Nearly the entire staff of the Pentagon’s elite tech unit will resign by the end of April after being sidelined by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), sources told Politico Tuesday.
The mass resignations will effectively shut down the 14-person Defense Digital Service (DDS), which was created in 2015 to inject Silicon Valley-style speed and innovation into national security projects. DDS staffers told Politico they were left out of major reform efforts spearheaded by DOGE, prompting an exodus.
“The reason we stuck it out as long as we have is that we thought we were going to be called in,” Jennifer Hay, director of DDS, told the outlet.
We look forward to welcoming @elonmusk to the Pentagon tomorrow.
But the fake news delivers again — this is NOT a meeting about “top secret China war plans.” It’s an informal meeting about innovation, efficiencies & smarter production. Gonna be great! https://t.co/sIhsUjqbG9
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) March 21, 2025
The DDS — occasionally called the Pentagon’s “SWAT team of nerds” — was involved in deploying real-time tools during the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, building drone detection systems and managing data transfers for Ukrainian military and humanitarian aid. It also served as a rare magnet for top-tier private-sector engineers willing to serve short stints in government.
But over the last year, the unit’s influence has waned. Current and former staffers said DDS was sidelined as DOGE pushed sweeping reforms focused on streamlining procurement and automating bureaucracy with AI.
The reported exodus follows Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Thursday memo announcing the cancellation of several private-sector tech contractors. DOGE has not publicly commented on the staff exodus, though the Musk-led initiative has repeatedly defended its aggressive restructuring efforts across agencies as necessary to root out inefficiency and duplications across the federal bureaucracy.
“The best way to put it, I think, is either we die quickly or we die slowly,” Hay said.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Image by David B. Gleason/Flickr)
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