For Trump and Musk, reforming how the Pentagon works is possible—but not easy

[rangerrebew]

For Trump and Musk, reforming how the Pentagon works is possible—but not easy

Fixing Pentagon acquisition will take confronting Congress, officials say.
Patrick Tucker | January 17, 2025
 
   
Incoming President Donald Trump and advisor Elon Musk have promised to reform Pentagon spending, a long-sought goal for officials on both sides of the aisle. But while current and former officials told Defense One the new administration could make some changes, reforms to the way Congress allocates funding and provides oversight would still be necessary for a true overhaul.

Trump and Musk, tapped to run a new Department of Government Efficiency, have floated a variety of ideas to reform Pentagon purchasing, such as ditching the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in favor of drones. Trump has been critical of the military-industrial complex, but in his first term signed larger and larger budgets for the Defense Department. Musk, the richest defense contractor in the world, has targeted the federal workforce for cuts, pushed for more accounting transparency, and wants to spend more on drones and other new technology.

The Defense Department already has efforts to entice new companies and speed the acquisition of drones and other new technologies. Current and former officials said the new administration would do well to enlarge those efforts.

Michael Brown, who served as a White House Innovation fellow and the head of the Defense Innovation Unit, during Trump’s first term, said DIU is already leading those efforts, but with just under a $1 billion allocated to the unit last year, it doesn’t have the budget or clout to disrupt established purchasing systems. The solution, he says, isn’t for DIU to be bigger, but rather for it to take a leading role in helping the military services acquire weapons—and use the already established DIU model of training contract officers on how to buy things at the speed of software.

The solution also will require making big reforms in contracting, and relying more on other transaction authorities—a contracting vehicle the Pentagon can use for smaller purchases.

https://www.defenseone.com/business/2025/01/trump-and-musk-reforming-how-pentagon-works-possible-not-easy/402325/?oref=d1-homepage-river

[rangerrebew]

Undoing the debacle that was the Biden administration will take some real knocking of heads in all the government, for sure initially or at least until the left and rinos get the message.

[AL]

All of the federal bureaucracy needs downsized.  And I'll say again, move all of the federal government to various locations in the mid-west.   

[jafo2010]

The military needs to be whacked like any other branch of government.  I say keep the uniformed men and women, but the number of civilians working for the military is HUGE.  They can be cut by at least 40+% like any other government branch.  DO IT!!!!