Sponsored top-level domainsDNSSEC
Overview
- .mil is the sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) in the DNS reserved for the United States Department of Defense and its subsidiary or affiliated organizations.
- The name is derived from "military." It is one of the earliest top-level domains, created in January 1985.
- The registry operator is the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA); the sponsor is the DoD Network Information Center.
- DNSSEC is enabled for the zone.
History
- Introduced: January 1, 1985 (one of the first TLDs).
- Registry: Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).
- Governance and documentation: historically governed under early Internet RFCs (e.g., RFC 920 and RFC 1591).
Usage and Audience
- Intended use: military entities of the United States Department of Defense.
- Actual use: agencies, services and divisions of the U.S. Department of Defense and related organizations.
- Organizational structure: divisions of particular services commonly use third-level and higher-level subdomains (for example, sites under army.mil).
- Note on alternate domains: the U.S. military also uses other TLDs for some purposes — e.g., recruitment and commercial-facing sites use .com, some service academies use .edu, and the Department of Defense uses .gov for its primary homepage.
Registration Rules
- Eligibility and restrictions:
- Registration is restricted to eligible U.S. Department of Defense agencies and affiliated organizations.
- The zone is a sponsored TLD with controlled allocation of names by DoD authorities.
- Structure:
- Common practice is to organize sites under service-specific second-level labels with third-level hostnames for divisions and units.
- Dispute policy: None (as indicated in registry information).
SEO and Brand Impact
- .mil denotes an official U.S. military affiliation and is used to indicate authoritative, government/military resources belonging to the Department of Defense or its components.
Notable Cases or Examples
- Examples of naming and usage:
- Service subdomains such as army.mil (United States Army) and other service-specific second-level names hosting third-level sites.
- The Department of Defense maintains second-level labels (e.g., defense, dod, pentagon) that redirect to defense.gov.
- Some U.S. military-related sites use other TLDs for specific purposes: goarmy.com (recruitment), commissaries.com (Defense Commissary Agency), and service academies reachable under either .edu or .mil.
- International notes: other countries typically use second-level domains for military (e.g., mod.uk in the U.K.); Canada uses norad.mil jointly with the United States for NORAD-related services.
Operator
DoD Network Information Center
Whois
% IANA WHOIS server % for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org % This query returned 1 object domain: MIL organisation: DoD Network Information Center address: DISA-Columbus address: 300 North James Road address: Whitehall OH 43213 address: United States of America (the) contact: administrative name: DoD NIC Registry Services organisation: DoD Network Information Center address: DISA-Columbus address: 300 North James Road address: Whitehall OH 43213 address: United States of America (the) phone: +1 614 692 6640 e-mail: disa.columbus.ns.mbx.hostmaster-dod-nic@mail.mil contact: technical name: DoD NIC Registry Services organisation: DoD Network Information Center address: DISA-Columbus address: 300 North James Road address: Whitehall OH 43213 address: United States of America (the) phone: +1 614 692 6640 e-mail: disa.columbus.ns.mbx.hostmaster-dod-nic@mail.mil nserver: CON1.NIPR.MIL 199.252.157.234 2608:140:c:157:0:0:0:234 nserver: CON2.NIPR.MIL 199.252.162.234 2608:120:c:162:0:0:0:234 nserver: EUR1.NIPR.MIL 199.252.154.234 2608:4122:2:154:0:0:0:234 nserver: EUR2.NIPR.MIL 199.252.143.234 2608:4163:1:143:0:0:0:234 nserver: PAC1.NIPR.MIL 199.252.180.234 2608:c184:1:180:0:0:0:234 nserver: PAC2.NIPR.MIL 199.252.155.234 2608:c144:1:155:0:0:0:234 ds-rdata: 63500 8 2 3baa83867103d6604a124282063f295e1b15c87cc13cb875a42f5754a912ebe0 whois: status: ACTIVE remarks: Registration information: created: 1985-01-01 changed: 2025-07-08 source: IANA