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US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has announced a range of acquisition reforms to strengthen the Department of War’s industrial base, capabilities and deterrence capacity in a timely manner to address “the sense of urgency [that] has slipped too much”.
Aligning with the newly released Acquisition Transformation Strategy (ATS), Secretary Hegseth announced three new memorandums at the National War College in Washington DC to redefine the Department of War’s (DOW) development and engagement with US defence industries, with a main goal of ensuring warfighters quickly receive the capabilities they needed.
“If our warfighters die or our country loses because we took too long to get them what we needed, we have failed. It is that simple,” Secretary Hegseth said in his 70-minute speech.
The 46-page document outlining the ambitions of the ATS emphasised five main pillars of reform: rebuild the industrial base, elevate the acquisition workforce, increase acquisition flexibility through reduced regulation and process, develop high-performance systems, and improve life cycle risk management.
Undersecretary of Defence for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey, who was sworn into the role in June, explained to reporters in a briefing that this new strategy will increase the US’ defence capabilities and speed of recruitment across the industry.
“We all know the current acquisition system is too slow, too bureaucratic, and too focused on compliance rather than results. We are facing rapidly evolving threats, and we must be able to adapt, innovate and deliver at the speed of relevance.”
“That’s why Secretary Hegseth has directed the redesignation of the Defense Acquisition System to the Warfighting Acquisition System. More than just a name change, it will be a fundamental shift in mindset. We are prioritising speed, flexibility and performance,” Undersecretary Duffey added.
The first of three memorandums announced, “Transforming the Defence Acquisition System to the Warfighting Acquisition System (WAS)”, seeks to “drive urgency and achieve acceleration” and prioritise timely delivery of operational capabilities.
Secretary Hegseth’s office said this change reflects core principles of: “Instill[ing] the warrior ethos in the acquisition workforce and enterprise, inject a sense of urgency and relentless focus on speed by empowering those directly responsible for delivery to make and own decisions, cut through unnecessary layers to focus the WAS on speed, accountability, and mission outcomes, and prioritise flexible requirements and resource trades to enable timely delivery at the speed of relevance.”
The second memorandum, “Reforming the Joint Requirements Process to Accelerate Fielding of Warfighting Capabilities”, reflects the ATS’ pillar of reducing regulation to streamline recruiting processes to increase the speed of the department’s capabilities.
To achieve this, the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System, which exists to outline acquisition requirements and evaluation criteria, developed under Donald Rumsfeld, will be disestablished. The Joint Requirements Oversight Council will be reoriented to focus on annual ranking of Joint Force Key Operational Problems, ceasing its current role of validating service-level requirement documents.
The third memorandum announced, “Unifying the Department’s Arms Transfer and Security Cooperation Enterprise to Improve Efficiency and Enable Burden-Sharing”, will improve the efficiency of foreign military sales, accelerate partner capability delivery in direct commercial sales, and better align arms transfers with the national industrial base.
“Through these America First improvements to the FMS and DCS enterprises, we will drive revitalisation and expansion of the industrial base, contribute to the creation of American jobs, and facilitate delivery of warfighting capability at the speed of relevance while also protecting the warfighter’s technological edge – but we cannot stop there,” Secretary Hegseth said.
The ATS and these new memoranda reflect the US’ commitment to increasing its national defence base and industry, with the Trump administration requesting an initial defence budget base of US$1 trillion in 2026.
