Ahead of his accession to lead the US Department of Defense (DoD), Pete Hegseth announced a loaded agenda to roll back the existing apparatus in an effort to ditch structures, decisions, and processes outside the ideological bounds of President Donald Trump’s America First doctrine.
Rebuilding the US military, Hegseth said on 25 January 2025, “means reviving our defense industrial base, reforming our acquisition process, passing a financial audit, and rapidly fielding emerging technologies.” Thus, “We will remain the strongest and most lethal force in the world.”
These aims will constitute sweeping changes at the Pentagon headquarters in Washington. In the meantime, however, over the next several months, officials will undertake a review to determine what will stay and what will have to go.
Trump’s flurry of executive orders, signed in the days after his inauguration, direct officials to assess the supposed damage done to the defence establishment under his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Some of the new administration’s assertions are more ideological than others. Ranging from cutting DEIA programmes, for which a “Task Force” was recently established, to introducing more efficient practices across the federal government.
Nevertheless, Hegseth’s perspective of beleaguered DoD structures and a breathless industrial base is a valid one. The United States is trying to keep pace with the People’s Republic of China, their strategic rival for the next few decades.
By pausing spending, the new administration will determine where the DoD budget, of more than $800bn, will be allocated according to their political inclinations.
Most spending activities are under review, including, it seems, Foreign Military Sales and Security Assistance packages. This then throws military assistance to Ukraine into question. Therefore, pending the review of DoD financial assistance, around $4bn of unused Presidential Drawdown Authority funds from the former Biden administration may be spent elsewhere.
“[Trump is] just trying to ensure that the tax money going out the door… actually aligns with the will and the priorities of the American people.”
White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt
In a White House briefing, Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, captured the spirit of the decision to block funding, stating:
“The American people gave President Trump an overwhelming mandate on November 5th [2024], and he’s just trying to ensure that the tax money going out the door in this very bankrupt city [Washington] actually aligns with the will and the priorities of the American people.”
All this will require a comprehensive audit, as Hegseth observed, though the Pentagon has not yet stated when this will take place.
Meanwhile, the financial block has not prevented the new Defense Secretary from proceeding with ambitious policies such as the creation of a missile defence shield to protect the United States. This network of air defence systems would be based on the Israeli short-range Iron Dome air defence system, according to Trump’s executive order issued late on 27 January.
Fixing acquisition, industry, and delivery
Although Trump and Hegseth are eager to uproot the status quo, some DoD structures set up under Biden may well make it through the purge.
One particular project that has proven useful since its creation in August 2023 is the Replicator initiative. Replicator accelerates the delivery of innovative capabilities to the armed forces at speed and scale through non-traditional technology ecosystems largely in the commercial sector.
There are two phases. The first, ‘Replicator 1’, will deliver several thousand all-domain uncrewed, autonomous systems by August 2025. The second, ‘Replicator 2’, which was announced in September 2024, will focus on Counter-Uncrewed Aerial Systems.
A focus on timely delivery will fit neatly into Trump’s crusade for efficiency. When asked, Eric Pahon, a Pentagon spokesperson, told Army Technology that “there are no changes to announce regarding the Replicator 1 or Replicator 2 initiatives or timelines.”
Right now, a typical acquisition must satisfy nearly 50 documentation requirements and get 50 external sing-offs, observed US senator Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in his opening remarks during a recent session.
Industry are similarly eager to expedite decision-making within the DoD. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, a US defence prime, wrote an open letter to Elon Musk welcoming his efforts in leading the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The company suggested the bureaucratic process has led to greater competition from foreign competitors:
“… poor US government (USG) policy and sluggish bureaucratic decision-making has opened the door for competitors like China, Turkey, and Israel to win important international customers.
“Sales lost to these competitors while we waited on some USG action means less funding available for re-investment, into [research and development], and modernised manufacturing infrastructure.
In the first nine days of government, Musk revealed that DOGE saved around $1bn by terminating 85 DEIA contracts.
