ABOUT THIS COMPANY

ABOUT THIS COMPANY

Defense basics

The Department of Defense (DoD) provides military forces needed in the event of war and protects the nation’s security.  It oversees four military departments (Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force) and a number of reserve programs, agencies and unified commands.  The unified commands handle operations while military departments train, recruit and equip their forces.  The other branch of the DoD, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, plans and coordinates military deployments.  The agency says it is the “nation’s largest employer.”  The department employs 2.4 million active-duty and reserve forces and a civilian staff of about 700,000.  During the Bush administration, the fiscal year 2009 budget for the Department of Defense amounted to $515.4 billion, a 7.5 percent increase in fiscal year 2008.  The Obama administration, on the other hand, released an amount of $533.7 billion for DoD for fiscal year 2010, a 4 percent increase from the 2009 budget, to support the projected increase of military soldiers and operational programs of the department.