DOD Name Change To ‘Department Of War’ Could Cost Up To $125 Million

CBO Report – “On September 5, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14347, which authorized the use of “Department of War” (DoW) as a secondary title for the Department of Defense (DoD). CBO was asked to provide an estimate of the cost of implementing that order. CBO was also asked to estimate the cost of a statutory renaming (that is, officially renaming DoD through authorizing legislation, rather than simply making DoW a secondary title). This letter provides information about a range of potential costs of that name change. In CBO’s assessment, it would cost about $10 million for a modest implementation of the order if the name change primarily occurred within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). Those costs would be opportunity costs; that is, they would probably be paid from existing budgets through forbearance of other activities. CBO’s estimate is uncertain because DoD has not provided information about how it plans to implement the order. Costs would be at least a few million dollars if DoD phased in a minimal implementation, but they could be as large as $125 million if the name change was implemented broadly and rapidly throughout the department. A statutory renaming could cost hundreds of millions of dollars depending on how Congress and DoD chose to implement the change…”

See also previous post – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the Pentagon would integrate Elon Musk’s Grok models into military systems “…Today I want to clarify what responsible AI means at the Department of War. Gone are the days of equitable AI and other DEI and social justice infusions that constrain and confuse our employment of this technology. Effective immediately, responsible AI at the War Department means objectively truthful AI capabilities employed securely and within the laws governing the activities of the department. We will not employ AI models that won’t allow you to fight wars. We will judge AI models on this standard alone; factually accurate, mission relevant, without ideological constraints that limit lawful military applications. Department of War AI will not be woke. It will work for us. We’re building war ready weapons and systems, not chatbots for an Ivy League faculty lounge…”