U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to lay off more than half the staff of the Pentagon’s Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) was motivated by concerns about the office’s plans to provide test oversight for the Trump administration’s $175 billion Gold Dome missile defense project, according to multiple sources.
In a memorandum released Wednesday, Secretary Hegseth announced plans to reduce the 94-person DOT&E office staff, which includes civilians, military personnel and one senior executive, to 46. The memorandum also ended all contractor support for the office.
Reactions and Reasons for the Decision
The decision has raised concerns among some congressional Democrats, including Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI), who called the move “reckless and counterproductive.” “With staffing reduced to a skeleton crew and limited contractor support, DOT&E may be unable to provide adequate oversight of critical military programs, putting operational readiness and taxpayer dollars at risk,” Reed said. Such politically motivated interventions would undermine independent oversight and leave warfighters and the public more vulnerable to untested, potentially flawed systems.
Secretary Hegseth argued that the restructuring was tied to the Pentagon’s “America First” strategy and was supported by an internal review that identified “unnecessary, illegitimate functions” within the office. He also noted that the analysis found that the staff reductions could save more than $300 million per year.
Golden Dome Project and Control Tension
But multiple sources familiar with the decision, who asked not to be identified, told Defense News that the circumstances were more complicated than the scenario the secretary described in his letter. The sources pointed to ongoing tensions between the military services and the office, with the latest tension being frustration among senior executives over DOT&E’s decision to add the Golden Dome project to its “checklist.” One source described the situation as a “perfect storm.”
The DOT&E office is a unit established by Congress to provide independent oversight of major defense acquisition programs. Its leaders are required by law to approve test plans and report results for all Department of Defense programs with total research and development costs exceeding $525 million (2020 dollars) or with procurement costs expected to exceed $3 billion.
The list of work under DOT&E’s oversight currently includes more than 35 programs, including the F-250 Joint Strike Fighter, the Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon and the Navy’s Aegis modernization program. While the office’s role as a watchdog means its recommendations are sometimes unpopular with service leaders and major defense contractors, the goal of its rigorous verification is to prevent the department from deploying faulty systems that could endanger service members.
The Golden Dome was an obvious candidate for DOT&E oversight because of its complexity and cost, estimated at $175 billion over the next three years, the sources said. But it drew an unusual level of scrutiny when DOT&E Interim Administrator Raymond O’Toole informed senior executives that he planned to add the Golden Dome to the list. Officials worried that the office’s involvement would slow down the program and increase its costs, and they conveyed those concerns all the way to the White House. One source said the extra attention was due to President Donald Trump’s interest in the program, and that the office had been informed that the program “had to be successful for Mr. Trump.”
Trump’s “Golden Dome” Vision
Gold Dome became President Trump’s signature defense project early in his second term. In a Jan. 27 memo, he ordered the Pentagon to outline a plan for a layered network of ground- and space-based interceptors and sensors to detect, track and defeat a range of missile threats. Trump initially called the project “Iron Dome for America,” after Israel’s missile defense system of the same name. He later rebranded the project as “Gold Dome,” a nod to his vision of a “golden age in America” and perhaps his obsession with the precious metal.
In a meeting in the Oval Office last week attended by Hegseth and a top Space Force general, Trump delivered a series of images showing a gold-encrusted map of the U.S., along with promises that the Pentagon would deliver “the best system ever built” before the end of his term. While there is broad agreement among defense officials and outside experts that more focused investment is needed in the U.S. missile defense architecture, Trump’s timeline and cost projections have raised questions.
With the exact details of the project still unclear, some are questioning whether the Golden Dome’s biggest technology elevators are feasible and worth their long-term cost. “I don’t think we should read too much into the $175 billion figure because there’s been no detail or caveat,” said Todd Harrison, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. “I’d like to see something on paper that shows what’s included, what’s not included, and the time frame of the estimate.”
This week’s DOT&E cuts raise concerns that the office will not have enough resources to oversee all of the Defense Department’s major programs, especially Golden Dome. A source close to the office suggested that the “drastically reduced” staffing could prevent the Pentagon from shrinking the office’s oversight roster. The reduced testing oversight could allow Golden Dome to move faster, but the sources said it would be worrisome if a program with such high-risk targets escaped scrutiny. “There were hundreds of warheads coming, cyberattacks, with all sorts of countermeasures,” another source said. “That’s usually beyond the scope of a program and a service test office to organize all of that.”
