DOGE’s Real Challenge in the Pentagon Isn’t Slashing the Workforce, It’s Boosting Productivity

When I served at U.S. Air Forces Europe, a daily 15-minute briefing took 43 hours of staff work. This wasn’t an outlier — it was the norm. With the largest discretionary spending item in the federal budget and massive inefficiencies, the Defense Department might seem an obvious target for the Department of Government Efficiency — known as DOGE. With roughly 2.8 million personnel, the Department of Defense spends $299 billion on personnel costs, with billions more allocated towards contractors performing similar jobs. Manpower alone accounts for one-third of the defense budget.

Although DOGE has focused largely on sweeping budget cuts, its core purpose is to modernize federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity. Despite the Department of Defense’s focus on combat efficiency, rarely is there a meaningful push to improve productivity. DOGE could address this gap and strengthen military readiness by automating administrative tasks, streamlining bureaucratic processes, and modernizing information technology systems.

The Problem: Administrative Burdens and Outdated Systems

Despite being a warfighting organization, a significant portion of Department of Defense personnel dedicate substantial time to administrative work. Staff officers devote most of their time to formatting PowerPoint briefings and warfighters are often bogged down by bureaucratic paperwork rather than focusing on mission-critical tasks.

The inefficiencies extend beyond daily workflows. Security clearance processing has become a major bottleneck, preventing personnel from assuming critical roles in a timely manner. As security classifications expand across the force, the backlog has grown to around 100,000 cases as of late 2024, with secret and top-secret clearances taking an average of 68 and 169 days, respectively, to complete. This delay effectively sidelines thousands of personnel, leaving units understaffed and reducing operational readiness. Beyond clearance delays, inefficient processes prevent personnel from seamlessly transitioning between assignments. Many wait months to regain access to the same classified systems they previously used, further stalling productivity and mission effectiveness.

Beyond clearance delays, outdated technology further compounds inefficiencies across the Department of Defense. A prime example is the Navy’s adoption of Microsoft Office 365 to modernize its aging, fragmented networks. This might not seem like a big deal until you notice the platform has been commercially available for a decade. Even after the successful rollout, it took an additional three years before the Department of Defense integrated the platform into its classified networks, highlighting the slow pace of technological adoption.

All of these inefficiencies compound across the department. A 2023 RAND report estimated that outdated software and network systems cost the Department of Defense $2.5 billion in lost productivity annually. And this figure excludes top-secret and special access program networks, which have similar problems. All of these problems culminated in the Government Services Administration finding the Department of Defense ranked lowest in satisfaction with IT support and services among all federal agencies. When personnel spend more time fighting their systems than executing their mission, it not only degrades productivity but also delays critical decisions.

While these inefficiencies may seem like minor headaches, they compound across an organization of 2.8 million people, leading to billions of dollars in wasted time, stalled operations, and degraded effectiveness. The problem is not just the cost — it is that outdated systems and unnecessary bureaucracy actively hinder military readiness. In addition to its current goals, DOGE should prioritize eliminating these inefficiencies to ensure the Department of Defense can operate at peak performance.

Building on DOGE’s Defense Department Strategy

In an effort to cut costs quickly, DOGE has slashed the federal workforce through early retirements, deferred resignations for federal employees, and the termination of probationary employees. While these measures aim to improve fiscal stability, it is important to monitor for any potential long-term impacts. One consequence is the loss of continuity. Since U.S. active-duty servicemembers rotate through two to three-year assignments, civilians are the cornerstone for ensuring knowledge is maintained in an organization. Losing civilians who have served in their roles for decades could reduce productivity, as there would be so few left to transfer expertise or lessons learned.

Deferred resignations may inadvertently retain lower-performing employees while pushing out high achievers. Those who are confident in their skills and believe they can find better opportunities elsewhere may be more likely to take the deferred resignation, while those who lack skills transferable to the private sector remain. This dynamic reduces overall productivity rather than improving efficiency.

Lastly, the firing of probationary employees may compound the problem. Instead of evaluating talent and selectively removing underperformers, this approach eliminates a significant number of potentially valuable employees without consideration of their contributions.

While Elon Musk reportedly used a similar approach of workforce reductions and re-hirings at X (formerly Twitter), the Department of Defense operates under different priorities. As an institution responsible for national security and maintaining constant military readiness, its decisions should prioritize combat effectiveness and operational continuity over cost-cutting alone. DOGE has an opportunity to advance its core mission of efficiency-driven reforms and enhance military readiness through three initiatives:

Automating Administrative Tasks

A significant portion of Department of Defense personnel handle routine administrative tasks — most of which can be automated to free up manpower. For example, in military intelligence, personnel manually analyze data to detect patterns. Machine learning can automate object recognition and data fusion, reducing the number of analysts needed for these tasks.

Similarly, at higher-level headquarters, officers spend hours adjusting PowerPoint slides to accommodate leader’s varying format preferences. While serving in U.S. Air Forces Europe, I saw this inefficiency firsthand. The four-star commander received a daily operations and intelligence briefing that required 43 hours of manual work to prepare — despite lasting only 15 minutes, as I mentioned above. I led an effort to automate this process and quickly found there were multiple other companies tackling similar problems across the Department of Defense. Even though one company’s solution was far superior, U.S. Air Forces Europe was being cornered into using inferior products due to decisions made at higher commands.

This inefficiency partially stems from the Department of Defense’s bias toward government-owned software instead of commercial-off-the-shelf solutions. The fear of being locked into a vendor’s product and the expectation of lower costs creates a belief that government-developed systems would be more cost-effective. The Department of Defense’s software acquisition process helped create these incentives, which is partly why Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently announced a new mandate to streamline software acquisition across the department. Today, enterprise solutions require major tech players like Palantir, Google, and Microsoft to integrate data effectively — not small organizations with no track record of success. While discussions are already underway to revamp the Defense Department’s software acquisition process, DOGE could play a critical role in ensuring the Secretary of Defense’s reforms are actually implemented rather than becoming another bureaucratic dead-end.

Streamlining the Security Clearance Process

Security clearances are essential for military personnel but remain inefficient due to outdated policies. The Trusted Workforce 2.0 initiative initially reduced clearance backlogs, but the backlog has returned due to expanding classification requirements. Two major inefficiencies persist. The first is the redundant clearance reprocessing system, which forces military personnel to reapply for the same clearances they already held when moving between assignments. This can result in months of lost productivity. In my own case, it took five months to regain access to the same system I had used at my previous base.

The second issue is the inherently risk-averse nature of the security clearance process. Security personnel face significant consequences for approving a clearance that later results in a security breach, but little to no accountability for excessive delays or unnecessary denials. While Trusted Workforce 2.0 has pushed to speed up the process, the risk to mission is not accounted for. To address this, DOGE can work with the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency to introduce new performance metrics that track the operational consequences of security clearance delays. By balancing the risk of security breaches with the risk of mission failure, the clearance process can become more efficient and better aligned with national security priorities.

Modernizing Department of Defense Information Technology Infrastructure

Department of Defense information technology systems are often slow, outdated, and unreliable, leading to widespread productivity losses. Upwards of one in ten personnel experience over eight hours of downtime per month due to system failures. Improving the Department of Defense IT infrastructure could recapture billions in lost productivity annually. Furthermore, classified networks are often worse than unclassified systems, despite being mission-critical. In my past three assignments, my top-secret computer rarely worked, a common problem throughout the office. DOGE should prioritize fixing classified network performance, as inefficiencies directly impact combat effectiveness. The Pentagon should transition to cloud-based collaboration tools to reduce redundancy, replace obsolete computers with modern hardware, and improve system uptime by overhauling its network infrastructure.

The Way Forward

While DOGE personnel are already in the Pentagon, there is an opportunity to adopt an approach that balances cost-saving efforts with operational effectiveness. These three initiatives — automation, security clearance reform, and IT modernization — represent low-hanging fruit that can generate substantial savings while enhancing military effectiveness. If DOGE’s goal is to maximize efficiency, prioritizing technology and process improvements will yield sustainable results without compromising readiness. The Pentagon’s readiness depends not on how many people it employs, but on how effectively those people can execute the mission.

Erik Schuh is an Air Force officer serving as an operations research analyst. The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official guidance or position of the U.S. government, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Air Force, or the U.S. Space Force.

Image: Adobe Firefly

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