United States Deputy Secretary of Defense

The **United States deputy secretary of defense** (**DepSecDef**) is the second-highest-ranking official in the Department of Defense (DoD). The position was established in 1947 with the National Security Act. The first person to hold this position is Stephen Early.

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.

## Duties

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. The deputy secretary is first in the line of succession to the secretary of defense.

The basic 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._

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 duties 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

|rowspan="2"|No.|rowspan="2"|Image|rowspan="2"|Name|colspan="3"|Term of office|rowspan="2"|Serving under Secretaries of Defense|rowspan="2"|Appointed by President|||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1||Stephen Early|August 10, 1949|September 30, 1950||Louis A. Johnson George C. Marshall|rowspan="3"|Harry S. Truman||||||||
|2||Robert A. Lovett|October 4, 1950|September 16, 1951||George C. Marshall||||||||||
|3||William Chapman Foster|September 24, 1951|January 20, 1953||Robert A. Lovett||||||||||
|4||Roger M. Kyes|February 2, 1953|May 1, 1954||rowspan="3"|Charles Erwin Wilson|rowspan="6"|Dwight D. Eisenhower|||||||
|5||Robert B. Anderson|May 3, 1954|August 4, 1955||||||||||||
|6||Reuben B. Robertson Jr.|August 5, 1955|April 25, 1957||||||||||||
|7||Donald A. Quarles|May 1, 1957|May 8, 1959||Charles Erwin Wilson Neil H. McElroy||||||||||
|8||Thomas S. Gates Jr.|June 8, 1959|December 1, 1959||Neil H. McElroy||||||||||
|9||James H. Douglas Jr.|December 11, 1959|January 24, 1961||Thomas S. Gates Jr. Robert McNamara||||||||||
|10||Roswell Gilpatric|January 24, 1961|January 20, 1964||rowspan="2"|Robert McNamara|John F. Kennedy||||||||
|11||Cyrus Vance|January 28, 1964|June 30, 1967||rowspan="2"|Lyndon B. Johnson|||||||||
|12||Paul Nitze|July 1, 1967|January 20, 1969||Robert McNamara Clark Clifford||||||||||
|13||David Packard|January 24, 1969|December 13, 1971||rowspan="2"|Melvin Laird|rowspan="3"|Richard Nixon|||||||
|14||Kenneth Rush|February 23, 1972|January 29, 1973||||||||||||
|15||Bill Clements|January 30, 1973|January 20, 1977||Elliot Richardson James R. Schlesinger Donald Rumsfeld||||||||||
|16||Robert Ellsworth|December 23, 1975|January 10, 1977||Donald Rumsfeld|Gerald Ford|||||||||
|17||Charles Duncan Jr.|January 31, 1977|July 26, 1979||rowspan="2"|Harold Brown|rowspan="2"|Jimmy Carter|||||||
|18||W. Graham Claytor Jr.|August 24, 1979|January 16, 1981||||||||||||
|19||Frank Carlucci|February 4, 1981|December 31, 1982||rowspan="2"|Caspar Weinberger|rowspan="3"|Ronald Reagan|||||||
|20||W. Paul Thayer|January 12, 1983|January 4, 1984||||||||||||
|21||William Howard Taft IV|February 3, 1984|April 22, 1989||Caspar Weinberger Frank Carlucci Dick Cheney||||||||||
|22||Donald J. Atwood Jr.|April 24, 1989|January 20, 1993||Dick Cheney|George H. W. Bush|||||||||
|23||William Perry|March 5, 1993|February 3, 1994||Les Aspin|rowspan="5"|Bill Clinton||||||||
|24||John M. Deutch|March 11, 1994|May 10, 1995||William Perry||||||||||
|25||John P. White|June 22, 1995|July 15, 1997||William Perry William Cohen||||||||||
|26||John Hamre|July 29, 1997|March 31, 2000||William Cohen||||||||||
|27||Rudy de Leon|March 31, 2000|March 1, 2001||William Cohen Donald Rumsfeld||||||||||
|28||Paul Wolfowitz|March 2, 2001|May 13, 2005||Donald Rumsfeld|rowspan="2"|George W. Bush||||||||
|29||Gordon R. England|January 4, 2006|February 11, 2009|__|Donald Rumsfeld Robert Gates||||||||||
|30||William J. Lynn III|February 12, 2009|October 5, 2011||Robert Gates Leon Panetta|rowspan="4"|Barack Obama||||||||
|31||Ash Carter|October 6, 2011|December 4, 2013||Leon Panetta Chuck Hagel||||||||||
|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"|—|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"||bgcolor="#e6e6aa"|Christine Fox _Acting_|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"|December 5, 2013|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"|May 1, 2014|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"||Chuck Hagel||||
|32||Robert O. Work|May 1, 2014|July 14, 2017||Chuck Hagel Ash Carter Jim Mattis||||||||||
|33||Patrick M. Shanahan|July 19, 2017|June 23, 2019||Jim Mattis _Himself_ (acting)|rowspan="4"|Donald Trump||||||||
|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"|—|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"||bgcolor="#e6e6aa"|David Norquist _Acting_|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"|January 1, 2019|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"|July 23, 2019|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"||Patrick M. Shanahan (acting) Mark Esper (acting) Richard V. Spencer (acting)||||
|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"|—|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"||bgcolor="#e6e6aa"|Richard V. Spencer _Acting_|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"|July 23, 2019|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"|July 31, 2019|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"||Mark Esper||||
|34||David Norquist|July 31, 2019|February 8, 2021||Mark Esper Lloyd Austin||||||||||
|35||Kathleen Hicks|February 8, 2021|January 20, 2025||Lloyd Austin|Joe Biden|||||||||
|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"|—|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"||bgcolor="#e6e6aa"|Robert G. Salesses _Acting_|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"|January 28, 2025|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"|March 17, 2025|bgcolor="#e6e6aa"||rowspan="2"|Pete Hegseth|rowspan="2"|Donald Trump|
|36||Stephen Feinberg|March 17, 2025|_Incumbent_||||||||||||

## Infobox (official post)

- **post**: United States Deputy Secretary
- **body**: Defense
- **flag**: Flag of the United States Deputy Secretary of Defense.svg
- **flagsize**: 130
- **flagcaption**: Flag of the Deputy Secretary
- **insignia**: Seal of the United States Department of Defense.svg
- **insigniasize**: 120
- **insigniacaption**: Seal of the Department
- **image**: Feinberg DoD Portrait 2025.png
- **incumbent**: Steve Feinberg
- **incumbentsince**: March 17, 2025
- **acting**: No
- **department**: United States Department of Defense, Department of Defense
Office of the Secretary of Defense, Office of the Secretary
- **style**: Mister/Madam Deputy Secretary (informal)
The Honourable#United States, The Honorable (formal)
- **status**: Chief operating officer
- **reports to**: United States Secretary of Defense, Secretary
- **seat**: The Pentagon, Arlington County, Virginia
- **appointer**: The President of the United States, President
- **appointer qualified**: with United States Senate, Senate advice and consent
- **termlength**: No fixed term
- **first**: Stephen Early
May 2, 1949
- **formation**: 1949
- **succession**: United States Secretary of Defense#Succession, 1st in SecDef succession
- **salary**: Executive Schedule, Executive Schedule, level II