Pentagon cuts AI weapons testing staff by half amid military AI adoption

The Pentagon is cutting the Department of Defense’s Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation in half, reducing staff from 94 to 45 people and replacing its director. This move eliminates crucial independent safety testing for AI and weapons systems at a time when the military is rapidly integrating AI technologies across all operations, potentially compromising safety oversight in favor of faster deployment.

What you should know: The Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation serves as the final checkpoint before military technologies reach the battlefield.
• Established in the 1980s by Congress after weapons performed poorly in combat, the office provides independent verification of contractor claims about system effectiveness and safety.
• Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gave the office just seven days to implement the cuts as part of his effort to reduce “bloated bureaucracy and wasteful spending in favor of increased lethality.”
• The office has never faced such dramatic cuts in its 40-year history, making this an unprecedented overhaul.

Why this matters: The cuts come during a pivotal moment for military AI adoption, when the Pentagon is experimenting with AI integration across all systems and defense companies are securing massive contracts.
• Anduril, a defense technology company, recently announced a $2.5 billion funding round, doubling its valuation to over $30 billion, while mainstream companies like OpenAI are increasingly comfortable working with the military.
• The Pentagon is launching ambitious pilots specifically for large language models—AI systems that generate human-like text but are prone to hallucinations and errors by nature.
• With half the testing staff, the military may miss critical safety issues that would only surface in combat scenarios.

What experts are saying: Former Navy fighter pilot and George Mason University professor Missy Cummings warns the cuts prioritize speed over safety.
• “The firings in DOTE send a clear message that all perceived obstacles for companies favored by Trump are going to be removed,” she said.
• Mark Cancian from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, expressed concern: “The cuts make me nervous. It’s not that we’ll go from effective to ineffective, but you might not catch some of the problems that would surface in combat without this testing step.”

The big picture: While Hegseth claims the restructuring will save $300 million and make weapons testing more efficient, defense experts worry it creates a dangerous precedent.
• The office frequently uncovers errors that weren’t previously caught, particularly important when adopting new technologies like generative AI.
• Systems that perform well in laboratory settings almost always encounter new challenges in realistic combat scenarios, where the testing office traditionally identifies these issues.

Industry response: Major defense AI companies remained largely silent on the cuts.
• Anduril and Anthropic, both developing military AI applications, did not respond to questions about whether they supported the restructuring.
• An OpenAI representative said the company was not involved in lobbying for the changes.