Layoffs loom at Pentagon-funded think tank after Hegseth slashes weapons-testing office

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Source: CBS News

June 6, 2025 / 6:00 PM EDT


Washington — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's recent personnel cuts in the Pentagon office responsible for weapons testing has halted all work and cleared the way for potential layoffs at the Pentagon-funded think tank that supports it, the Institute for Defense Analyses, or IDA. In a letter obtained by CBS News, the institute's president, retired Air Force Gen. Norton "Norty" Schwartz, told staff he'd received a notice on Monday "terminating all IDA tasks" for the Pentagon's Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation — known inside the Pentagon as DOT&E.

"Leadership is working to assess the full range of implications of these contract actions," Schwartz wrote, adding that the loss of funding "impacts all of IDA." He continued, "With the loss of funding, we cannot sustain our current staffing levels as an organization … All of this is devastating for us as individuals and for the amazing work we have had the privilege to perform for so many years."

Congress established DOT&E in 1983 out of growing concern that the Pentagon lacked a clear and independent view of how its weapons systems performed under real-world conditions. Lawmakers at the time had grown frustrated with the quality of oversight, believing both Congress and the Defense Department were being left in the dark about the true effectiveness of the military's most expensive investments. IDA provides technical expertise and analysis to support the weapons testing office. DOT&E, along with IDA, took up the mantle of testing and evaluating all Pentagon weapon systems. By law, no weapon system can proceed to full production without the office's signoff.

But late last month, Hegseth made deep cuts to the weapons testing office, which has caused a ripple effect at IDA. In his memo, Hegseth called much of the office's work "redundant" and "nonessential" and said it had functions that "do not support operational agility or resource efficiency." The directive made a sweeping reduction to the office's civilian workforce, cutting the civilian employee count from 118 to 30, with and 15 uniformed personnel, and one person in the Senior Executive Service position to lead the office. The memo also ended all contractor support to the office, such as the work done by IDA.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pentagon-funded-think-tank-hegseth-slashes-weapons-testing-office/