[57], In 2015, a Pentagon consulting firm performed an audit on the Department of Defense's budget. The Air Force uses 10% of the nation's aviation fuel. [57], In 2015, a Pentagon consulting firm performed an audit on the Department of Defense's budget. Another of McNamara's contributions was to help institutionalize a more serious attitude within the Defense Department toward strategic arms control and disarmament. . Reuters reported in 2013 that the Pentagon was the only federal agency that had not released annual audits as required by a 1992 law. The Department of Defense accounts for the majority of federal discretionary spending. Begun toward the end of Carter's presidency, it gathered momentum under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s to become the largest such effort in American history. [16], On 26 July 1947, Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, which set up a unified military command known as the "National Military Establishment", as well as creating the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council, National Security Resources Board, United States Air Force (formerly the Army Air Forces) and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. James V. Forrestal, the first secretary of defense (1947–1949), had a difficult task—molding a workable organization, dealing with squabbling among the services over roles and missions, and developing a viable defense budget. Including cabinet departments of the army, navy, and air force, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and several other defense agencies, the NME replaced the War and Navy departments. The faltering of détente, an across-the-board Warsaw Pact buildup in Europe, and the Soviet Union's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan all suggested that the Cold War was far from over and that U.S. foreign policy still needed the support of a strong U.S. military establishment. Deliberations in Congress went on for months focusing heavily on the role of the military in society and the threat of granting too much military power to the executive. In a well-publicized speech of November 1984, entitled "Uses of Military Power," Secretary Weinberger laid down specific criteria that he thought should govern U.S. military commitments abroad. Indeed, in certain respects, the department found itself ill-prepared for the more demanding role that Reagan thrust upon it. De negen "Unified Combatant Commands". The low point came with the drafting of NSC 68 in the spring of 1950, when the State Department team, led by Paul H. Nitze, director of the Policy Planning Staff, effectively usurped leadership of what was supposed to have been a joint State-Defense endeavor. Since the campaign against Afghanistan, the secretary of defense under President george w. bush, Donald Rumsfeld, has become a central figure in the American media. In electricity consumption, if it were a country, the department would rank 58th in the world, using slightly less than Denmark and slightly more than Syria (CIA World Factbook, 2006). Whether Gates could or should have been tougher with the military on accepting the need for arms control falls into the realm of conjecture. For other uses, see, United States federal executive department, President Truman signs the National Security Act Amendment of 1949, Department of Defense organizational chart (December 2013), Joint Chiefs of Staff/Joint Staff organizational chart, Combatant command areas of responsibility, Defense Spending as a Percent of GDP (1792â2017), Total United States Defense Outlays 1962â2024, $millions (2019-2024 estimated).