Behind Closed Doors: DOGE’s Influence On Defense Spending

PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEF (PDB) – DOGE’s Real Challenge in the Pentagon Isn’t Slashing the Workforce, It’s Boosting Productivity. At the Pentagon, a daily 15-minute briefing can take 43 hours of staff work. And it’s the norm.

With roughly 2.8 million personnel, DOD spends $299 billion on personnel costs, with billions more allocated towards contractors performing similar jobs. Manpower accounts for one-third of the defense budget.

The Navy was the big winner when teams of national security experts in a think tank-run DOD funding exercise were tasked with finding and reallocating $50 billion in the defense budget last week. The Army came up short.

DOD is eliminating over $580 million in programs, grants, and contracts that it called “wasteful spending,” with a long-stalled software modernization program accounting for almost half of the cuts.

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here’s a roundup of today’s other top defense stories ending the week from conservative national security expert PAUL CRESPO.

Not the President’s Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEFING – the PDB:    

NATIONAL SECURITY

Air Force planners see value in mid-conflict deterrence using ‘reveal and conceal’ later game. In the not-so-distant future, war has broken out in the Indo-Pacific between the U.S. and China. Yet mid-conflict, the U.S. quickly introduces a new capability previously hidden — perhaps thousands of drones — and startled by this reveal, Beijing recalculates and backs down.

HOMELAND SECURITY

Senior national security officials coordinated airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen using a non-authorized group chat (via the commercial SIGNAL app) which accidentally included the top editor of The Atlantic, likely breaking federal laws and protocols. (RELATED: National Security Official Learns Fate After HUGE War Plan Leak)

The accidental leak of sensitive military information has provoked a flurry of reactions across DC.

Amid massive Chinese hacking breaches, DOD’s inspector general is launching a three-pronged investigation into the department’s use of commercial telecoms and “failure to secure its unclassified telephone communications from foreign espionage.”

Concerns about espionage rise as Trump and Musk fire thousands of federal workers with insider knowledge and connections who now need a job.

POLITICS

The Senate confirmed John Phelan to serve as the next secretary of the Navy, making him only the seventh non-veteran to serve in the role in the last 70 years.

PENTAGON WOKE WATCH

A federal judge in New Jersey has issued a temporary ban on the removal of two transgender men from the Air Force, following a similar ruling last week from a judge in DC.

US POWER OVERSEAS

Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets now carrying GBU-53/B Stormbreaker glide bombs, also known as the Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II), on combat missions in Mideast.

These are the approximate positions of the Navy’s deployed carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups throughout the world as of March 24, 2025, based on Navy and public data.

CHINA THREAT

Japan is accelerating its acquisition of long-range missiles as part of a broader effort to improve its military capabilities in response to growing threats, particularly from China.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee wants to know how to break China’s hold on African resources as Trump eyes a deal with Congo. (RELATED: Desperate African President Appeals To Trump, Offers $20+ Trillion In Minerals)

RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR

Ukrainian special operations forces destroyed two Ka-52 Hokum attack helicopters and two Mi-8 Hip transport helicopters in a precision HIMARS rocket attack behind the lines in Russia’s Belgorod region.

Russia launched a barrage of drones across Ukraine overnight Sunday, ahead of ceasefire talks.

NATO’s next large-scale, live-fly exercise, Ramstein Flag 2025. Troops from more than 15 countries are getting set to conduct a series of complex training missions that mirror realistic, contemporary combat scenarios and confront emerging adversarial threats.

Ukraine will need major rebuilding when war ends. Here’s why the US isn’t likely to invest in its recovery with a new Marshall Plan. Especially as Trump wants Ukraine to repay the US for helping to defend the country against Russia’s invasion.

IRAN THREAT/ISRAEL WARS

Israel approves controversial proposal to facilitate emigration of Palestinians from Gaza, a move critics warn could amount to ethnic cleansing.

Amid renewed fighting in Gaza, the Israel military conducted a series of new “advanced” interception tests with the Iron Dome Air Defense System this month that showed “new capabilities” and “a significant leap in the system’s performance.”

Watch fighter jets launch in support of CENTCOM operations against Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

NORTH KOREA THREAT

North Korea accuses Trump of ‘gambling’ on war after military drills and transforming Joe Biden’s policy on North Korea into something more “vicious.”

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

Britain to keep F-35s in service until 2069 when the aircraft is set to retire from UK service.

Canada’s leader laments lost friendship with the US in the town that sheltered stranded American airline passengers after the 9/11 attacks.

European universities offering ‘scientific asylum’ to US researchers looking to flee the funding freezes, cuts, “censorship” and “political interference,” under Trump.

US MILITARY

The Air Force’s selection of Boeing’s F-47 as the winner of its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) combat jet competition raises new questions about plans for new stealthy aerial refueling tankers.

What the F-47’s canards say about the rest of its design. We actually learned quite a bit about the new stealth fight during the Oval Office presser and statements that came after it.

During a recent training exercise, the 101st Airborne Division put three of its newly created division-focused battalions to the test in a large-scale air assault.

The Army still wants a mobile, long-range artillery capability after canceling an effort to build its own cannon system, but it won’t decide a way forward for nearly two years.

Laser weapons versus drones in huge, week-long testing and experimentation US exercise.

Images show DARPA’s long range autonomous vessel, the USX-1 Defiant, in testing.

END of PDB

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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