Feb. 19 (UPI) — Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth has ordered senior military and civilian Pentagon officials to cut 8% from the Defense budget over each of the next five years.
Hegseth’s memo issued Tuesday directed the five branches under his command to turn in budget-cutting proposals by Monday, two officials told The New York Times. The Washington Post also obtained the memo.
“The time for preparation is over — we must act urgently to revive the warrior ethos, rebuild our military, and re-establish deterrence,” Hegseth, who has served in the military, wrote. “Our budget will resource the fighting force we need, cease unnecessary defense spending, reject excessive bureaucracy, and drive actionable reform including progress on the audit.”
One senior official told The New York Times that the cuts appeared likely to be part of an effort to focus funding on programs that the administration favors, instead of actually cutting the Defense Department’s $850 billion annual budget.
Seventeen exceptions include military operations at the southern U.S. border. The Trump administration has been placing emphasis on border and using military flights to deport undocumented migrants.
Building warships is a priority, as well as military construction projects in the Pacific, where China is the United States’ chief rival.
The memo doesn’t extend similar significance to several other major geographic commands European Command, which oversees U.S. support for Ukraine during its three-year war with Russia; Central Command in the Middle East and Africa Command.
Last week Hegseth called for NATO allies to do more to maintain their own defense.
Simultaneously, operations are under the scrutiny of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Musk has backed moving Pentagon full-time employees to contract positions so that they would be easier to fire.
The Defense Department has more than 900,000 civilian workers, many of whom are military veterans.
The Pentagon oversees about 1.3 million active-duty service members and nearly 800,000 more in the National Guard and Reserve.
The Trump administration has exempted service members from its sweeping budget cuts that include terminating probationary employees, usually ones with less than two years of work in the federal government.
Hegseth, who was sworn in on Jan. 25, has sought to cut waste.
He posted on X on Tuesday: “Let’s get to work. DOGE the waste; Double-Down on warriors.”
He shared a post from DOGE that said: “Great kickoff with @DeptofDefense. Looking forward to working together to safely save taxpayer dollars and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.”
Congress is crafting its annual defense policy bill.
The Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Armed Services Committee are calling on the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Space Force to identify obsolete programs and weapons for potential cuts. The Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
“Identifying these will allow the committee to redirect resources to higher priority items that support the National Defense Strategy and achieve real deterrence,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter sent Friday to the leaders of each service.
“We are committed to eliminating waste, reforming our acquisition processes and ensuring each dollar within the defense budget is spent wisely. We have a unique opportunity at this time to make quantifiable progress toward these goals.”
House Armed Services Committee members last week signaled they want to add at least $100 billion in defense spending in the next decade.
The Senate wants $150 billion in extra defense spending.
Both chambers must agree on a bill to send to the president.
