A Bill from Last Fiscal Year Suggests Potential Changes for Defense IT Acquisition

In this article posted a few weeks back, I took a look at potential changes to acquisition practices at the Department of Defense (DOD) the new Trump Administration might make based on recommendations in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 Blueprint. Chris Miller’s section in the Blueprint, however, is not the only source of possible changes that might be coming. Some chatter has emerged recently concerning S. 5618, known as the “Fostering Reform and Government Efficiency in Defense Act” or “FoRGED Act.” 

Introduced by Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) in December, the FoRGED Act contains a raft of recommendations for increasing the efficiency of DOD acquisitions that some government watchers suspect could make it into the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2026. Today’s article looks at the recommendations for IT acquisition reform.

Below are the proposals listed under “Title III—Rapid acquisition and commercial contracting.” S. 5618 emphasizes the need for DOD to alter the “business and capability management approach for programs or systems, and to the maximum extent practicable, describe how a portfolio of capabilities within an enduring set of requirements will be developed, procured, and fielded rather than detailing a specific end-item.”

Title III then proposes the following:

1. Adopting “an approach that delivers required capabilities in increments, each depending on available mature technology.” The approach must “recognize up front the need for future capability improvements or transitions to alternative end-items through use of continuous competition.”

2. Creating “a process for collaborative interaction and market research with the science and technology community, including Department of Defense science and technology reinvention laboratories, government innovation cells, academia, small businesses, non-traditional defense contractors, and other contractors.”

3. Identifying “enterprise-wide designs and standards in support of an architecture that provides for an integrated suite of capabilities that focuses on simplicity of implementation and speed of delivery.”

4. Creating “roadmaps of integrated strategic schedules of legacy systems and new capabilities and a mapping of enduring requirements to elements of the portfolio of capabilities.”

5. Adopting “a contracting strategy that develops long-term partnerships with multiple companies to actively contribute to architectures, development, production, and sustainment across the portfolio of capabilities by decomposing large systems into smaller sets of projects across time and technical component.”

6. Assigning “roles and responsibilities to the acquisition workforce within the portfolio acquisition executive, identification of external stakeholder dependencies, and the need for subject matter expert inputs at critical points in the program, including the need for special hiring authority or advisory and assistance services.”

7. Formulating “a process of testing and experimentation with the test community and end users to ensure continuous user feedback, acceptance, and development of concepts of operations.”

S. 5618 appears to double down on several processes already in use across the DOD, such as modular contracting and iterative contracting. More importantly, it also doesn’t address the two major obstacles to DOD IT acquisition reform that most impede its efficient functioning – the archaic defense budgeting process and laws demanding competition. Until these factors are dealt with acquisition reform efforts will continue tinkering around the edge.