Overview
- In a National War College speech, the Pentagon released memos renaming the Defense Acquisition System as the Warfighting Acquisition System and set 45- and 60-day implementation milestones with monthly Acquisition Acceleration Reviews.
- Program Executive Offices will be replaced by Portfolio Acquisition Executives empowered to shift resources and make trade-offs on cost, schedule and performance, ending intermediate approval layers.
- The department will kill the JCIDS requirements process and stand up new mechanisms including a Requirements and Resourcing Alignment Board, a Mission Engineering and Integration Activity, and a Joint Acceleration Reserve to speed experimentation and fielding.
- Commercial products become the default buy with acceptance of 85% solutions, expanded use of alternative contracting, portfolio scorecards, time-indexed incentives for early delivery, penalties for delays, and a push to maintain at least two qualified sources for critical content.
- To accelerate foreign military sales, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency will shift from the policy shop to acquisition, as Hegseth pressed primes to invest their own capital or risk losing business while promising larger, longer awards for proven systems.