The entire staff of the Defense Digital Service (DDS), the Pentagon’s technology development office that has been in operation for a decade, will resign by early May. This means that in less than a month the agency will close its doors, losing its 14 employees.
The service was established in 2015 as part of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office. Its mission is to tackle high-priority digital challenges within the Pentagon by recruiting top tech talent from the private sector. DDS focuses on projects like cybersecurity, drone detection technologies, and improving digital services for military families.
DDS is known for initiatives like “Hack the Pentagon,” a bug bounty program aimed at identifying vulnerabilities in defense systems. It also develops rapid-response tools for national security crises and experiments with AI applications.
The team of engineers and data experts were supposed to bring Silicon Valley-style solutions to a department that, historically, has often struggled to keep up with innovations.
“Although DDS was excited to support DoD’s efforts to improve efficiencies and champion software modernization initiatives, the Administration was not leveraging DDS and hiring freezes, rescinding remote work, and travel restrictions were making us non-mission capable,” said an office official, “As a result, most of the team elected to resign.”
Mounting pressure on the office from DOGE, led by Elon Musk, led its members to opt to resign.
A former senior Pentagon official, who preferred to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, described DOGE’s extensive foray into the Defense Department as damaging and unproductive. “They’re not really using AI, they’re not really driving efficiency. What they’re doing is smashing everything,” the former official said.
At the same time, DDS projects are expected to be used elsewhere. In fact, an agency official explained that the office has “found permanent homes for most of our ongoing projects.”
