The Defense Digital Service is calling it quits after nearly all staffers resigned under heat from DOGE.
The unit once built tools for Afghanistan, Ukraine aid, and drone defense, but what have they done for Americans?
They’ve been dubbed the Pentagon’s “SWAT team of nerds,” as they brought the Silicon Valley mindset to the military.
But do we need that?
And so the nerds are out and there’s finally room to make some real progress.
DOGE STRIKES AGAIN: Defense Digital Service Team Full of Far-Left Silicon Valley Techies Out at Pentagon | The Gateway Pundit | by Cristina Laila https://t.co/eiNdMX9BmD
— Deenie (@deenie7940) April 15, 2025
Politico reports:
Under pressure from the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, nearly all the staff of the Defense Digital Service — the Pentagon’s fast-track tech development arm — are resigning over the coming month, according to the director and three other current members of the office granted anonymity to discuss their job status freely, as well as internal emails.
The resignations will effectively shut down the decade-old program after the end of April.
The Defense Digital Service was created in 2015 to help the Pentagon adopt fast tech fixes during national security crises and push Silicon Valley-style innovation inside the Pentagon. It built rapid response tools for the military during the Afghanistan withdrawal, databases to transfer Ukrainian military and humanitarian aid, drone detection technologies and more.
Without the program, some key efforts to streamline the DOD’s tech talent pipeline and counter adversarial drones will be sunset, one soon-to-be former employee said.
Once dubbed the Pentagon’s “SWAT team of nerds,” DDS was one of the department’s earliest efforts to inject Silicon Valley ethos into its massive bureaucracy.
Jennifer Hay, director of the 14-person office, plans to leave by May 1. Eleven other employees plan to take President Donald Trump’s deferred resignation package by then. The two remaining staffers are also leaving.
A Pentagon spokesperson did not comment on the resignations but said the office’s functions would be absorbed by the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, of which the DDS is a part.
ADVERTISEMENTHay said her staff initially expected to be part of Musk’s efforts to automate the Pentagon’s operations and adopt AI.
And to keep the theme accurate, here’s a digital video talking about the digital service staff:
Join the conversation!
Please share your thoughts about this article below. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion!