Secretary of Defense Duties

With an estimated budget of US$639 billion or more (2018 data), the US Department of Defense is a very prestigious wing of the US government. The US is one of the top military powers in the world. While the U.S. President is the supreme commander-in-chief of US army, there are some crucial positions that play a pivotal role in ensuring national security.

One such designation is of the secretary of defense, who is appointed as the head of the Department of Defense. Secretary of defense duties are extended to all matters concerned with the national safety and security. Have a look at it in more details.

The secretary of defense is entrusted with many duties and responsibilities in the government. In general, duties of this most crucial Defense Department (DoD) post is are:

The Pentagon is the central building of the US Department of Defense. All activities regarding military and national security businesses are done and finalized there. As a secretary of defense, one is expected to look into the daily business of Pentagon and take care of the entire management set up.

It is just like managing one big business, right from its operational department to the R & D wing to ensuring military supplies in case of need. The defense secretary is answerable to the President on management of the Pentagon.

As stated earlier, the US defense budget is amongst the highest in the world. The secretary of defense looks after allocation of budget and expenditures of the US Defense department. He needs to keep a track of the budget, to the tunes of US$639 billion or more, which is eye-popping!

Besides that he looks after the millions of employees in the DoD and ensures everyone gets their salaries and benefits timely. He has to keep a record of every penny spend by the Pentagon as he is the in-charge of the expenditure of the DoD.

• Assigns duties and responsibilities to each Defense department, depending on its strength and capacity.
• In case war, advice the President on deployment of nuclear weapons.

• Ensures that the Defense Department is well managed and is dedicated towards improving the safety and security of the US.
• Monitor the quality of weapons, specifications, standards and ensure that military equipment are manufactured with zero margin of error.

Any citizen of U.S. with deep understanding of how the government works, priorities of U.S. security and defense and has a way to deal with the members of congress is deemed to be an ideal person for defense secretary position.

It is a fact that an ex-military person who has left the service more than 7 years before is also eligible to be appointed as a Secretary of Defense. He must be a great statesman as he will be required to work with variety of Congress members.

He must also be well acquainted with the national peace and security issues of the US. Abundant knowledge on national, international and security issues is important. Secretary defense duties of US have been included in the Title 10 of the United States Code. This is just an overview of all generalized duties.