleen H. Hicks, Deputy Secretary of Defense (cropped).jpg	Kathleen Hicks	February 8, 2021	January 20, 2025	Template:Ayd	Lloyd Austin	Joe Biden
—	File:Robert Salesses in 2005 (cropped).jpg	Robert G. Salesses<ref>defense.gov</ref> Acting	January 28, 2025	March 17, 2025	Template:Ayd	Pete Hegseth	Donald Trump
36	File:Feinberg DoD Portrait 2025 (cropped).png	Stephen Feinberg	March 17, 2025	Incumbent	Template:Ayd

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

References

Sources

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• deputy secretary of defense position profile at Prunes Online

External links

• defense.gov