War Secretary Pete Hegseth has unveiled his plan to eliminate what he called “Pentagon Bureaucracy” getting in the way of delivering innovative and top-quality military resources to America’s armed forces and customer allies.
“Today, we’re undertaking a departmentwide transformation of requirements, acquisition and foreign military sales, addressing a core function of what we do at the War Department, identifying what our warfighters need, how we buy those capabilities, and then how we share those capabilities with our allies and partners, all in service of decisively winning any war that we must wage,” he said.
Speaking for more than 70 minutes at the National War College in Washington on Nov. 7, Hegseth outlined his plan to eliminate the current “burdensome and inefficient” requirements and acquisition processes to ensure that the development, production, and delivery of new weapons move at a wartime pace.
By replacing the current requirements processes, the Joint Capabilities Integration Development System (JCIDS), with multiple groups optimized for focusing on immediate needs and innovation, the secretary emphasized the Pentagon’s shift away from satisfying a process to progress. He also called upon each military branch to modify its own requirement processes and align its internal priorities to focus on the joint needs shared by other branches.
“Speed replaces process,” he said. “Money follows need. Joint problems drive action. Experimentation accelerates delivery, and the services move faster and smarter.”
Hegseth said it would take as many as 300 days for new weapons to be delivered to the battlefield under the current system, and by that time, the needs of the warfighter have changed.
He also announced the complete overhaul of the acquisition process.
“We need acquisition and industry to be as strong and fast as our war fighters,” Hegseth said. “The War Fighting Acquisition system will dramatically shorten timelines, improve and expand the defense industrial base, boost competition, and empower acquisition officials to take risks and make trade-offs. We’re leaving the old failed process behind, and we’ll instead embrace a new agile and results-oriented approach. What used to take sometimes, when you add it up with requirements, three to eight years, we believe it can happen within a year.”
This means that the requirements for companies to bid for contracts are also being relaxed, as well as increased tolerance for acquisition risk to decrease operational risk.
“An 85 percent solution in the hands of our Armed Forces today is infinitely better than an unachievable 100% solution, endlessly undergoing testing or awaiting additional technological development,” he said.
Those contracts would become bigger and longer to ensure that momentum is able to build, according to Hegseth. But those industry partners must share the sense of urgency.
“The Department of War will only do business with industry partners that share our priority of speed and volume above all else, who are willing to surge American manufacturing at the speed of ingenuity to deliver rapidly and reliably for our warfighters,” he said.
That sense of urgency must also translate to fulfilling orders made by ally and partner nations as foreign military sales under President Donald Trump reach an all-time high.
“President Trump is securing deal after deal to bring cold, hard cash to American manufacturers, but our processes are too slow and our industrial base is too inefficient to keep up and deliver on time to our allies and partners,” Hegseth said.
