On Friday, U.S. Secretary Pete Hegseth will unveil major changes in the way the Pentagon buys weapons. This will allow the military to acquire technology more quickly as global threats grow.

Hegseth will address industry leaders, military officers and officials at the National War College where he plans to detail the transformation to the Defense Acquisition System, in accordance with the executive order signed by Donald Trump in April.

The Pentagon has a number of reforms aimed at what they call "unacceptably" slow procurement. They blame fragmented accountability, and misaligned incentive systems that have hindered the military's capability to quickly field new technologies.

Lockheed Martin, RTX, and other legacy defense contractors are expected to attend, along with newer defense entrants such as Palantir Technologies and Ursa Major Technologies.

To eliminate bureaucracy, the restructuring will create Portfolio Acquisition Executives with direct authority over major weapon programs. This will eliminate the need for intermediate approval layers. The acquisition chain runs directly from program managers, to these portfolio executive acquisition leaders and military service branch acquisition heads.

Reforms requires at least two sources of critical content for initial production.

This is just the latest reform in a long line of reforms. The Pentagon changed its software purchasing policy earlier this year.

The memo states that commercial products will be the default approach to acquisition, which will streamline the solicitation process. Changes include time-indexed incentives for contracts that reward early deliveries and penalize late ones proportionately.

The Pentagon's top weapons buyer will be the Under Secretary for Acquisition and Sustainment. He will oversee monthly Acquisition Acceleration Review meetings to monitor implementation, remove obstacles, and monitor competition in the defense industrial base. Reporting by Mike Stone, Washington; editing by Chris Sanders and Lisa Shumaker

(source: Reuters)