Fewer Deputies

Inside the Pentagon reports this morning on a Defense Department effort to reduce the number of deputy under secretaries of defense by rearranging elements of the policy shop. The story cites a recent DOD report to Congress:

The April 22 report signed by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel lays out the department's plans to realign the organizational structure of the Office of the Secretary of Defense to eliminate, combine or re-designate five remaining non presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed deputy under secretaries of defense. These positions include the deputy under secretary of defense for strategy, plans and forces in the policy shop; the deputy under secretary of defense for installations and environment in the acquisition shop; and three positions within the intelligence shop, the report states.

As part of the plan to eliminate the strategy, plans and forces post, the Pentagon aims to realign the Western hemisphere policy functions from the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense to the international security affairs official. "This reduces the number of policy offices with a distinct international/geographic focus to two," the assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, and the international security affairs position, the report states.

In addition, the department aims to move cyber, space and countering weapons of mass destruction policy functions from the global strategic affairs post to the homeland defense position -- a decision that "aligns and creates integration between civil support, continuity, cyber, space, and countering WMD policy within the overall [homeland defense] portfolio," the report states. The department would then stand down the global strategic affairs post.