Abstract:The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is an important funding unit of the U.S. national laboratory. In the peak period, DoD funded 34 national laboratories and it currently sponsors 10 national laboratories. DoD has organized a three layer management mechanism of “funding agencies - operating agencies - national laboratories” . A long-term funding contract between the funding unit and the operating unit (usually 5 years) , funding units regulates the development of national laboratories. According to Federal Acquisition Regulation 35.017, the funding unit determines research field of national laboratories. The operating unit is responsible for the daily management of national laboratories, including the selection of laboratory director and other senior management personnel. Through the resident office, funding unit evaluates the risk and performance of the national laboratories, and according to the results of assessment to determine the national laboratories’ subsidies. The three layer management mode can make the national laboratories receive stable funds from the federal government, on the other hand, it can maintain relative flexibility in the management of specific matters, which is more in line with the rules of the frontier research. These studies have reference value for the construction of national laboratory system in China.