Defence productivity

• When I served at U.S. Air Forces Europe, a daily 15-minute briefing took 43 hours of staff work.
• This wasn’t an outlier — it was the norm.
• With the largest discretionary spending item in the federal budget and massive inefficiencies, the Defense Department might seem an obvious target for the Department of Government Efficiency — known as DOGE.
• With roughly 2.8 million personnel, the Department of Defense spends $299 billion on personnel costs, with billions more allocated towards contractors performing similar jobs.
• Manpower alone accounts for one-third of the defense budget.
• Although DOGE has focused largely on sweeping budget cuts, its core purpose is to modernise federal technology and software to maximise governmental efficiency and productivity.
• Despite the Department of Defense’s focus on combat efficiency, rarely is there a meaningful push to improve productivity.
• DOGE could address this gap and strengthen military readiness by automating administrative tasks, streamlining bureaucratic processes, and modernising information technology systems.

The Problem: Administrative Burdens and Outdated Systems

• Despite being a warfighting organisation, a significant portion of Department of Defense personnel dedicate substantial time to administrative work.
• Staff officers devote most of their time to formatting PowerPoint briefings and warfighters are often bogged down by bureaucratic paperwork rather than focusing on mission-critical tasks.
• The inefficiencies extend beyond daily workflows.
• Security clearance processing has become a major bottleneck, preventing personnel from assuming critical roles in a timely manner.
• As security classifications expand across the force, the backlog has grown to around 100,000 cases as of late 2024, with secret and top-secret clearances taking an average of 68 and 169 days, respectively, to complete.
• This delay effectively sidelines thousands of personnel, leaving units understaffed and reducing operational readiness.
• Beyond clearance delays, inefficient processes prevent personnel from seamlessly transitioning between assignments.
• Many wait months to regain access to the same classified systems they previously used, further stalling productivity and mission effectiveness.
• Beyond clearance delays, outdated technology further compounds inefficiencies across the Department of Defense.
• A prime example is the Navy’s adoption of Microsoft Office 365 to modernise its ageing, fragmented networks.
• This might not seem like a big deal until you notice the platform has been commercially available for a decade.
• Even after the successful rollout, it took an additional three years before the Department of Defense integrated the platform into its classified networks, highlighting the slow pace of technological adoption.
• All of these inefficiencies compound across the department.
• A 2023 RAND report estimated that outdated software and network systems cost the Department of Defense $2.5 billion in lost productivity annually.
• And this figure excludes top-secret and special access program networks, which have similar problems.
• All of these problems culminated in the Government Services Administration finding the Department of Defense ranked lowest in satisfaction with IT support and services among all federal agencies.
• When personnel spend more time fighting their systems than executing their mission, it not only degrades productivity but also delays critical decisions.
• While these inefficiencies may seem like minor headaches, they compound across an organisation of 2.8 million people, leading to billions of dollars in wasted time, stalled operations, and degraded effectiveness.
• The problem is not just the cost — it is that outdated systems and unnecessary bureaucracy actively hinder military readiness.

Automating Administrative Tasks

• A significant portion of Department of Defense personnel handle routine administrative tasks — most of which can be automated to free up manpower.
• While serving in U.S. Air Forces Europe, I saw this inefficiency firsthand.
• The four-star commander received a daily operations and intelligence briefing that required 43 hours of manual work to prepare — despite lasting only 15 minutes.
• I led an effort to automate this process and quickly found there were multiple other companies tackling similar problems across the Department of Defense.
• Even though one company’s solution was far superior, U.S. Air Forces Europe was being cornered into using inferior products due to decisions made at higher commands.
• This inefficiency partially stems from the Department of Defense’s bias toward government-owned software instead of commercial-off-the-shelf solutions.
• The fear of being locked into a vendor’s product and the expectation of lower costs creates a belief that government-developed systems would be more cost-effective.
• The Department of Defense’s software acquisition process helped create these incentives, which is partly why Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, recently announced a new mandate to streamline software acquisition across the department.
• Today, enterprise solutions require major tech players like Palantir, Google and Microsoft to integrate data effectively — not small organisations with no track record of success.

  The Way Forward

• While DOGE personnel are already in the Pentagon, there is an opportunity to adopt an approach that balances cost-saving efforts with operational effectiveness.
• These three initiatives — automation, security clearance reform, and IT modernization — represent low-hanging fruit that can generate substantial savings while enhancing military effectiveness.
• If DOGE’s goal is to maximise efficiency, prioritising technology and process improvements will yield sustainable results without compromising readiness.