In his new job, Tata will serve as principal staff assistant and advisor to the secretary of defense for force readiness, health affairs, National Guard and Reserve component affairs, education and training, and military and civilian personnel requirements and management.

He will be in position to play a key role in guiding implementation of Trump administration policies affecting the DOD workforce, such as Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiatives.

During his confirmation hearing in May, he told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that he would work with lawmakers on “optimizing” the DOD workforce and military and making sure the Pentagon doesn’t have “personnel gaps” in back offices or on the frontlines.

“It’s clear the DoD has a cyber talent shortage, in part because of stiff competition from the civilian sector where DoD salaries struggle to compete. Building on my understanding of the Cyber Excepted Service workforce, I will, if confirmed, work with cyber leadership to identify and implement enhancements to the program, as needed,” he told members of the committee in response to advance policy questions ahead of his confirmation hearing.

“I believe it is crucially important that the Department seeks to recruit and retain the best technical and digital workforce across the total force, including civilian and Active Duty military personnel. The obvious advantages of uniformed personnel in these roles are they bring a warfighter focus and come at a fixed labor cost. The perceived disadvantages could be frequent reassignment and requirements to deploy. If confirmed, I will assess how we train and assign our Service members to support their ability to maintain currency in constantly changing fields. In addition to balancing the active duty and civilian workforce, I believe we need to assess how we best utilize the talent of our Reserve Component personnel,” he wrote.

The Trump administration is in the process of cutting tens of thousands of DOD civilians as part of a broader DOGE push.

Tata told lawmakers that, if confirmed, he would prioritize assessing civilian workforce morale and identifying challenges that employees face.

“My goal is to ensure we have the right tools and environment to attract, retain, and support the highly skilled workforce essential to the DoD’s critical mission,” Tata wrote. “I recognize that proposed workforce reductions can create uncertainty and impact morale. If confirmed, I will prioritize assessing the effects of any such reductions on the DoD’s civilian workforce and implement strategies to maintain a high-performing and resilient workforce dedicated to the Department’s mission.”

At his confirmation hearing, he vowed to protect DOD personnel’s sensitive personal and health information from potential mishandling by the DOGE team at the Pentagon.

“It’s a massive amount of data,” Tata noted. “If I’m confirmed, before DOGE is able to access anything with regard to personnel and personal protected information, there will be some kind of contract that prevents them from doing certain things. I’m not in there yet, I haven’t worked with DOGE, I don’t know DOGE. But what I do know is men and women in the military and their families deserve to have their privacy protected, and I will commit to them, and I will commit to you, to doing everything possible to get between anyone that wants to get their data and use it for any other reasons.”

He added: “The military health data, the military personnel data — all the records are so critical that we have to have some kind of guardrail in place that helps us prevent improper access to personnel data. And if confirmed, I can commit that I will do my very best to put guardrails in place. And by the way, I don’t suspect that DOGE would try to do anything improper with this information, but sometimes accidents happen, and so we would need some kind of guardrail in place to be able to protect military members’ personal data and their medical data.”

Tata is a West Point graduate who had a 28-year career in the Army and later performed the duties of undersecretary of defense for policy during Trump’s first term.

Since leaving the military, he has made inflammatory statements as a political commentator, including calling former President Barack Obama a “terrorist leader,” among other remarks that critics have panned. During Trump’s first term, the president withdrew Tata’s nomination to be undersecretary of defense for policy in a Senate-confirmed capacity, in the face of political opposition.

In response to questioning from lawmakers at his confirmation hearing in May for the P&R role, Tata said some of his previous comments that have drawn scrutiny were “out of character.”

He told senators that, if confirmed, he would be an “apolitical leader that is trying to take care of the men and women in uniform and their families and the DOD civilians.”

Democratic members of the SASC expressed concerns that he might support a purge of senior military officers who the Trump administration dislikes.

“I would not support any kind of blatant purge,” Tata said at the hearing. “If an officer is not following the constitution, has committed some kind of breach of his or her duty, then that should be investigated, and the investigation should tell us what to do.”

Jules Hurst was performing the duties of undersecretary for P&R prior to Tata’s confirmation.

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Details on the decision are sparse in the documents, but officials wrote that the Chief Digital and AI Office’s CTO “no longer exists or manages resources.” 

President Donald Trump directed federal agencies at the start of his second term to drastically reduce their workforces and assess existing contracts, with aims to ultimately cut back on what his team views as wasteful spending and inefficiencies. The efforts have included initiatives overseen by Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, teams.

While AI is a major priority for the U.S. government under Trump, since then, the Pentagon’s CDAO has seen an exodus of senior leaders and other technical employees.

“As part of broader DOD efficiency efforts, CDAO realized organization efficiencies in FY26, including eliminating the CTO directorate,” a CDAO official told DefenseScoop on Wednesday. “This move has minimal mission impact as CDAO has a strong technical workforce embedded within each of its directorates.”

Budget materials show that the directorate was allocated more than $340 million in fiscal 2024.

The CDAO official declined to share more information regarding how the CTO’s employees, responsibilities and investments were dispersed following the elimination.

Shortly after standing up the CDAO in June 2022, Defense Department leadership hired nearly a dozen senior leaders to serve in its top positions — including Bill Streilein as inaugural CTO. Streilein had previously served as a longtime leader at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory and is now back at the lab working as a member of its principal staff.

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The DOD currently maintains more than 2 million Microsoft 365 E5 licenses across two separate programs — the Defense Enterprise Office Solution (DEOS) and the Enterprise Software Initiative (DOD ESI). Through the established contracts, Pentagon components can purchase software licenses for commercial Microsoft products, including Office 365 applications and other collaboration tools.

But ongoing efforts spearheaded by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have prompted the Defense Department to review how many of those licenses it actually needs, Katie Arrington, who is performing the duties of Pentagon CIO, told DefenseScoop.

“Our Microsoft 365 contract [is a] very big contract here in the Department of Defense. Does every individual in the Department of Defense need an [E5] license? Absolutely not,” Arrington said June 6 in an exclusive interview.

With the department’s Deputy CIO for the Information Enterprise Bill Dunlap, Arrington has been working alongside her DOGE representative to review individual position descriptions and multi-level securities to determine what level of Microsoft 365 E5 license that person needs, she said. Other criteria being considered include user and mission requirements for office productivity software, as well as collaboration capabilities, a DOD CIO spokesperson told DefenseScoop.

CSRA, which is owned by General Dynamics IT, has served as the lead integrator for the DEOS contract since 2020, when the company received a 10-year blanket purchase agreement from the General Services Administration and Defense Department. The program allows Pentagon components to purchase individual licenses for cloud-based Microsoft 365 email and collaboration tools on a monthly basis.

Although the GDIT-led team, which also includes Dell Marketing and Minburn Technology Group, initially received the award in 2019, the department was forced to re-compete the contract following two bid protests by competitor Perspecta. The procurement battle resulted in the GSA and Pentagon giving the contract to GDIT at an estimated value of $4.4 billion — much lower than its originally projected $7.6 billion value.

The department can also purchase licenses for software products — including from Microsoft and other vendors, such as Oracle — using an Enterprise Software Agreement (ESA) contract vehicle, which is managed by the DOD ESI. Instead of buying individual licenses through DEOS, an ESA is used to purchase software via resellers in bulk and on an annual basis.

Arrington did not say how many Microsoft licenses are on the chopping block, but emphasized that the effort is geared toward “optimizing the licenses that we have.”

A reduction in E5 licenses would be yet another cut to the Pentagon’s IT enterprise prompted by the department’s work with DOGE. Along with reductions to its civilian workforce, the Defense Department has ordered several of its IT consulting contracts be cancelled and replaced by internally sourced services — an action also being taken by some of the military departments, as well as the DOD CIO.

“On an average day we would probably put out a contract for consulting on how to optimize or automate the RMF. We didn’t do that. We went internally. We did it ourselves, and we’re going to use our partners in the industry to help, because they would be the beneficiaries,” Arrington said, referring to her ongoing push to overhaul the Pentagon’s Risk Management Framework (RMF).

The office is also reviewing its contracts with systems integrators to ensure there are no duplicative efforts underway, as well as pushing for more use of commercial-off-the-shelf capabilities, she added.

Despite challenges that may come from DOGE-inspired cuts, Arrington said that she believes the work will help the Pentagon be on a “level playing field” moving forward.

“[The Defense Department] is as energized as I’ve ever seen it. But that doesn’t mean there’s no concern,” she said. “Change is hard, but it’s definitely needed.”

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Speaking Monday at the AI+Expo hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project, Navy Secretary John Phelan told attendees that his organization has welcomed the DOGE team at the Pentagon.

“We’ve embraced the DOGE agency to come in basically to help us figure out processes and things that we’re doing that don’t make sense, figuring out contracting things that we’re doing that don’t make sense, figuring out IT systems that are built on legacy platforms that end up not talking to one another, figuring out systems that we just do because someone in the room has decided let’s not change it. So, you know, they’ve been very effective with us,” Phelan said.

In one fell swoop in April, the SECNAV ordered the termination of hundreds of millions of dollars in IT contracts — include those for the Naval Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (NMRO) program — and unrelated grants as part of a broader push at the Defense Department to slash spending that the Trump administration deems wasteful.

He estimated that the Navy has saved almost a $1 billion from chopping expenditures singled out by DOGE, so far, which have included moves like canceling “redundant” IT contracts.

Savings could be reinvested in other priorities, such as improving the living conditions of troops, he suggested.

“You can fix a lot of barracks” with that money, Phelan said.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth moved last week to further rein in the Pentagon’s IT spending, issuing a memo aimed at limiting the Defense Department’s hiring of consultants.

Prior to execution of a new IT consulting or management services contract or task order with an integrator or consultant, DOD components must obtain approval from Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg or his designee. Approvals or denials will be based on submission of a cost-benefit analysis, evidence of evaluation of alternatives, and justification that the efforts to be covered by the contract cannot be in-sourced anywhere within the department or acquired from a direct service provider, according to Hegseth’s edict.

Hegseth issued another directive last week giving DOGE personnel even more oversight of DOD contracting efforts going forward, allowing them the opportunity to provide input on almost all unclassified contracts.

At Monday’s conference, Phelan noted that Hegseth has talked about the need to cancel consulting contracts.

“We had a number of … consulting contracts that did not really make a tremendous amount of sense,” the SECNAV said.

If consultants want to work with the Navy, they need to show that they can save the department money, he added.

“My message to consultants is … it’s not going to be just we pay you, come in and do this. Show me meaningful savings,” Phelan said. “It’s got to be tied to results. And I think that’s one of the things we don’t do a good enough job on is tying things to outcomes and results. In our contracts we don’t do a very good job of it, and across shipbuilding, IT, consulting, everything. So DOGE has been very good to work with. I look forward to the next round and working with them to see what they come up with next and trying to remove a number of things that don’t make sense.”

Phelan’s remarks on Monday about recent and future cuts came as the Navy and Marine Corps are poised to consolidate legacy and standalone IT networks into an enterprise information ecosystem as part of a large-scale modernization campaign that seeks to reduce the cyberattack surface, improve user experience and optimize technology investments.

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Since President Donald Trump began his second term in January, Musk has spearheaded the Department of Government Efficiency’s push across the federal government to find “waste, fraud and abuse,” slash certain types of spending and cut the workforce. A DOGE team was set up at the Pentagon — as well as other federal agencies — to implement those efforts.

“As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President  @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Musk wrote Wednesday night in a post on X, the social media platform that he owns. “The  @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”

In a sign that DOGE’s influence will continue at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a new directive this week giving those personnel more oversight of contracting efforts.

“The Department of Defense (DoD) Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team will have the opportunity to provide input on all unclassified contracts. The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (USD(A&S)), or its designee, will coordinate with DOGE to ensure that the opportunity for review of the Performance Work Statement/Statement of Work, accompanying estimates, deliverable descriptions, and requirements approval/validation documents, occurs when the requirements package is provided to a DoD contracting office to initiate a procurement or prior to the package being provided to a non-DoD assisting agency (e.g., General Services Administration),” Hegseth wrote in a May 27 memo to senior Pentagon leadership, combatant commanders, and DOD agency and field activity directors.

“DOGE will also have the opportunity to review any requirements packages for change orders or supplemental agreement modifications to unclassified contracts that result in an increase in the contract price, prior to said modifications. Requirements for procurement actions already in process (i.e., accepted by a contracting activity or a non-DoD assisting agency for execution, but a contract has not been awarded), as of the date of this memorandum, shall also be made available for review,” he added.

Perhaps to mitigate delays, Hegseth’s directive notes that if the DOD DOGE team doesn’t provide input within two business days of receiving a review package, the procurement should “proceed as normal.”

It’s not immediately clear exactly what will happen to a procurement effort if DOGE raises concerns during the review process. Hegseth has directed the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment to create a workflow process with DOGE within two weeks of the issuance of his memo.

The SecDef noted that certain types of requirements packages — including those that support emergency and contingency operations, ops with performance outside the U.S. and its territories, and those that have an estimated total contract value of less than $1 million — will initially be exempted from the new review process.

In a video released Wednesday on X, Hegseth said the Pentagon had already saved more than $10 billion working with DOGE on previous efforts to review spending, including from a “line-by-line audit of over 50 contract vehicles.”

“And we’re just getting started,” he added.

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The edict came in a memo sent Tuesday to Pentagon leadership, combatant commanders, and DOD agency and field activity directors regarding implementation of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cost-saving initiatives.

“While we rely on our vital industrial base to deliver cutting-edge technology and support, we must in-source more expertise and harness the unparalleled talent of our existing experts to drive financial efficiency and operational strength,” Hegseth wrote.

Going forward, DOD components “may not execute new IT consulting or management services contracts or task orders with integrators or consultants -defined as entities providing system IT integration, implementation, or advisory services (e.g., designing, deploying, or managing IT systems, or offering strategic or technical IT expertise) – without first justifying that no element of the contracted effort can be: (1) accomplished by existing DoD agencies or personnel; or (2) acquired from the direct service provider, whereby the prime contractor is not an integrator or consultant,” he wrote.

Prior to execution of a new IT consulting or management services contract or task order with an integrator or consultant, DOD components must obtain approval from Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg or his designee. Approvals or denials will be based on submission of a cost-benefit analysis, evidence of evaluation of alternatives, and justification that the efforts to be covered by the contract cannot be in-sourced anywhere within the department or acquired from a direct service provider.

“Merely reclassifying integrator or consultant contracts to avoid the requirement to evade review is prohibited,” Hegseth wrote, noting that the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment will monitor compliance with his directive.

Contracts “in direct support to defense weapon system programs and directly associated program sustainment activities” are excluded from the requirement, as are contracts and task orders with a total value under $10 million.

The A&S directorate will also review existing IT consulting or management services contracts and task orders “for viability and alternatives under the above guidance,” according to the memo.

The memo also imposes similar restrictions on “advisory and assistance services” contracts, including those that entail providing expert advice, recommendations, studies, analyses, or support for management, strategic planning, policy development, organizational assessments, technical expertise, or operational decision-making.

Additionally, Hegseth directed DOD components to maximize utilization of the department’s employees for “broad functions” — including IT, among others — when such functions are being performed by a mix of DOD employees and contractors.

The new edict is the latest move by Hegseth to rein in the Pentagon’s IT spending.

Last month, he signed a directive ordering the termination of several IT services contracts and directed the Pentagon’s chief information officer to draw up plans for in-sourcing, among other measures.

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However, workers are being tasked to submit another round of ideas for eliminating waste and inefficiencies, via an online survey.

The new instructions come nearly three months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued the original bullet-point guidance in late February. Hegseth’s orders followed the Office of Personnel Management’s governmentwide directive, which was inspired by billionaire and presidential adviser Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that he helped stand up at the start of the second Trump administration.

“To conclude the ‘five-bullet’ exercise, we need one last input from you,” Jules Hurst III, who is performing the duties of undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, wrote in the email that was sent to the civilian workforce ahead of Memorial Day weekend.

In it, Hurst directed Defense Department employees to submit “one idea that will improve the department’s efficiency or root out waste” to a digital questionnaire linked to that email, by noon EDT on Wednesday.

“It can be big or small. It can be focused on a particular program or on larger department operations. I invite you to be creative,” Hurst wrote.

The online form users are prompted to fill out asks them to “provide a one sentence description of what is wrong and what you recommend doing about it.” They’re also directed to rate the problem on a scale of 1 to 7 — to reflect the potential impact on people or possible cost savings.

“Your response is considered mandatory. Let us know one area where you see the worst inefficiency, waste, or even fraud. This could be as granular as ‘the internet doesn’t work on Tuesday’ or ‘these regulations don’t make sense’ or ’this weapons system doesn’t work,’” the survey states.

Questions about privacy implications, how DOGE and DOD leaders would be using workers’ five-bullet point email responses and what specific decisions those answers could inform have lingered since Hegseth’s directive was released in February.

While they mark the latest DOGE-aligned directions for defense officials, Hurst’s instructions do not point to new hardline data or insights about the overarching outcome of this exercise — or why it’s coming to a close now. 

“Your weekly emails have served as a reminder of the depth and breadth of the department’s mission, and of how it takes a workforce of many talents to achieve our critical national security mission,” he wrote.

In response to questions from DefenseScoop on Tuesday, a defense official said: “Yes, the department has concluded the five-bullet exercise and asked employees to submit one idea that will improve the Department’s efficiency or root out waste.”

They did not provide further details about the move.

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The upcoming losses are due to some DISA employees accepting deferred resignation or voluntary early retirement programs, terminations of probationary employees and other workforce reduction initiatives inspired by Elon Musk’s DOGE, according to Lt. Gen. Paul Stanton, head of DISA and the Joint Force Headquarters-Department of Defense Information Network.

DOGE stands for Department of Government Efficiency.

However, the workforce reductions may glean some benefits for the agency, Stanton suggested during a Senate Armed Services cybersecurity subcommittee hearing.

“It’s giving us an opportunity to ruthlessly realign and optimize how we are addressing what is an evolving mission,” he said.

DISA is the Pentagon’s combat support agency responsible for providing IT and communication support to the military, as well as other federal organizations like the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Secret Service. At the moment, DISA employs roughly 20,000 individuals — including around 6,800 DOD civilians and 1,200 active duty military personnel — and more than half are contractors, Stanton said.

Across the federal government, agencies are carrying out mandates from President Donald Trump designed to “maximize efficiency” by massively reducing the civilian workforce and making significant budget cuts. At the Pentagon, leaders are currently planning to slash more than 50,000 of the department’s 900,000-plus civilian personnel through deferred resignations, cutting probationary staff and implementing temporary hiring freezes.

Stanton told lawmakers that DISA is using the downsizing as an opportunity to reorganize its remaining workforce and direct more focus to some of its top priorities. 

“Things like the Multi-Partner Environment and initiatives like DoDNet are driving our workforce to perform roles that they hadn’t previously, and so we are doing a realignment,” he said. 

The agency also plans to request Pentagon approval to do a “surgical rehiring” in order to fill any gaps as a result of the workforce cuts that could negatively impact DISA’s missions.

“We need to hire the right people back into the right positions to then lead us forward,” Stanton said.

Along with cuts to its civilian workforce, the DOD is looking to cancel a number of IT consulting contracts following an April memo from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Components affected by the directive include the Defense Health Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and some of the military services.

Stanton told lawmakers that reviewing IT contracts is already a regular practice within DISA, as it allows the agency to adapt to emerging capabilities and stay aligned with its highly technical workforce.

“In the IT world, as technology changes, we have to continually evaluate whether or not we have the right industry partner performing the right mission, and so we routinely evaluate,” he said. “They’re not consulting contracts. These are individuals that are putting hands on keyboards, that are running fiber optic cables, that are performing server maintenance in a global footprint. And our contracts are healthy and are in a good spot.”

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The moves — outlined in a pair of memos issued to the chief of naval operations, Marine Corps commandant, Navy assistant secretaries and general counsel — are pursuant to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “commitment to strategically rebuild our military, restore accountability to the Department of Defense, cut wasteful spending, and implement the President’s orders,” Phelan wrote.

The IT contracts axed by the SECNAV include those for the Naval Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (NMRO) program.

The NMRO system was designed to provide mobile access for users, embedded job performance aids, lobby functions providing customizable work areas of interest, and 3D interactive renderings of ship systems enabling sailors to click on an object to access technical and logistics data, according to a news release last year from Fleet Force Command.

“The NMRO logistics program is critical software for the Navy. However, for 5 years systems integrators have over-engineered the software to the point where it is unusable. Upon the recommendation of Navy leadership, the current contracts under the NMRO program shall be terminated. This will allow the Program Office to apply the savings towards a new strategy to meet our needs,” Phelan wrote in a new memo obtained by DefenseScoop from a Navy official.

He also directed the Navy’s chief information officer to prepare a new acquisition strategy by July 31, along with management review of the program.

“Collectively, these contract terminations represent over $568 million in total contract value, which we estimate can allow the Navy to repurpose up to $200 million in taxpayer funds in a more effective manner,” Phelan wrote.

“I commend the Navy leaders who raised this opportunity that will result in a more effective fighting force. Moreover, I encourage leaders across the Department of the Navy to follow this example in identifying opportunities to eliminate wasteful spending which we can then re-invest into critical mission needs,” he added.

In a separate memo obtained by DefenseScoop, Phelan ordered the termination of 45 other contracts and grants. He said the cuts target “wasteful spending” on climate change, DEI, social science, and “other activities which are not aligned with DoD and DoN priorities.”

The cuts include grants for studies of “Persuasion, Identity, and Morality in Social-Cyber Environments” and “engendering and leveraging trust in longitudinal human-AI interactions,” among others, according to the memo.

“Collectively, these 45 terminations represent over $87 million in total award value, which we estimate can save up to $41 million in taxpayer funds the Navy can better apply to critical priorities,” Phelan wrote.

The cuts come as Pentagon leadership has been working with the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team, led by tech titan and presidential adviser Elon Musk, to review spending.

“I commend the DOGE team for finding these opportunities to help save the Navy and increase our readiness and warfighting capability,” Phelan said in a video posted on X, the social media platform owned by Musk. “Stay tuned — there’s more to come.”

Earlier this month at the Sea-Air-Space conference, Navy CIO Jane Rathbun noted that the Trump administration’s DOGE team was examining the Navy’s software enterprise and use of commercial software.

“It’s actually being led through the DOD CIO, and it is collaborative and they are asking for information from us. They are asking for information from the industry partners and really understanding how we buy, how we consume, and how we could do it more effectively,” she told DefenseScoop.

Hegseth has also been pushing to rein in Pentagon spending on IT services contracts. About two weeks ago, he issued a directive ordering the termination of several major contracts, with estimated savings of more than $4 billion. He also directed the Pentagon’s chief information officer to draw up plans for in-sourcing, among other measures.

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The aim is to “cut wasteful spending” and “support the continued rationalization” of the Defense Department’s IT enterprise, Hegseth wrote.

The move comes amid a broader push by the Trump administration to implement Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiatives across federal agencies.

Hegseth’s new memo to senior Pentagon leadership ordered the termination of contracts affecting a variety of DOD components, including a Defense Health Agency contract for consulting services; an Air Force contract to re-sell third party enterprise cloud IT services; a Navy contract for business process consulting services; and a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract for IT helpdesk services.

In a video released on social media touting these DOGE-related efforts, Hegseth estimated that those contract terminations would save the Pentagon approximately $1.8 billion, $1.4 billion, $500 million and $500 million, respectively.

“These contracts represent non-essential spending on third party consultants to perform services more efficiently performed by the highly skilled members of our DoD workforce using existing resources,” he wrote in the memo.

Hegseth also tasked the Pentagon CIO to work with the DOGE team to produce a plan within 30 days for how DOD will in-source IT consulting and management services to the department’s civilian workforce.

The new call for in-sourcing comes as Pentagon leaders are advancing efforts to make major cuts to the civilian workforce. Hegseth has said he wants to reinvest savings from employee reductions into higher-priority warfighting capabilities.

The plan from the CIO that Hegseth ordered in Thursday’s memo must also address how the Defense Department will negotiate “most favorable rates on software and cloud services, so the DoD pays no more for IT services than any other enterprise in America,” the SecDef wrote.

The memo also tasks the chief information officer to complete an audit of Pentagon software licensing by April 18. The purpose of the audit is “to ensure we are only paying for the licenses we actually use, the features we actually need, at the most favorable rates,” according to Hegseth.

Katie Arrington is currently performing the duties of DOD CIO.

Earlier this week at the Sea-Air-Space conference, Navy Chief Information Officer Jane Rathbun said DOGE and the DOD CIO were reviewing the service’s software enterprise.

“It’s all about making the right investments in modernizing, but modernizing with an eye towards effectiveness and efficiency. We’ve got this new administration. We’ve got the DOGE in working with us, and they’re focused on effective consumption of commercial software. Are we doing the best job we can deliver in buying and utilizing the software that we have?” she said.

The Navy is a huge purchaser of software licenses, Rathbun noted.

“It’s a big number. And so are we buying effectively? Are we utilizing the things that we’re buying effectively? There’s always opportunity for improvement. And I would say that’s an area in my portfolio that I want to focus on but have not a lot of people to do that, which is something that has always bothered me and I want to be doing better at is really this optimization concept. I’ve got to continuously modernize but I have to do it in an optimal way,” she said.

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