Pete Hegseth is worried about the Pentagon’s ‘Soviet-style bureaucracy,’ but the military’s $285 billion maintenance mess is all-American

Pete Hegseth, Trump's Secretary of War, has expressed concern over the Pentagon's bureaucratic inefficiencies, describing them as a Soviet-style decline. However, the real issue lies closer to home and is caused by American bureaucracy. In March, the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier, was in port at Souda Bay, Greece, undergoing repairs for a laundry room fire that caused smoke inhalation for over 200 sailors.

The ship had been at sea for 10 months, longer than its deployment period, and faced electrical problems and delayed maintenance, resulting in equipment overuse and sewage issues that prevented the crew from using the toilets.

According to Linda Bilmes, a lecturer at Harvard Kennedy School, the USS Gerald R. Ford exemplifies a larger problem in the U.S. military: inadequate infrastructure maintenance. Despite spending $13 billion on the carrier, there were issues with laundry conditions and toilets. A recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed that the Department of Defense faces a $285 billion maintenance backlog in fiscal 2025 due to insufficient funding and personnel.

The backlog includes neglected maintenance in barracks, posing safety risks from mold and broken fire systems. The report also highlighted crumbling parking lots at Minot Air Force Base and narrow quarters at Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center that cannot accommodate vehicle maintenance.

The Pentagon's opaque procurement and distribution of its $1 trillion budget have been attributed to its sheer size and responsibilities, but the GAO has found evidence of pervasive mismanagement. For instance, the Navy lost track of $3 billion in equipment over the last three years, and one Naval distribution center had a backlog of 122,000 unprocessed items, leading to unnecessary purchases.

Hegseth's reference to a Soviet-style military decline parallels the USSR's downfall, which was a result of misallocation of resources, leading to an economy unable to sustain its military. However, unlike the Soviet Union, the U.S. spends only about 3% of its GDP on defense. The issue of maintenance, therefore, is not a result of resource scarcity but of poorly allocated funds in a wealthy country. Experts suggest that this trend is not a transient problem but an ongoing one likely to persist.