Following the Trump administration’s call for defense companies to prioritize investments in production capacity and technology development over shareholder payouts, some of the Pentagon’s largest prime contractors say they’re attempting to strike a balance between the government’s needs and investor demands.
Acquisition reform
The Space Force plans to award initial contracts as soon as next month for a fleet of small, maneuverable satellites designed to monitor activity in geosynchronous orbit that could be online as soon as 2030, service officials said Jan. 23.
House and Senate lawmakers say they’re on board with the Pentagon’s latest plan to reform the way it buys new systems, but in a report accompanying the latest draft of fiscal 2026 defense spending bill, they urged more investment in the defense acquisition workforce and ...
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth foot-stomped the Pentagon's push for acquisition speed and contractor accountability in a Jan. 12 speech at Lockheed Martin’s production hub in Fort Worth, Texas—the heart of the department’s biggest acquisition program, the F-35.
The Department of the Air Force announced seven new mission area-focused portfolio acquisition executives for the Air Force and Space Force, some of the department's first steps to implement Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's sweeping acquisition reforms.
Space Force leaders say that while they’re eager to implement the Pentagon’s newly announced acquisition transformation strategy, civilian personnel cuts and a prolonged government shutdown have depleted the acquisition and contracting workforce, adding to pressures on the cadre that could make it difficult to hit ...
When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rolled out an expansive acquisition reform agenda earlier this month, he promised aggressive implementation and reorganization aimed at transforming the way the Pentagon develops and fields weapons and platforms. The plan appears to have been well-received by past administration officials and ...
The emphasis on speed in the Pentagon’s newly unveiled slate of acquisition reforms may come with increased near-term cost increases, analysts say. But according to U.S. defense officials, the new weapons-buying construct provides the military with enough flexibility to prevent runaway budget overruns in major ...
The Pentagon is readying a slew of reforms to its acquisition practices designed to speed up the military’s process for buying weapons and systems and structure its program offices to prioritize competition and commercial capabilities, according to a draft memo.
The Pentagon is dismantling its oft-criticized Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System, pushing authority back to the military services in hopes of streamlining the setting of requirements and speeding up development of new weapons systems.
The Department of Defense is pushing ahead with a plan to automate and streamline the system it uses to ensure that software running on military networks is secure, and will start implementation next month, acting Chief Information Officer Katie Arrington said May 7.
Aerospace Industries Association president Eric Fanning says steady, predictable defense budgets, not outliers like the proposed $150 billion reconciliation package, are the way for the Pentagon to get the production capacity increases it wants.
