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The Pentagon has announced $5.1 billion of contract cancellations targeting third-party consulting and IT services.
Some shit you should know before you read: If you’re unaware, the Pentagon has never passed a full financial audit, with recent assessments revealing that over half of its assets cannot be properly accounted for. In response, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a cost-cutting task force spearheaded by Elon Musk, has been working with the Pentagon to root out “fraud, waste, and abuse” across defense spending. DOGE’s efforts include identifying redundant contracts, bloated consulting fees, and unnecessary administrative expenses. While some have welcomed this initiative, it has drawn criticism from some due to Musk’s dual role as a defense contractor through SpaceX, which receives billions annually from the agency DOGE is auditing. Critics argue this creates an inherent conflict of interest.
What’s going on now: In an announcement, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed the termination of $5.1 billion in Department of Defense contracts, calling the spending “nonessential” and pledging to redirect funds toward core military functions and the well-being of service members. The cuts targeted a range of consulting and IT service contracts, including $1.8 billion awarded by the Defense Health Agency to Accenture, Deloitte, Booz Allen Hamilton, and other firms for services Hegseth said “can be performed by our civilian workforce.”
A $1.4 billion Air Force contract with Accenture to resell enterprise cloud IT services was also scrapped, along with a $500 million Navy deal for business process consulting and a similarly valued DARPA contract for IT help desk support, which Hegseth described as “completely duplicative.”
Secretary Hegseth also revealed that 11 additional contracts were eliminated because they supported programs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), climate change, and the Pentagon’s COVID-19 response—initiatives Hegseth labeled as distractions from the department’s core mission.
“We need this money to spend on better health care for our warfighters and their families, instead of $500 an hour business process consultant,” Hegseth said, adding, “If you’re keeping score at home, today’s cuts bring our running total to nearly $6 billion in wasteful spending over the first six weeks of the Department of Government Efficiency effort here at the Defense Department.”
None of the defense contractors impacted by the cuts have commented on this development.
