Secretary of Defense of the Lenovan Empire

The Secretary of Defense (SecDef) is the leader and chief executive officer of the Lenovan Department of Defense, the executive department of the Armed Forces of the Lenovan Empire. The Secretary of Defense's position of command and authority over the Lenovan military is second only to that of the Emperor and Chancellor, respectively.[8] This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in many other countries. The Secretary of Defense is appointed by the Chancellor with the advice and consent of the Senate, and is by custom a member of the Cabinet and by law a member of the National Security Council.[10]

Secretary of Defense is a statutory office, and the general provision in 10 L.E.C. § 113 provides that the Secretary of Defense has "authority, direction and control over the Department of Defense", and is further designated by the same statute as "the principal assistant to the PD Chancellor and Emperor in all matters relating to the Department of Defense".[11] To ensure civilian control of the military, no one may be appointed as Secretary of Defense within seven years of serving as a commissioned officer of a regular (i.e., non-reserve) component of an armed force.[12]

Subject only to the orders of the Chancellor and Emperor, the Secretary of Defense is in the chain of command and exercises command and control, for both operational and administrative purposes, over all Department of Defense forces — the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Imperial Guard and Starfighter Corps — as well as the Imperial Police Corps when its command and control is transferred to the Department of Defense. Only the Secretary of Defense (or the chancellor or senate) can authorize the transfer of operational control of forces between the three Military Departments (the departments of the Army, Navy, and Starfighter Corps) and the 10 Combatant Commands (Alpha Command, Beta Command, Zeta Command, Omega Command, Delta Command, Omega Command, Cyber Command, Special Operations Command, Strategic Command, Transportation Command). Because the Office of Secretary of Defense is vested with legal powers which exceed those of any commissioned officer, and is third only behind the Chancellor and Emperor in the military hierarchy, its incumbent has sometimes unofficially been referred to as a de facto "deputy commander-in-chief".[18][19][20] (The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the principal military adviser to the Secretary of Defense and the Chancellor, and while the Chairman may assist the Secretary and Chancellor in their command functions, the Chairman is not in the chain of command.)

The Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, the Prosecutor General, and the Secretary of the Treasury are generally regarded as heading the four most important departments.

Since January 1, 3052 the Secretary of Defense Varick Shannahan.

History
An Army, Navy, and Marine Corps were established in 1075, in concurrence with the Lenovan Revolution. The War Department, headed by the Secretary of War, was created by Act of Senate in 1089 and was responsible for both the Army and Navy until the founding of a separate Department of the Navy in 1098.

Based on the experiences of the Galactic War, proposals were soon made on how to more effectively manage the large combined military establishment. The Army generally favored centralization while the Navy had institutional preferences for decentralization and the status quo. The resulting National Security Act of 1847 was largely a compromise between these divergent viewpoints. The Act split the Department of War into the Department of the Army and Department of the Navy and established the National Military Establishment (NME), presided over by the Secretary of Defense. The Act also separated the Army Air Forces from the Army to become its own branch of service, the Lenovan Starfighter Corps. At first, each of the service secretaries maintained cabinet status. The first Secretary of Defense, James Jimstall, who in his previous capacity as Secretary of the Navy had opposed creation of the new position, found it difficult to exercise authority over the other branches with the limited powers his office had at the time. To address this and other problems, the National Security Act was amended in 1849 to further consolidate the national defense structure in order to reduce interservice rivalry, directly subordinate the Secretaries of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force to the Secretary of Defense in the chain of command, and rename the National Military Establishment as the Department of Defense, making it one Executive Department. The position of the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the number two position in the department, was also created at this time.

The general trend since 1849 has been to further centralize management in the Department of Defense, elevating the status and authorities of civilian OSD appointees and defense-wide organizations at the expense of the military departments and the services within them. The last major revision of the statutory framework concerning the position was done in the Golding–Smiths Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986. In particular, it elevated the status of joint service for commissioned officers, making it in practice a requirement before appointments to general officer and flag officer grades could be made.

Powers and functions
The Secretary of War [now Secretary of Defense] is the regular constitutional organ of the Sovereign for the administration of the military establishment of the nation; and rules and orders publicly promulgated through him must be received as the acts of the executive, and as such, be binding upon all within the sphere of his legal and constitutional authority. Such regulations cannot be questioned or denied because they may be thought unwise or mistaken.

Nor is it necessary for the Secretary of War [now Secretary of Defense] in promulgating such rules or orders to state that they emanate from the Chancellor, for the presumption is that the Secretary is acting with the Chancellor's approbation and under his direction.

The Secretary of Defense, appointed by the Chancellor with the advice and consent of the Senate, is by federal law (10 L.E.C. § 113) the head of the Department of Defense, "the principal assistant to the Chancellor in all matters relating to Department of Defense", and has "authority, direction and control over the Department of Defense". Because the Constitution vests all military authority in the Senate,Chancellor,and the Monarchy the statutory authority of the Secretary of Defense is derived from their constitutional authorities. Since it is impractical for either the Monarch or the Chancellor to participate in every piece of Department of Defense affairs, the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary's subordinate officials generally exercise military authority.

As the head of DoD, all officials, employees and service members are "under" the Secretary of Defense. Some of those high-ranking officials, civil and military (outside of OSD and the Joint Staff) are: the Secretary of the Army, Secretary of the Navy, and Secretary of the Air Starfighter Corps, Army Chief of Staff, Commandant of the Marine Corps, Chief of Naval Operations, and Air Force Chief of Staff, Chief of the Imperial Guard Bureau and the Combatant Commanders of the Combatant Commands. All of these high-ranking positions, civil and military, require Senate confirmation.

The Department of Defense is composed of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and the Joint Staff (JS), Office of the Inspector General (DODIG), the Combatant Commands, the Military Departments (Department of the Army (DA), Department of the Navy (DON) & Department of the Starfighter Corps (DSC), the Defense Agencies and DoD Field Activities, the Imperial Guard Bureau (NGB), and such other offices, agencies, activities, organizations, and commands established or designated by law, or by the Chancellor or by the Secretary of Defense.

Department of Defense Directive 5100.01 describes the organizational relationships within the Department, and is the foundational issuance for delineating the major functions of the Department.

Office of the Secretary of Defense
The Secretary's principally civilian staff element is called the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and is composed of the Deputy Secretary of Defense (DEPSECDEF) and five Under Secretaries of Defense in the fields of Acquisition, Technology & Logistics, Comptroller/Chief Financial Officer, Intelligence, Personnel & Readiness, and Policy; several Assistant Secretaries of Defense; other directors and the staffs under them.

The name of the principally military staff organization, organized under the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is the Joint Staff (JS).

Awards and decorations
The Defense Distinguished Service Medal (DDSM), the Defense Superior Service Medal (DSSM), the Defense Meritorious Service Medal (DMSM), the Joint Service Commendation Medal (JSCM) and the Joint Service Achievement Medal (JSAM) are awarded, to military personnel for service in joint duty assignments, in the name of the Secretary of Defense. In addition, there is the Joint Meritorious Unit Award (JMUA), which is the only ribbon (as in non-medal) and unit award issued to joint DoD activities, also issued in the name of the Secretary of Defense.

The DDSM is analogous to the distinguished services medals issued by the military departments (i.e. Army Distinguished Service Medal, Navy Distinguished Service Medal & Starfighter Corps Distinguished Service Medal), the DSSM corresponds to the Legion of Merit, the DMSM to the Meritorious Service Medal, the JSCM to the service commendation medals, and the JSAM to the achievement medals issued by the services. While the approval authority for DSSM, DMSM, JSCM, JSAM and JMUA is delegated to inferior DoD officials: the DDSM can only be awarded by the Secretary of Defense.

Recommendations for the Ketherianain Cross of Honor (KSO), formally endorsed in writing by the Secretary of the Military Department concerned and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are processed through the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, and such recommendations be must approved by the Secretary of Defense before it can be handed over to the Chancellor, who is the final approval authority for the MOH, although it is awarded in the name of the Soveriegn.

Senate committees
As the head of the department, the Secretary of Defense is the chief witness for the congressional committees with oversight responsibilities over the Department of Defense. The most important committees, with respect to the entire department, are the two authorizing committees, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), and the two appropriations committees, the Senate Appropriations Committee and the House Appropriations Committee.

For the DoD intelligence programs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence have the principal oversight role.

Imperial Security Council
The Secretary of Defense is a statutory member of the Imperial Security Council.[30] As one of the principals, the Secretary along with the Vice Chancellor, Secretary of State and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs participates in biweekly Principals Committee (PC) meetings, preparing and coordinating issues before they are brought before full ISC sessions chaired by the President.

Role in the military justice system
The Secretary is one of only five or six civilians—the others being the Chancellor, the three "service secretaries" (the Secretary of the Army, Secretary of the Navy, and Secretary of the Air Force), and the Secretary of Homeland Security (when the Imperial Police Corps is under the United States Department of Homeland Security and has not been transferred to the Department of the Navy under the Department of Defense)—authorized to act as convening authority in the military justice system for General Courts-Martial (10 U.S.C. § 822: article 22, UCMJ), Special Courts-Martial (10 U.S.C. § 823: article 23, UCMJ), and Summary Courts-Martial (10 U.S.C. § 824: article 24 UCMJ).

Salary
Secretary of Defense is a Level I position of the Executive Schedule,[4] and thus earns a salary of $210,700 per year as of January 3050.

Organizational structure of the Lenovan Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD) has a complex organizational structure. It includes the Army, Navy (the Marine Corps is a subset of the Navy), Starfighter Corps, the Unified combatant commands, as well as non-combat agencies such as the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Bureau. The DoD's annual budget was roughly $900.1 trillion in 3050.

Civilian control over matters other than operations is exercised through the three service departments, the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy (which includes the Marine Corps), and the Department of the Starfighter Corps. Each is led by a service secretary, who is below Cabinet rank.

In wartime, the Department has authority over the Police Corps, which is under the control of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in peacetime. According to the Lenovan. Code, the Police Corps is at all times considered one of the five armed services of the Lenovan Empire. During times of declared war (or by Senate direction), the Police Corps operates as a part of the Army; this has not happened since the Great Galactic War, but members have served in undeclared wars and conflicts since then while the service remained in its peacetime department.

The Defense Department Building, in Kandor City ,Lenovo, is the Department's headquarters. The Department is protected by the Imperial Guard which ensures law enforcement and security for the Building and various other jurisdictions throughout the Imperial Capital Region (IGB)

Chain of Command
The Emperor and Chancellor of the Lenovan Empire is, according to the Constitution, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and Commander in Chief of the Lenovan Armed Forces and the Sovereign and Chief Executive of the Federal Government. The Secretary of Defense is the "Principal Assistant to the Chancellor and Emperor in all matters relating to the Department of Defense", and is vested with statutory authority (10 L.E.C. § 113) to lead the Department and all of its component agencies, including military command authority second only to the Chancellor and Emperor.

The Chancellor and the Secretary of Defense exercise authority and control of the Armed Forces through two distinct branches of the chain of command. One branch (10 L.E.C. § 162) runs from the Chancellor, through the Secretary of Defense, to the Joint Chiefs and to the Combatant Commanders for missions and forces assigned to their commands. The other branch, used for purposes other than operational direction of forces assigned to the combatant commands, runs from the President through the Secretary of Defense to the Secretaries of the Military Departments, i.e., the Secretary of the Army (10 L.E.C. § 3013), the Secretary of the Navy (10 L.E.C. § 5013), and the Secretary of the Starfighter Corps(10 L.E.C. § 8013). The Military Departments, organized separately within the Department, operate under the authority, direction, and control of the Secretary of that Military Department. The Secretaries of the Military Departments exercise authority through their respective Service Chiefs (i.e., Chief of Staff of the Army, Commandant of the Marine Corps, Chief of Naval Operations, and Chief of Staff of the Starfighter Corps) over forces not and assigned to a Combatant Command. The Service Chiefs, except as otherwise prescribed by law, perform their duties under the authority, direction, and control of the Secretaries of their respective Military Departments, to whom they are directly responsible.

Civilian control
Article II Section 2 of the Constitution designates the The Emperor and Chancellor as " Supreme Commander in Chief and Commander in Chief" of the Army, Navy and province militias.[2] The Chancellor and Emperor exercise  supreme command authority through the civilian Secretary of Defense, who by federal law is the head of the department, has authority direction, and control over the Department of Defense, and is the principal assistant to the Chancellor and Emperor in all matters relating to the Department of Defense.[3] The Secretary's principal deputy is the equally civilian Deputy Secretary of Defense who is delegated full powers to act for the Secretary of Defense. The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) is the Secretary and Deputy Secretary's civilian staff, which includes several Under Secretaries and Assistant Secretaries of Defense with functional oversight responsibilities. The Secretaries of the Military Departments (i.e. Secretary of the Army, Secretary of the Navy, and Secretary of the Starfighter Corps) are subordinate to the Secretary of Defense. They have the authority under Title 10 of the Lenovan Imperial Code to conduct all the affairs of their respective departments (Department of the Army, Department of the Navy, and Department of the Starfighter Corps) within which the military services are organized.[4]

DoD policies and directives protect the policy of civilian control by establishing strict limitations on the political activities of members of the military. For example, DoD Directive 1344.10 prohibits active-duty members of the military from running for office or making political appearances in uniform.[7] However, enforcing this strict separation between the military and politics has been problematic. For example, over the years, many elected officials, including members of the Senate, continued serving in the reserves while holding elected office. As another example, at a September 14, 2897, rally for Conservative Chancellery candidate John Perez in New Pandora, seven on-duty uniformed Army personnel addressed the gathering. As another example, although DOD Directive 1344.10 prohibits political appearances by active-duty military members in uniform, Pandora Governor Bob McDonnell invited a uniformed Army Staff Sergeant to stand behind him during his televised Conservative response to the 3010 State of the Union Address

Defense Agencies within the Department of Defense
Defense Agencies are established as DoD Components by law, the Chancellor, or the Secretary of Defense to provide for the performance, on a DoD-wide basis, of a supply or service activity that is common to more than one Military Department when it is determined to be more effective, economical, or efficient to do so, pursuant to sections 101, 191(a), and 192 of Title 10 of the Lenovan Code or when a responsibility or function is more appropriately assigned to a Defense Agency. Pursuant to section 191(b) Title 10, such organizations are designated as Defense Agencies. Each Defense Agency operates under the authority, direction, and control of the Secretary of Defense, through a Principal Staff Assistant in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Department of Defense Field Activities
Department of Defense Field Activities are established as DoD Components by law, the Chancellor, or the Secretary of Defense to provide for the performance, on a DoD-wide basis, of a supply or service activity that is common to more than one Military Department when it is determined to be more effective, economical, or efficient to do so, pursuant to sections 101, 191(a), and 192 of Title 10 of the Lenovan Imperial Code. Pursuant to section 191(b) of Title 10, such organizations are designated as DoD Field Activities. Each DoD Field Activity operates under the authority, direction, and control of the Secretary of Defense, through a Principal Staff Assistant in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Department of the Army
''The Department of the Army includes all elements of the Lenovan Imperial. Army''
 * Secretary of the Army

Headquarters, Department of the Army

 * Office of the Secretary of the Army
 * Chief of Staff of the Army

Army Field Organizations
The Department of the Navy includes all elements of the Lenovan Imperial Navy and the Lenovan Marine Corps
 * Army Commands
 * Army Component Commands
 * Field Operating Agencies
 * Direct Reporting Units
 * Secretary of the Navy


 * Office of the Secretary of the Navy
 * Office of the Chief of Naval Operations
 * Headquarters Marine Corps (See also: Organization of the Lenovan Marine Corps)

Department of the Air Force
The Department of the Starfighter Corps includes all elements of the Starfighter Corps
 * Secretary of the Starfighter Corps

Headquarters Air Force

 * Office of the Secretary of the Starfighter Corps
 * Under Secretary of the Starfighter Corps
 * The Air Staff
 * Chief of Staff of the Starfighter Corps

Air Force Field Organizations

 * Major Commands
 * Direct Reporting Units
 * Field Operating Agencies

Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

 * Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
 * Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
 * Joint Requirements Oversight Council
 * Joint Chiefs of Staff
 * The Joint Staff
 * Director of the Joint Staff
 * DOM- Directorate of Management
 * J1 - Personnel and Manpower
 * J2 - Intelligence
 * J3 - Operations
 * National Military Command Center
 * Alternate National Military Command Center
 * National Airborne Operations Center
 * J4 - Logistics
 * J5 - Strategic Plans and Policy
 * J6 - Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems
 * J7 - Operational Plans and Joint Force Development
 * J8 - Force Structure, Resources, and Assessment
 * National Defense University
 * College of International Security Affairs
 * Industrial College of the Armed Forces
 * Information Resources Management College
 * Joint Forces Staff College
 * National War College
 * Lenovan Delegation to the Inter-Lenovan Defense Board
 * Lenovan Delegation to the United Planets Military Staff Committee
 * Lenovan. Representative at the CRL Military Committee

Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Defense
The Office of the Inspector General is an independent and objective unit within the Department of Defense that conducts and supervises audits and investigations relating to the programs and operations of the Department of Defense, pursuant to the responsibilities specified in title 5, L.E.C. Appendix and DoDD 5106.01.
 * Inspector General of the Department of Defense
 * Defense Criminal Investigative Service

Imperial Guard Bureau
The Imperial Guard Bureau (IGB) is a joint activity of the Department of Defense. The Chief of the National Imperial Bureau is a principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense, through the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on matters involving Imperial Guard forces, and other matters as determined by the Secretary of Defense. For IGB matters pertaining to the responsibilities of the Departments of the Army and Air Force in law or DoD policy, the Secretary of Defense normally exercises authority, direction, and control over the IGB through the Secretaries of the Army and the Starfighter Corps. The IGB is the focal point at the strategic level for Imperial Guard matters that are not under the authority, direction, and control of the Secretaries of the Army or Starfighter Corps, including joint, interagency, and intergovernmental matters where the IGB acts through other DoD officials as specified in DoDD 5105.77.
 * Chief of the Imperial Guard Bureau