United States Department of Defense

The United States Department of Defense, abbreviated as DoD or DOD and sometimes called the Defense Department is a civilian Cabinet organization of the United States government. The Department of Defense controls the U.S. military and is headquartered at The Pentagon. It is headed by the Secretary of Defense, who is currently Donald Rumsfeld.

Technology

The DoD sponsored the research and development of the modern computer and through DARPA subsidized the creation of the Internet. It maintains the global positioning system (GPS). Each of these technologies was made available to the public worldwide at no charge.

Related Topics:
DARPA - Global positioning system

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The DoD commissioned the design of the Ada programming language.

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The future nervous system of the entire Department of Defense will be the 200-billion dollar Global Information Grid, a global high-speed network connecting all forces.

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Lasers

The US Army and USAF continues to develop laser-based weapon systems, primarily for battlefield use. While far from the ray guns of science fiction, the systems are employed in blinding opponents, making them highly effective against infantry and satellites. The technical problem of combating such a weapon is that, since any form of protection must protect against specific frequencies of light, troops will be unable to be protected against most/all possible frequencies without losing considerable, if not all, visual abilities from protective gear (which would, in effect, have to be all black so as to avoid any light).

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Land mines

The USA remains opposed to international agreements limiting the use of landmines.

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