To deal with what he believes will be either a flat or declining defense budget, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper this year initiated a cost-cutting review of what he calls the Department of Defense’s “fourth estate.”
These consist of the defense-wide agencies and activities that are not part of one of the three military departments. They include the Defense Health Agency (DHA), the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), and the Special Operations Command (SOCOM).
The above excerpt was originally published in The American Conservative.
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