Recently, the Secretary of War (SECWAR) announced the release of a new Defense Acquisition Transformation Strategy to further reform and realign wide-ranging elements of the Pentagon’s acquisition infrastructure to increase the speed at which the department develops and fields warfighting capabilities.

In support of the overarching strategy, the SECWAR simultaneously issued several memorandums with details of the efforts that the Department of War (DOW) is taking to achieve their objectives. Two of the memos address the underlying defense acquisition system and the joint requirements process, both of which are of importance to supporting defense industrial base (DIB) companies.

Transforming the Defense Acquisition System

The SECWAR has directed the overhaul the Defense Acquisition System (DAS) into the Warfighting Acquisition System (WAS) to accelerate delivery of critical capabilities to U.S. forces. Mandated by Executive Order 14265, this effort aims to put the acquisition enterprise on a wartime footing to maintain military superiority and credible deterrence. The memo identifies systemic problems—fragmented accountability, broken incentives, and procurement behaviors that stifle industry investment—and sets principles focused on speed, accountability, and mission outcomes.

Effective immediately, the WAS is to prioritize rapid capability delivery, empower decision-makers, streamline processes, and justify every review based on its contribution to accelerating fielding. Implementation will involve structural changes, monthly acceleration reviews, and concentrated authority in accountable personnel, with speed as the organizing principle for maintaining deterrence and warfighting advantage.

The memo directs the following immediate actions.

The Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment (USW(A&S)) will:

• Establish Portfolio Acquisition Executives (PAEs) by transforming and reorganizing existing Program Executive Offices with a governance structure that prioritizes speed.
• Transform PAE and Program Manager (PM) roles and management policies to enable direct-hire authorities and career paths that match delivery cycles; tie incentive compensation to capability delivery time, and mission outcomes; and include immediate removal mechanisms for poor performance and chronic schedule setbacks.
• Establish the Wartime Production Unit to serve as an integrating function working across the DOW and Military Services and with industry to accelerate the production and delivery of critical weapons and systems through better visibility into challenges, applied expertise in supply chain optimization, manufacturing and software means of production, improved contracting approaches, funding mechanisms, and the direct allocation of resources.
• Implement commercial-first and alternative proposals policy to use the Adaptive Acquisition Framework with a focus on deliveries and volume and non-Federal Acquisition Regulation-based procurement methods and instruments as preferred agreements, to the extent practicable. Further, DOW stresses a preference for commercial products and offerings and prefers usage of streamlined solicitation approaches, including Commercial Solutions Openings (CSOs)
• Cut regulation and guidance to enable speed by updating 5000-series DOW Instructions, DoD 7000.14-R Financial Management Regulation (FMR), Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS), and other relevant documents to codify these new acquisition directions. Further, the USW(A&S) will recommend ways to delegate decision authority for acquisition programs to the Military Departments SAEs and PAEs; reduce documentation to statutory minimums and delegate required reviews, analyses and documentation to the services; and replace the analysis of alternatives with competitive prototyping where appropriate.
• Establish portfolio scorecards and performance measures with primary performance measures for time from validated need to initial and full operational capability.
• Implement competition, modularity, and multi-source practices through issuing guidelines on two-to-production standards to maintain at least two qualified sources for critical program content; module-level competition via Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA); scalable production strategies that empower surge manufacturing and are designed for exportability; and adaptable test approach that enable rapid certification, qualification of modified systems, and reciprocity.
• Transform the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) into the Warfighting Acquisition University by shifting from compliance-focused training to competency-based education through experiential and project-based learning.
• Modernize contracting to provide clear incentives and potential penalties to industry through new contracting guidelines to ensure clear incentives for timely delivery, increased production capacity, and investable demand signals for private capital.

The Military Departments will:

• Expand acquisition education with industry by prioritizing education and rotation programs that provide acquisition professionals direct exposure to commercial industry practices, manufacturing and operational expertise, and real-world problem-solving.

The Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering (USW(R&E)) will:

• Streamline test and evaluation requirements by providing a roadmap and policies that enable continuous updates to fielded systems, permit component substitutions without full system requalification, and that allow system modifications within established parameters without complete recertification.

The Under Secretary of War (Comptroller) and the Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) Director will:

• Improve budget flexibility by prioritizing efforts of the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) Reform Task Force to obtain budget line-item and reprogramming reform for greater flexibility. The DOW Comptroller will also prepare a FY 2027 budget PPBE Reform Package to revise program elements and any other budget structures to ensure proper alignment and budget formulation flexibility.

Reforming the Requirements Process

In addition to overhauling the DOW acquisition apparatus, the SECWAR issued a memo, Reforming the Joint Requirements Process to Accelerate Fielding of Warfighting Capabilities. To support the faster fielding of technology and capabilities, Executive Order 14265 directed the DOW, Military Departments and Joint Chiefs of Staff to review the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS).

In light of the JCIDS review, the SECWAR issued the requirements reform memo to address key reform objectives, include streamlining identification of top Joint Force needs, engaging industry earlier to convert capability gaps into solutions, and integrating requirements with resource prioritization for better budget alignment.

Immediate actions as directed include:

• Disestablish the JCIDS: Effective immediately, begin phasing out the JCIDS and stop Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) validation of component-level requirement documents, with full rescission of JCIDS instructions within 120 days.
• Reorient the JROC: Transform the JROC into the single forum for annually identifying and ranking Key Operational Problems (KOP) derived from the National Defense Strategy and other strategic guidance.
• Create the Requirements and Resourcing Alignment Board: Establish the RRAB, co-chaired by the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (VCJCS) and Deputy Secretary of War, to align requirements with resources, select top KOPs for analysis, and recommend funding allocations from the Joint Acceleration Reserve (JAR).
• Launch the Mission Engineering and Integration Activity: Form the MEIA to rapidly engage industry, conduct mission engineering analysis, and run iterative experimentation campaigns to refine and integrate solutions for prioritized KOPs.
• Establish the Joint Acceleration Reserve: Implement a JAR in fiscal guidance to fund prioritized KOPs and validated outputs from MEIA, addressing the “valley of death” for joint capabilities by allowing for the alignment of JAR funding to Military Services in DOW's annual budget request.
• Service-Level Reviews: Within 90 days, Military Departments must review their requirements processes to accelerate outcomes, strengthen force design, enhance industry engagement, and enable experimentation-led approaches.
• Policy Updates: USW(A&S) will update all relevant directives and manuals, removing JCIDS references and creating new guidance for Capability Portfolio Management aligned with these reforms.
• No Added Bureaucracy: Ensure reforms do not introduce new review layers or processes that could slow capability delivery.

Final Thoughts

For those who heard the SECWAR’s speech at the National War College outlining the strategy you may have shared my initial reaction … that the list of reform areas and efforts seemed nearly endless. When I thought to myself, surely this is the last area that he will address with these sweeping reforms, there came one more, and then another, and another. And that drove home the point: the current Pentagon senior leadership is seeking to change much of underlying processes that undergird enable the defense and warfighting function of the country.

Regardless of the policy positions and priorities of any presidential administration, the view that our defense infrastructure and apparatuses could be more efficient and effective is a nearly ubiquitous view. The challenge seems to have come down to how to modernize and reform a system that has evolved over decades, with layer-upon-layer of evolving rules and regulations codified in law.

The current plethora of reforms will take months or years to fully refine and implement, and some may require changes to federal codes and regulations, as well as legislation, which adds additional layers of complexity.

Defense contractors of all types will do well to assess your internal processes and capabilities to remain nimble and responsive in the face of change.