Ministry of Defense

The Ministry of Defense, also referred to as the Defense Ministry, is the executive government ministry charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government concerned directly with the Central Galactic Defense Forces. It, along with the Ministry of State Security, have administrative responsibility for the national security and military defense of the Republic. It is also the largest single employing agency in the Galaxy, with around 3% of the human population employed as active-duty military service members, supported by one billion civilians and 600 billion military reservists. Around a 5% of all synthetic citizens are employed by the Ministry of Defense, either as servicemembers or as civilian support, accounting for 20 trillion additional employees.
The Ministry of Defense is headed by the Minister of State for Defense, also called simply the Minister of Defense or Defense Minister, a cabinet minister and one of the most prestigious members of the Council of Ministers and the National Security Committee. The Minister of Defense is third in the order of precedence, after the Supreme Chancellor and the Vice Chancellor. Beneath the Minister and the central office is the Defense Forces Department that directly administers the service branches, the joint Defense Staff, the Office of Military and Naval Intelligence, the Special Warfare Research Agency, the Logistics Service Agency, the Department of Military Health and Sciences, and the Inspectorate-General of the Defense Forces. The Defense Staff is a committee of the heads of the service branches and the joint high commanders which, in peacetime, reports directly to the Minister of Defense and the Executive Council, and broadly directs the military operations of Combatant Commanders. However, in a state of emergency or a declared war, the Defense Ministry's command authority is suspended, and command flows directly from the Supreme Chancellor to the Defense Staff. The Central Galactic Union has been under a state of war since 2688.