Doge at the Pentagon: A more “efficient” war business

For those still hoping the Pentagon will cut its spending, the Secretary of Defense provided another kind of news on Tuesday. Speaking at the US European Command (EUCOM) headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, Hegses said that his idea of ​​”reducing waste” has little to do with less spending and is more efficient. “It has been revealed that it has something to do with spending.

Hegseth, along with US Government Efficiency (DOGE) Elon Musk and his team, told the press that he was “talking” and “partnership.” The secretary “welcomes” Doge with DOD and positioned the initiative as a way to deal with “people, waste, redundancy.” As an example of the latter, Hegseth referred to the “Climate Program.” This was dismissed as a distraction from the military's real mission. “We're in the business of deterring war and winning,” he emphasized.

Instead of reducing, Hegus promised a modernized army. There, rather than being redirected to savings back to “fighters” rather than taxpayers, savings were redirected. “Acquiring weapon systems” and improving procurement is where Doge helps with pentagons, Hegseth said. He said, “Every dollar we save will go to fighters. That's good for Americans.”

Hegseth did not address Musk's conflict of interest, including his simultaneous role as a military supplier, government contractor and a technological mogul in the private sector. But those concerns can be awaited. After all, there are weapons that buy more weapons. Especially with President Trump boosting defense spending.

“Amazing Opportunities” for Military Industrial Complexes

For defense contractors, Doge isn't disrupting the system. It's optimized. While being sold as a waste crackdown, the initiative appears to focus on streamlining procurement while ensuring that money continues to flow.

According to a recent report from Quartz,

“I think this is really good,” Kevin Stein, CEO of Transdigum (TDG), said in a recent revenue call, streamlining procurement with the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). Call “a great opportunity” to do so.

Lockheed Martin CEO reiterated that sentiment, describing Doge as an “opportunity” to simplify the acquisition.

Doge's allies in Congress, including some Democrats, have long criticised the Pentagon's bureaucratic inefficiency. The Government's Accountability Office (GAO) recently discovered that the Pentagon's procurement system was moving at a glacial pace. At the same time, Stimson Center estimates that it can be eliminated by reducing at least $60 billion in inefficiencies and discarding “difficult or unnecessary” weapon systems.

With a budget of $895 billion a year, the Pentagon remains the world's largest source of government spending. Over half of the money goes directly to private contractors.

Bang more back

In fact, no one in the defense industry expects contracts to be low. The focus is not on reducing spending, but about extracting more from the money you're already playing.

As Quartz quoted:

“We are in a very geopolitical environment. We are… we're not moving fast enough,” Booz Allen Hamilton CEO Hosio Rozansky said in a revenue call. He spoke in. ”

Specializing in AI-powered autonomous drones, surveillance technology and counter-drone systems, Anduril already relies heavily on the Pentagon contract. You can earn even more benefits when Doge is played.

Contractors working with Doge

The Pentagon's free-flowing cash expectations are already driving the industry's movements.

General Atomic Aviation System, the manufacturer of Predator drones, sent a letter to Mask in January, urging them to reform the Pentagon's procurement process.

L3Harris CEO Chris Kubasik also submitted recommendations. One of these involves limiting the ability of contractors to challenge contract awards. This is a change that supports larger, connected companies like him.

A leading defense supplier, L3Harris specializes in electronic warfare, secure communications, ammunition and aircraft modernization. All sectors are growing under Doge's streamlined sourcing model.

And it's more than just a legacy player. Silicon Valley defense startups are enthusiastically predicting pentagons that hope to embrace small, high-tech companies, as Forbes reported shortly after the election.

Musk's increasing influence

And then there is Elon Musk himself. A former outsider in the defense industry, he solidifies his role as a major Pentagon contractor. Musk companies have secured billions of dollars in deals that combine national security, private companies and high-tech military innovation, according to Reuters.

SpaceX alone holds a $22 billion government contract, with NASA accounting for that $15 billion. Meanwhile, Starlink is already incorporated into US military operations, including a $23 million contract to provide battlefield connectivity in Ukraine.

However, Starshield, SpaceX's classified military satellite division, shows a deeper retention in Musk's defense. It is backed by the intelligence reporting agency and is estimated to be worth billions.

Musk is no longer just a supplier as Doge is dismantling the procurement barriers. He is becoming a power broker in military spending.

New Power Blocks

And Mask doesn't act alone. As his influence in military spending grows, a new alliance of high-tech companies has emerged to challenge the traditional defence giants. According to the Financial Times, Palantir, Anduril, Openai and SpaceX are reportedly in talks to form a consortium aimed at securing the Pentagon contract.

Their focus? AI-led Autonomous Wars – Direct challenges to Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and RTX. Traditional weapons programs have long controlled defense spending.

“Efficiency” of war

It is a rapid development of AI-powered national defense reforms, with Hegseth hoping Musk's Doge to begin “very soon.” Without a doubt, Musk and Doge parade the elimination of Dei Cuts and Climate Programs as evidence of a “big victory” to reduce waste. But like the USAID scandal, the actual story is not in the headline. Expect a big claim of accountability while defense contracts quietly expand and both regular and new players are earning cash.

So, what is really being built? A dystopian battlefield equipped with AI, autonomous drones and algorithmic wars. There are fewer soldiers and more machines. Software that determines who lives and dies. Wars faster, colder and more isolated than ever. A future where conflicts are managed remotely, with minimal political costs and no actual accountability.

And here is the real problem. The goal is not to make wars more efficient. It's about finishing that. But when wars are automated to a cheaper, faster, and to a level you've never seen before, the incentive to stop them disappears. Trump campaigned to stop “eternal war,” but what happens when war is no longer a burden? Can someone who pulls a string be unfolded indefinitely with minimal risk? The war won't end as players like Musk, Karp, Luckey and others are at the helm. It has evolved into a high-tech, mercilessly efficient machine.

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