DOGE looks at making cuts at the Department of Defense
Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is preparing to take its cost-cutting push to the Pentagon, where it plans to root out wasteful spending in the more than $800 billion defense budget.
DOGE on Friday night announced in a post on X that it held an initial meeting with the Department of Defense (DoD) as it begins its work.
"Great kickoff with @DeptofDefense. Looking forward to working together to safely save taxpayer dollars and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse," DOGE wrote.
The DoD budget is the largest part of the federal government's discretionary budget at $850 billion in the current fiscal year – though it's smaller than mandatory programs such as Social Security, Medicare and interest expenses from the national debt. That presents a significant opportunity to find cost savings and ways to promote efficiencies at the Pentagon.
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Bryan Clark, a senior fellow and director of the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology at the Hudson Institute, told FOX Business that centralizing innovation units within the DoD may be a starting point for DOGE.
Clark noted that the DoD has created "innovation cells" across the department that aim to help accelerate the integration of new technologies into the agency and the military, in part by engaging tech companies
"It's very dispersed with literally dozens of innovation cells or organizations throughout the DoD, and it seems to me very inefficient. It hasn't yielded the kinds of scaled delivery of new uncrewed systems or AI or new weapons capabilities anywhere near what the promises are," Clark said. "I think that's going to be one big target, they're going to say let's take all these little cottage industries throughout the DoD… and let's centralize one innovation effort with the secretary of defense."
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He also noted programs like the F-35 Strike Fighter and the Ford-class aircraft carriers that are big, capital-intensive efforts that "could see some effort to scale those back or dial those back to free up money that would go towards new technologies."
Other emerging programs that are less established than those but could be scrutinized include the Navy's new Constellation-class frigate program and the Army's new long-range reconnaissance tiltrotor aircraft.
"Each of the services has some white elephants that could easily be targets of DOGE and perceived as being expensive, tangential programs that are not necessarily delivering on the core responsibilities of the department and that money could be better spent on drones and uncrewed systems and AI and other new technologies," Clark said.
Jim Fein, a research assistant for national security and European affairs at the Heritage Foundation, told FOX Business that high-profile defense programs that may have cost inefficiencies but deliver critical capabilities like the F-35, the B-21 Raider stealth bomber or Ford carriers shouldn't necessarily be cut outright. He pointed to the Air Force's Sentinel program to replace Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) as part of the nuclear triad as a similar example.
"Sentinel also comes to mind as a vital, no-fail program. While these programs have huge budgeting issues and inefficiencies, cutting them outright is not an option. If we don't have these no-fail programs, our military will be in a much worse situation. If Sentinel fails or is cut, our ability to maintain nuclear deterrence is at risk, which is not an acceptable outcome," Fein explained.
"A better option than cutting or pausing these programs is to look at the programs individually and make them more efficient. The long-term solution is to change the contracting process away from cost-plus," he said. "A lot of the military contracts are cost-plus (or function that way), which encourages inefficiency within these programs because the government is reimbursing expenses, so companies have no incentive to cut costs. Moving towards fixed-price contracts is probably the best way to deal with this long-term."
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He also suggested that the DoD's research and development processes that don't have a tangible connection to improving the military's readiness could be a target for DOGE.
"There are a lot of what I would call 'science experiments' going on there that don't add or don't add enough value to the military. DoD funds billions of dollars (yes, billions) in what it terms 'basic research,' much of which does not provide meaningful benefit to the military," Fein said.
The defense budget is traditionally one of the more deliberative and bipartisan processes in Congress. Lawmakers annually pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which sets policies and authorizes spending, and also enact an appropriations bill that provides the funding to the DoD each fiscal year.
Due to Congress holding the power of the purse and the defense budget being established by law, it may be difficult for the Trump administration to make unilateral changes to some programs either by attempting to cut them outright or reprogram funds to another DoD activity.
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"It really depends on the type of programmatic change and by how much. Outright canceling programs may not be possible in all instances; smaller reprogramming is much more feasible, especially for lower profile programs with research and development or programs in their earlier stages," Fein said.