Sources informed that U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has ordered a reduction in the operations of a Pentagon office shortly after taking charge of the tests for the Iron Dome missile defense project, initiated by President Donald Trump, which is estimated to cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
At the end of April, the office issued an internal memo distributed to the Secretary of Defense’s office and other departments within the Department of Defense. This memo included the Iron Dome among the evaluation programs overseen by the office, in accordance with regulations mandating that major defense programs undergo testing before being approved.
However, just days later, the Office of Government Efficiency requested a meeting with the oversight office, expressing surprise that most of its functions are mandated by law, as per the sources. The visit did not indicate any intentions to reduce the office’s staff, but on Wednesday, an unexpected announcement was made, calling employees to an urgent meeting where they were informed that staffing would be cut to just 30 employees from over 100 and that support contracts with contractors would be terminated.
Democratic Senator Jack Reed, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, expressed his concerns, suggesting that this move was retaliatory due to Hegseth’s opposition to some of the office’s recent decisions. Reed explained that reducing the office to this extent, especially with the absence of contract support, could prevent effective oversight of critical military programs, jeopardizing operational readiness and wasting taxpayer dollars.