Hegseth Pushes Weapons of War Acquisition Revolution

Secretary of War seeks acquisition beyond the aspirational.

It has been clear since the nation’s founding that a streamlined process for acquiring weaponry is critical for America’s ability to win wars. General George Washington was stymied by a bureaucracy-laden Continental Congress in his persistent requests for muskets, cannon balls, and cannon. Nothing has changed. Well, maybe one thing has changed. Weapons acquisition now takes longer, costs more, and often performs poorly. On November 7, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth explained he wants to change all that. The War Secretary invited the defense industry CEOs and Pentagon acquisition executives to attend the unveiling of his vision for a more efficient and effective process to put crucial warfighting capability in the hands of fighters fast. He wants to rebuild the “Arsenal of Freedom.”

War Acquisitions on a Wartime Footing

Secretary Hegseth began his presentation by invoking the words of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who set about establishing a transformed weapons-buying campaign 24 years ago. As Hegseth explained, Rumsfeld identified the threat:  “With brutal consistency, it stifles free thought. And crushes new ideas. It disrupts the defense of the United States and places the lives of our men and women in uniform at risk…The adversary I’m talking about is much closer to home. It’s the Pentagon bureaucracy. Not the people, but the process, not the civilians, but the system, not the men and women in uniform, but the uniformity of thought and action that is too often imposed on them.”

To defeat this enemy, the War Department is initiating a “department-wide transformation of requirements, acquisition, and foreign military sales.” Hegseth challenged the audience to understand the department was transforming the entire acquisition system to “operate on a wartime footing.”

The focus of the new acquisition system is going to be on speed, and it’s based on the idea that “85% solution in the hands of our armed forces today is infinitely better than an unachievable 100% solution.” To accomplish the transformation, the Pentagon will rely on “five overarching transformative pillars that form the foundation of the procurement process.”

1. The department will award larger and longer contracts for proven systems. When companies have confidence that requirements and programs are stable there will be greater willingness for industry investment.
2. The department will “prioritize the purchase of industry-driven solutions, commercial solutions first to meet our needs faster,” even if that means every requirement is not met.
3. The department will empower program leaders “with control, expertise, and authority to direct program outcomes, to move money and quickly adjust the priority of system performance to deliver on time and under budget.”
4. The department will provide a sense of urgency into the Defense Industrial Base, only doing business with industry partners that “share our priority of speed and volume above all else.”
5. The department will take on regulatory reform to remove “excessive and burdensome FARs [Federal Acquisition Regulations]‚ rules, reporting requirements‚ anything that unnecessarily slows down government contracts will be eliminated.”

Hegseth believes these initiatives will move the system away from having only a few prime contractors who win the majority of the contracts and toward enlarging the vendor base and speeding up production and fielding capability to the warfighter. “What used to take sometimes – when you add it up with requirements – three to eight years, we believe can happen within a year,” he explained.

Transforming the requirements process will start with the elimination of the calcified and cumbersome Joint Capabilities Integration Development System, or JSIDS. This process will be replaced with a more streamlined Joint Operational Problems. “Speed replaces process. Money follows need. Joint problems drive action.”

Program Management Overhaul

Of the reforms covered by Secretary Hegsesth, one of the more crucial is the reorienting of program management responsibility. There will be more accountability invested in officials with a broader portfolio of weapon systems. Program managers will report directly to Portfolio Acquisition Executives (PAE) who “will be the single accountable official for portfolio outcomes and have the authority to act without running through months or even years of approval chains, and they’ll be held accountable to deliver results.” There will be just one button to push. Furthermore, these executives will have the authority “to make decisions on cost, schedule, and performance trade-offs that prioritize time-to-field and mission outcomes.” When time-to-field drives the process, the warfighter is more likely to receive battlefield capabilities in time for those weapon systems to make a difference. It’s a crucial concept.

Reorganizing, streamlining, and attempting to reform the War Department acquisition system has been a cottage industry for decades. Yet major acquisitions remain over cost, behind schedule, and poorly performing. There is a flicker of hope that Secretary Hegseth’s stab at it will be successful. Why? Congress has an appetite for real reform. As Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Roger Wicker (R-MS) observed, “These reforms will be a game changer for U.S. defense, ensuring our military has the advanced equipment needed to deter adversaries like China and Russia.” Combine legislative branch enthusiasm with President Trump’s full support and backing with explicit executive orders and success may be more likely. After all, Trump is a force of nature.

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