In early 2026, the U.S. Department of Defense was formally renamed to the Department of War. The change restored the historical name used from 1789 until 1947, when the post-WWII unification of the armed services produced the Department of Defense.
The renaming is administratively complete: war.gov is now the canonical domain for the department, defense.gov redirects, and "Department of War" appears in all new official documentation including the PURSUE Release 01 cover memo. The change is administratively complete but politically contested; it is unrelated to the substance of the UAP release but shapes every reader's first impression of the URL war.gov/ufo.
The Department of War retains all the functions of the Department of Defense, including operational command of the armed services and oversight of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). For purposes of the PURSUE program, "DoW" and "the Pentagon" refer to the same institution.