The Government Accountability Office reports that a Pentagon hiring freeze and a wave of voluntary staff departures have left many of the U.S. military’s most expensive weapons programs short-staffed, threatening delays and eroding civilian expertise built up over years.
In an annual review of 48 costliest and most complex U.S. weapons programs published Thursday, the watchdog found the War Department has been unable to backfill acquisition jobs vacated under a Deferred Resignation Program launched last year by President Donald Trump’s administration.
More than 48,000 department employees, over 6% of the civilian workforce, were approved to leave under the program as of June 2025, according to the report. The GAO stated that exits tied to 37 key procurement programs have drained institutional knowledge and threatened work on critical vehicles and munitions. Additionally, a hiring freeze ordered last year has hindered more than half of the 48 program offices reviewed from bringing on replacements.
One office lost nearly 40% of its core staff in 2025 and managed to backfill only one-third of vacancies, while another lost 31 employees through the resignation program—almost 6% of its workforce. The GAO noted that “one program lost seven civilian positions due to the DRP, and it has not been able to backfill due to the ongoing hiring freeze,” adding remaining staff have absorbed the same workload, including working weekends, to avoid delays.
Filling acquisition jobs is difficult even in ideal circumstances, the report stated, citing a shallow pool of specialized candidates, higher private-sector pay, and federal hiring processes that can take months to complete. One program had to advertise positions multiple times before finding a qualified applicant, while another reported it takes new hires roughly a year to become fully productive.
The department pledged last year to cut up to 8% of its nonuniformed workforce to align staffing with national security priorities. A senior defense official stated in March 2025: “We are confident that we can absorb [DRP] removals without detriment to our ability to continue the mission.” Eight months later, War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a broader Acquisition Transformation Strategy aimed at rebuilding recruitment and retention of skilled acquisition staff over time.
The GAO said the department has not yet fully determined the effects of workforce changes and will continue monitoring them. The agency has flagged similar acquisition-workforce problems for years; the department has concurred with its recommendations but made little progress in implementation, and military acquisition remains on the GAO’s high-risk list of programs most vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse.
