Hegseth’s Pentagon Cut Its Civilian-Protection Center From 40 Staff to 9 and Turned to AI for Assessments

An unreleased Department of War annual report shared with The Intercept says the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence went from 40 personnel in January 2025 to nine — seven civilians and two service members — by the end of that year, a level two current defense officials said still holds. The report also says a project to build a standardized civilian-harm data management platform was halted during a department-wide realignment, and that the center developed an AI assistant built on the Army’s AskSage platform that cut the time to produce civilian-environment assessments by 97 percent in one exercise. The report, dated April 4, 2026, states it will be posted publicly; Hegseth’s office told The Intercept to expect release “in the summer of 2026.” CENTCOM’s civilian-harm team has been reduced from ten people to one, according to its commander, Adm. Brad Cooper.

Congress mandated civilian-harm mitigation and response work by statute. A May 2026 Department of War inspector general report described those efforts as largely “inactive,” and in a July letter Sen. Elizabeth Warren and nine colleagues told Hegseth the department is not complying with its congressionally mandated obligations. Former center official Wes Bryant, who was pushed out, said the remaining program functions as “a shell for legal CYA.”

Hegseth’s office did not respond to questions about the report’s findings. The report itself remains unpublished.