Layoffs loom at Pentagon-funded think tank after Hegseth slashes weapons-testing office

Washington — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's recent personnel cuts in the Pentagon office responsible for weapons testing has halted all work and cleared the way for potential layoffs at the Pentagon-funded think tank that supports it, the Institute for Defense Analyses, or IDA. 

In a letter obtained by CBS News, the institute's president, retired Air Force Gen. Norton "Norty" Schwartz, told staff he'd received a notice on Monday "terminating all IDA tasks" for the Pentagon's Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation — known inside the Pentagon as DOT&E. 

"Leadership is working to assess the full range of implications of these contract actions," Schwartz wrote, adding that the loss of funding "impacts all of IDA."