Department of Defense

Overview

The United States Department of Defense (DOD or DoD) is the federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to national security and the military. The organization and functions of the DOD are set forth in Title 10 of the United States Code.

The DOD has three major components — the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, and the Department of the Air Force. Among the many DOD agencies are the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and the National Security Agency (NSA).

Cybersecurity

The Department of Defense plays a key role in defending U.S. interests in cyberspace. Various Defense Department directives provide guidance and define terms such as Information Operations and Information Assurance. For instance, the Joint Doctrine for Information Operations (Joint Pub 3-13, October 9, 1998), represents a key document in defining how U.S. joint forces use cyberwarfare to support U.S. military strategy. But much of what the military does in cyberspace today is an outgrowth of traditional views and approaches toward ensuring information security (InfoSec).

The military has been further guided by Joint Vision 2010 (JV-2010), a broad long-term strategic concept for joint military strategy and planning purposes promulgated by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. JV-2010 embraced information superiority and technological advantages designed to transform traditional warfighting. Its successor, JV-2020 (released May 30, 2000), extends the conceptual template established by JV-2010 to guide the continuing transformation of U.S. military forces. Among other things, JV-2020 states:

changes in the information environment make information superiority a key enabler of the transformation of the operational capabilities of the joint force and the

evolution of joint command and control.

Also, the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) stated that asymmetric forms of warfare, such as information warfare, will become increasingly prevalent in the world, adding:

because of the prevalence of such capabilities in the hands of potential future adversaries and the likelihood that such adversaries would resort to such means in the face of overwhelming U.S. conventional dominance, U.S. forces must plan and prepare to fight and win major theater wars under such conditions.