Pentagon Pushes for Faster Acquisitions to Match Industry Speed

Defense leaders are rapidly accelerating acquisition following a new executive order that emphasizes the urgent need to overhaul the U.S. defense acquisition system to ensure the military maintains its technological edge. The order highlights that modern conflicts require not only advanced weapons but also a streamlined, flexible and innovative acquisition process.

“Our defense acquisition system does not provide the speed and flexibility our Armed Forces need to have decisive advantages in the future. In order to strengthen our military edge, America must deliver state‐of‐the‐art capabilities at speed and scale through a comprehensive overhaul of this system,” the executive order said.

Modernizing Defense Acquisition: Call to Action

Within 60 days of the date of the order, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth must provide a plan to reform the DOD’s acquisition process.

The order calls for existing authorities to “expedite acquisitions” throughout the DOD, with an emphasis on commercial solutions accelerated through means like other transactions authority (OTA), Rapid Capabilities Office policies or streamlined acquisitions under the Adaptative Acquisition Framework.

The main goal of the order is to “eliminate unnecessary tasks, reduce duplicative approvals, and centralize decision-making.” Additionally, all acquisition programs will manage their risk under a formal steering board, dubbed a “configuration steering board.”

Finally, the Secretary of Defense is tasked with the creation of a plan to “reform, right-size and train the acquisition workforce” within 120 days of the order’s release.

Matching Commercial Speed

Liz Young McNally, deputy director of commercial operations at the Defense Innovation Unit, said at the Axios’ Future of Defense event last week that the new executive order is a step in the right direction to match DOD acquisition to commercial speed, innovation and scale.

“We have to move at the speed and scale of commercial technology. This is another great step towards the ability to do that,” McNally told the audience. “As we speed up acquisition, we also need to speed up the other part so that all the different aspects of getting commercial technology into the hands of the warfighter goes fast.”

McNally also acknowledged the DOD struggles with sending the right demand signals to the commercial sector. She added DOD will need to better coordinate innovation efforts between subagencies in the department.

“I think what’s still hard and we continue — and I’m really making it a focus this year — to make further progress on is demand signal,” McNally said. “Really knowing what are the areas that we need to be focusing on, as well as what are those other scaling barriers beyond financial to make it easier for companies to do the work and for us to get that technology with a warfighter.”