If you think the US Deputy Secretary of Defense is just a "vice president" for the military, honestly, you're missing the point. Most people focus on the Secretary of Defense because they’re the ones on the news talking about wars and treaties. But the Deputy? They’re the person actually keeping the lights on in the world’s largest, most chaotic bureaucracy.
Think of it like this: the Secretary is the CEO looking at the big picture. The US Deputy Secretary of Defense is the COO—the Chief Operating Officer—running the day-to-day engine of a department that spends hundreds of billions of dollars every single year. Right now, that person is Steve Feinberg.
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Why this role is actually a nightmare (and a necessity)
Managing the Pentagon isn't just about strategy. It's about math. It's about procurement. It's about trying to make sure the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force don't trip over each other while trying to buy the same technology.
Steve Feinberg, who took over from Kathleen Hicks on March 17, 2025, stepped into a role that is basically one long series of high-stakes headaches. He’s a billionaire who founded Cerberus Capital Management. You’d think a guy who handled $70 billion in private assets would find the Pentagon easy, but the government is a different beast. In a private firm, you give an order and it happens. In the Department of Defense (which was actually renamed the Department of War in late 2025), you give an order and then you have to fight three different sub-committees just to make sure the paperwork was filed in triplicate.
One of the biggest things people get wrong is thinking the Deputy is just a backup. Nope. By statute (10 U.S.C. § 132, if you want to get nerdy about it), they have the "full power and authority" to act for the Secretary. If the boss is away, the Deputy is the boss. Period.
The "War Room" and the Audit Obsession
Feinberg didn't just come in to sit behind a mahogany desk. During his confirmation hearing, he made a pretty bold promise: he was going to set up a "war room" to comb through the budget line by line.
- The Audit: The Pentagon has famously struggled to pass a clean financial audit. It's a running joke in DC, but for a guy like Feinberg, it’s a personal mission.
- The Goal: Accountability. He wants to know where every cent of that $800+ billion is going.
- The Challenge: The system is designed to be opaque. It's built on decades of legacy software and "that's how we've always done it" attitudes.
He’s basically trying to take a private equity "slash and burn" efficiency model and apply it to a building that has its own zip code. Honestly, it's a bit of an uphill battle. He’s looking at workforce modernization and "improved business operations." That sounds like corporate-speak, but in the Pentagon, it means trying to fire people who aren't performing and hiring tech experts who actually know how to code.
The Real Power of the US Deputy Secretary of Defense
The Deputy chairs the most important committees you've never heard of. Take the Special Access Program Oversight Committee (SAPOC). This is where the "black budget" stuff lives. Stealth tech, experimental drones, things that officially don't exist—the Deputy is the one who decides if they're worth the money.
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Then there’s the Senior Level Review Group. They’re the ones who look at the massive pile of budget requests and decide who gets the shiny new toys and who has to keep using equipment from the 90s.
A shift in tone
Under Kathleen Hicks, the focus was often on things like "Replicator"—an initiative to build thousands of cheap, autonomous drones to counter China. She was a policy pro. She knew the halls of the Pentagon like the back of her hand because she'd been there for decades.
Feinberg is a total shift. He’s an outsider. He’s focused on the supply chain. He’s gone on record saying our supply chain is "definitely weak." To him, national security isn't just about having the best pilots; it's about making sure the factory in Ohio can actually ship the parts those pilots need when a crisis hits.
What this means for you
You might think this is all just inside-baseball politics. It's not. The US Deputy Secretary of Defense makes decisions that affect the global economy. When they decide to shift $50 billion into "workforce acceleration," that money moves through the private sector. It affects jobs in aerospace, tech, and manufacturing.
Also, they’re the ones responsible for the "Workforce Acceleration & Recapitalization Initiative." It's a mouthful, but basically, it's a massive review of how the military treats its people and its money. If you’re a contractor or someone working in defense tech, Feinberg is effectively your ultimate boss.
Key Takeaways for Navigating the New Pentagon
If you are trying to understand where the Department of War is heading under this leadership, keep these things in mind:
- Efficiency over Tradition: The current leadership doesn't care if a program has been around for 30 years. If it doesn't pass the "line by line" check in the war room, it’s on the chopping block.
- Private Sector Integration: Expect more deals with non-traditional defense companies. Feinberg wants people who "understand what drives boards" and "what drives pressure from shareholders." He wants the Pentagon to move at the speed of Silicon Valley, not the speed of a 1950s DMV.
- Supply Chain is King: The focus is moving away from just buying "stuff" to securing the way we make stuff. If a company can't prove their supply chain is secure from foreign interference, they aren't getting the contract.
The role of the Deputy isn't just a support job. It's a management marathon. While the Secretary is out meeting with world leaders, the Deputy is in the basement of the Pentagon, making sure the gears of the world's most powerful military actually turn. It’s a thankless, exhausting, and incredibly powerful position that defines how safe—and how broke—the country actually is.