In addition to the pricey coffee, there are the cups that the US Air Force has reportedly been purchasing.
The Pentagon released its seventh financial audit last year, but as in prior years, it was announced that they had failed.
Bloomberg reports that the Pentagon Inspector General noted that significant work remains and problems lie ahead’ in the process of restructuring the financial books, but that it gave them a better idea of how to deal with it.
Chief Financial Officer Michael McCord said in a statement, “Momentum is on our side, and throughout the department there is strong commitment—and belief in our ability—to achieve an unmodified audit opinion,” adding, “The path forward is clear.”
However, prior spending has come under scrutiny as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE team want to reduce costs throughout the defense sector.
According to Fox News, a 2018 congressional investigation found that the Air Force was spending enormous amounts of money on its KC-10 aircraft by replacing coffee cups with broken handles rather of fixing them. The cups were also reheatable.
Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa wrote to Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson in 2018 that it was “simply beyond reason” to pay such high prices for “something as simple as a coffee cup that is so fragile that it needs to be constantly replaced.” Another letter asked whether less expensive alternatives had been considered.
As they work on more economical options, the Air Force acknowledged in a statement to CNN that it was no longer purchasing the cups “used in large transport aircraft.”
Boeing overcharged the Air Force by almost 8,000 percent for spare components, including $150,000 for soap dispensers, according to the Department of Defense (DOD) Inspector General’s report from last year.
According to a two-year audit conducted in October 2024, the Air Force overpaid by around $1 million for 12 of the soap dispensers and a select 46 replacement components on its C-17 transport planes, while the service branch paid $149,072 over market price for the soap dispensers.
Boeing disputed the findings, stating in a statement that the report seemed to be “based on an inapt comparison of the prices paid for parts that meet aircraft and contract specifications and designs versus basic commercial items that would not be qualified or approved for use on the C-17.” The Independent claims that the inspector general reviewed the soap dispenser hotline tip.
Opinions were quickly expressed on social media, with one user writing, “At the expense of the taxpayer.”
“Must’ve been some good cups,” said another.
However, several people who say they work in the military claimed the audit didn’t surprise them.
“As a Marine vet myself, I can fully affirm this is standard Air Force behavior,” a different person wrote.
Trump said the department has turned into a breeding ground for waste, inefficiency, and financial mismanagement as part of his effort to cut costs, telling Fox News, “We’re going to find billions, hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud and abuse.”
The US Treasury Department’s payment system, which manages items like social security benefits, Medicare, and tax returns, reportedly gave DOGE access.
