Updated February 20, 2025 at 13:08 PM ET
The Pentagon has proposed cutting 8% of its budget in each of the next five years — amounting to some $50 billion each year — but prioritized 17 areas from drones and submarines to military assistance for the southern border as well as increased funding for the U.S. command that focuses on China.
The proposal comes as members of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, an entity tasked by President Trump to slash the size of the federal government, showed up at the Pentagon last Friday to identify programs and personnel that could be cut.
"President Trump's charge to the Department of Defense is clear: to achieve peace through strength," wrote Robert G. Salesses, a senior Pentagon official, in a press release. "We will do this by putting forward budgets that revive the warrior ethos, rebuild our military, and reestablish deterrence."
Salesses wrote that besides using the military to secure the southern border, the Pentagon will also move forward on constructing an Iron Dome for the U.S., echoing a missile defense system now operational in Israel. And he said the department will develop a list of budget cuts "that could be used to fund these priorities."
Salesses went on to say the Defense Department will be "ending radical and wasteful government DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs and preferencing."
Those cuts will likely include thousands of personnel from the Pentagon and defense agencies, as well as some established weapons programs. Already defense officials have been ordered to draw up a list of probationary employees.
"They're making us ID everyone on probation," a Pentagon official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, told NPR. "Nobody's actually said they'll get fired." Another defense official who was also not authorized to speak publicly said the probationary firings could come as early as Thursday, and the figure could include 55,000 within the Department of Defense. The official added that it's unclear how many, if any, will be exempt due to national security considerations, and that it is still unclear how people will be contacted, with the possibility that news of termination could come via the Office of Personnel Management or OPM.
The Government Accountability Office found that there are more 700,000 full-time civilian employees at the Pentagon. The defense department remains the largest employer in the United States, with a combined military and civilian workforce of over 2.8 million. It has an annual budget well over $800 billion.
Another military official who spoke to NPR said he was on his way to a military exercise in Africa — but was told to return to his office to draw up a list of probationary employees. The official was also not authorized to speak publicly.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has supported cuts to the department, posting on X earlier this month that the Pentagon needs "to cut the fat (HQ) and grow the muscle (warfighters)." There's an expectation, according to Capitol Hill and Pentagon sources not authorized to speak publicly, that some top generals and admirals could soon be let go.
The list of priorities and possible cuts has troubled some on Capitol Hill who could see their own priorities come to an end. One Democratic aide who was not authorized to speak publicly told NPR his Republican colleagues were "losing their minds" over Hegseth's proposals.
Whether the priorities survive will depend on backing from the Republican-led Congress, which so far has been supportive of Trump's plan.
Some of the Hegseth priorities have been pushed by others. The war in Ukraine, for example, has made clear the importance of drones in warfare — both by Russia and Ukrainian forces.
"If you study Ukraine, you see a glimpse of the future," former Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley recently told NPR. "Much of the Kursk invasion that recently happened was due to their ability to use short and mid-range drones to support combined operations on the ground."
And a focus on submarines makes sense to defense analysts, since they are stealthy — unlike surface ships. Military officials say the U.S. is a generation ahead of China with its submarine technology.
"Attack submarines are among our most effective weapons and the crown jewels of U.S. military power," GOP Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said last year. "Undersea warfare is one of the few areas in which we retain a competitive advantage over the Chinese military."
Still, how much of the administration's plan becomes reality is an open question.
Dov Zakheim, who served as Pentagon controller under former President George W. Bush, said a $50 billion cut in the Pentagon budget "is a huge target."
He said "the big bill payers" would likely include civilian government workers in the defense agencies. And since the priorities are focused on the Air Force and Navy, he says the budget cuts could lead to a smaller Army.
Moreover, he says, some proposals could mean "potentially huge costs."
The estimated price tag for an American Iron Dome? Zakheim estimates it's up to $100 billion each year.
The 17 priorities for the Pentagon, as provided to NPR by a U.S. official not authorized to speak publicly, include:
1. Southwest Border Activities
2. Combating Transnational Criminal Organizations in the Western Hemisphere
3. Audit
4. Nuclear Modernization (including NC3)
5. Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCAs)
6. Virginia-class Submarines
7. Executable Surface Ships
8. Homeland Missile Defense
9. One-Way Attack/Autonomous Systems
10. Counter-small UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) Initiatives
11. Priority Critical Cybersecurity
12. Munitions
13. Core Readiness, including full DRT (training) funding
14. Munitions and Energetics Organic Industrial Bases
15. Executable INDOPACOM (India Pacific Command) MILCON (military construction)
16. Combatant Command support agency funding for INDOPACOM, NORTHCOM, (Northern Command), SPACECOM, (Space Command) STRATCOM, (Strategic Command) CYBERCOM, (Cyber Command) and TRANSCOM (Transportation Command)
17. Medical Private-Sector Care
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