Pentagon could save $125 billion; so why doesn't it?

The U.S. military has 1.3 million troops on active duty, the fewest since before the Pearl Harbor attack 75 years ago Wednesday.

Yet it has more full-time employees involved in logistics or supply chain jobs than the entire United Parcel Service workforce, and its purchasing bureaucracy would rank among the top 30 private employers in the United States.

The Pentagon knows the problem and what to do about it, but hid the information for fear Congress would hold it responsible for actually increasing efficiency by following recommendations outlined in a study released last year.

Craig Whitlock and Bob Woodward of the Washington Post used information from leaked confidential memos to report that officials squelched a study that found $125 billion in administrative waste could be eliminated over five years, without layoffs of civil servants or reductions in military personnel.

Like most private businesses have done, it could have streamlined operations through attrition, early retirements, reduction in contractor costs and better use of computers.

The study, titled "Transforming DoD's Core Business Processes for Revolutionary Change," was released at the end of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel's tenure, just as Ash Carter was taking over early last year.

According to the study, just renegotiating service contracts and hiring less expensive workers could save the Pentagon $75 billion over five years. Adopting more aggressive measures could double that, but the full Defense Business Board chose a course that would save $125 billion.

That would be enough to fund 50 Army brigades or buy 3,000 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters for the Air Force or 10 aircraft carrier strike groups for the Navy.

After the study pointed out that more than a million contractors, civilians and uniformed personnel were performing back-office duties to support those 1.3 million active duty military personnel, a quarter of its budget on overhead, the brass worried that Congress and the president would simply choose to cut funding rather than allow it to be channeled into other programs.

Suddenly, the study was designated as secret and a 77-page summary that had been posted on the Pentagon's website was removed.

Government at all levels slips too easily into "cover-your-backside" mode, keeping the public in the dark about actual spending and measures that might be taken to reduce the tax burden while efficiently providing important services.

Donald Trump has made bold promises about cutting waste and boosting the military, but only time will tell how he fares when pitted against one of the most entrenched bureaucracies in the world.

Read the Washington Post's story here.