There’s an expensive cup of coffee and then there’s the cups the US Air Force have apparently been buying.
Last year, it was revealed that the Pentagon had released it’s seventh financial audit, however, as with previous years, they’d failed to pass.According to Bloomberg, the Pentagon Inspector General pointed out that ‘significant work remains and challenges lie ahead’ when it comes to reorganising the financial books, but that it allowed them a better understanding of how to resolve 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, as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE team set their eyes on cost-cutting across the defense bureau, previous expenses have come into question.
According to Fox News, a congressional inquiry in 2018 revealed that the Air Force was forking out the huge sums on its KC-10 aircraft by replacing coffee cups when the handles broke instead of repairing them – with the cups also being reheatable.
In a 2018 letter to Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, said (via Air Force Times) it was ‘simply beyond reason’ to pay such prices for ‘something as simple as a coffee cup that is so fragile that it needs to be constantly replaced’, while another letter asked if cheaper options had been explored.
In a statement to CNN, the Air Force confirmed it was no longer buying the cups ‘used in large transport aircraft as they work more cost-effective solutions’.
In last year’s audit, the Department of Defense (DOD) Inspector General also found Boeing overcharged the Air Force by nearly 8,000 percent for spare parts, including $150,000 on soap dispensers.
The two-year audit in October 2024 found the service branch paid $149,072 over market price for the soap dispensers and of a select 46 spare parts, which the Air Force overpaid around $1 million for 12 of them on its C-17 transport planes.
According to The Independent, the soap dispenser hotline tip was reviewed by the Inspector General, while Boeing disputed the findings, writing in a statement that the report appeared 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 Air Force spent more than $1,200 per reusable coffee cup (Getty Images)
Social media users were quick to share their opinions, as one person wrote: “At the expense of the taxpayer.”
Another added: “Must’ve been some good cups.”
Meanwhile, others who claim to work across the armed forces, however, said they weren’t surprised by the audit.
“As a Marine vet myself, I can fully affirm this is standard Air Force behavior.” someone else wrote.
In his bid to crack down on costs, Trump claims the department has become a hotbed of waste, inefficiency and financial mismanagement, telling Fox News: “We’re going to find billions, hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud and abuse.”
Recent reports claim that DOGE was granted access to the US Treasury Department’s payment system, which controls things such as social security benefits, medicare and tax refunds.