Mining for DOGE: Defense budget docs show $11B in ‘efficiencies,’ but what are they?
An analysis by AEI conducted in partnership with Breaking Defense scoured thousands of pages of fiscal 2026 Pentagon budget documents, some of the most definitive accounting yet for DOGE’s impact at the Department of Defense.
By Michael Marrow on August 15, 2025 9:59 am
A few examples of DOGE-related cuts in the Pentagon's fiscal 2026 budget. (Graphic by Breaking Defense, original DOGE and Pentagon photos via Getty)
WASHINGTON — Depending on who you ask, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has either been a radical effort that has saved taxpayers tens of billions of dollars, or a wild goose chase that has crippled the government for years to come.
One thing that many can agree on, however, is uncertainty about exactly how much money has been saved, and where. That’s true especially in the Pentagon, where numbers thrown around by different officials don’t seem to line up.
Pentagon Press Secretary Sean Parnell said in June the DoD had saved “over $10 billion.” A month later, the Air Force said in a statement that officials “reviewed over 500 contracts and 50 business systems, realizing savings and cost avoidance of $10.4B.” Then earlier this month the Pentagon released a budget overview for fiscal 2026 [PDF] that identified $13.8 billion saved “through the reduction of excess bureaucratic costs,” but that was only part of “nearly $30 billion that was realigned” from some DoD projects to “higher priority programs” following “efficiency reviews.”
https://breakingdefense.com/2025/08/mining-for-doge-defense-budget-docs-show-11b-in-efficiencies-but-what-are-they/
