Sprinkled throughout the Pentagon’s fiscal 2026 budget request, Breaking Defense Air Warfare Reporter Michael Marrow noticed, were scores of references to executive orders related to the federal government’s DOGE initiatives — amounting to some of the firmest accounting of the cost-cutting measures’ impact on the Pentagon’s decision making.
At Breaking Defense’s request, the American Enterprise Institute conducted an analysis of the document and came up with a total: some $11.1 billion in claimed DOGE-related “efficiencies.” On this week’s episode of The Weekly Break Out, Marrow joins Editor-in-Chief Aaron Mehta to discuss that report, where the money came from and what it means.
Then, as AFCEA’s Technet Augusta conference kicks off in Georgie, Deputy Editor Lee Ferran comes on to talk about the Pentagon’s cyber workforce and how experts say it’s faring in the wake of its own DOGE-related downsizing.
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