Why It Matters

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) report “Defense Primer: Control and Command of the U.S. Military,” updated on September 11, examines how authority is divided across the military command structure. That division gives lawmakers several routes to shape defense policy, including legislation, resource decisions, and oversight of the armed forces.

Military departments prepare forces, while combatant commands conduct operations. Decisions about military action and organization pass through a chain that assigns distinct responsibilities to elected officials, civilian leaders, and military commanders.

The Big Picture

Title 10 U.S.C. §162 places the operational chain of command from the president to the secretary of defense and then to combatant-command commanders. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff may transmit orders between the secretary and those commanders, but the chairman does not hold command authority.

Each combatant-command commander is a four-star general or flag officer appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Forces retained by a military department follow a chain of command from the President to the Secretary of Defense to the relevant Service Secretary.

The classified Unified Command Plan assigns missions, responsibilities, and forces to combatant commands, while Congress is not included in its review.

The Bottom Line

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff must review combatant commands’ missions, responsibilities, including geographic boundaries, and force structure every two years.

That oversight question is complicated by funding, because CRS identified no publicly accessible way for Congress to track outlays directly to combatant commands. Combatant-command expenditures typically flow through military departments to service components.

The Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 mandated clarifications to the chain of command and established the current command-and-control scheme, and Section 1087 of the FY2023 National Defense Authorization Act directed the Secretary of Defense to establish a joint force headquarters within the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command area of operations.

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