On November 7, 2025, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth used a speech at the National War College to unveil a Department of War (“DoW”) memorandum titled “Transforming the Defense Acquisition System into the Warfighting Acquisition System to Accelerate Fielding of Urgently Needed Capabilities to Our Warriors.”  This memorandum, referred to throughout as the “WAS Memo”—formally redesignates the Defense Acquisition System (“DAS”) as the Warfighting Acquisition System (“WAS”), places the acquisition enterprise on a “wartime footing,” and sets forth the governance, structural, and process reforms that will shape how DoW capabilities are acquired and fielded. 

This post is the second in a three-part series analyzing these reforms.  In our first post, we examined the WAS Memo’s new emphasis on commercial products and offerings as the preferred acquisition approach.  This post turns to the broader restructuring initiatives contained in the WAS Memo and its accompanying Acquisition Transformation Strategy.

The WAS Memo forms the second pillar in a coordinated reform sequence that began last August with the overhaul of the Joint Requirements Process—reshaping how operational needs are defined, validated, and prioritized, as we discussed here.  The WAS Memo builds on that foundation by transforming how those validated requirements are acquired, produced, and delivered at speed.  A third memorandum—released the same day as the WAS Memo—realigns the Department’s arms transfer and security cooperation enterprise; we will address that memo in our next post.  Early observers have described the combined reforms as a “sweeping realignment” of acquisition and Foreign Military Sales processes, unprecedented in scope.

These reforms build directly on Executive Order 14265, “Modernizing Defense Acquisitions and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base,” which directed the DoW to deliver “state-of-the-art capabilities at speed and scale.”  The Pentagon followed up with a Federal Register notice soliciting public comment on EO 14265, drawing more than a thousand submissions from industry and other stakeholders.  Viewed together, the EO, the Secretary’s speech, and the WAS Memo present a unified direction: reorganize, deregulate, and increase competition to accelerate delivery and strengthen the industrial base.

Changes to the DoW Acquisition Process: Four Key Takeaways

1. The Portfolio Acquisition Executive: Cornerstone of the Revamped Process

The WAS Memo identifies new Portfolio Acquisition Executives (“PAE”) as central to the redesigned system.  Within 30 days, Military Departments, and other DoW Components must nominate portfolios; within 60 days, they must submit a plan to transition all major acquisition activities to PAE portfolios within two years.  PAEs will be responsible for: 

• Structuring programs and making cost, schedule, and performance decisions with speed as the priority;
• Establishing Capability Trade Councils—replacing configuration steering boards and authorized to make requirements trade-offs and waive non-statutory technical standards;
• Maximizing the use of Modular Open System Architectures (“MOSA”); and
• Supervising contracting officers to drive timely resolution of operational problems. 

Although PAEs report through their Service Acquisition Executive to the Defense Acquisition Executive, they are granted broad discretion, and will be held solely accountable for outcomes.  This structure elevates speed as the defining advantage for contractors capable of rapid delivery while increasing pressure on those with longer development timelines.

2. Cut Regulation and Enable Speed: Fast is The Focus

Within 150 days, the DoW must update its 5000-series Instructions, the DoD Financial Management Regulation, the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement, and related guidance to codify the WAS Memo.  Key mandates include: 

• Reducing required acquisition documentation to statutory minimums;
• Delegating responsibilities to the Military Departments where appropriate; and
• Replacing analyses of alternatives with competitive prototyping.

These changes underscore the DoW’s intent to reduce administrative burden, accelerate timelines, and use prototyping to elevate competitive pressure.  Full implementation details are pending, but the direction is clear:  vendors that can move quickly and adaptively will be best positioned. 

3. Competition, Modularity, and Multi-Source Practices:  MOSA Comes of Age

The WAS Memo directs major changes in how programs are structured, sourced, and integrated.  Within 180 days, the Under Secretary for Acquisition and Sustainment (“USW(A&S)”), working with the Under Secretary for Research & Engineering, must issue guidance implementing four initiatives:

• A “two-to-production” standard, requiring at least two qualified sources for critical program content, unless waived.  This approach is intended to reduce vendor lock, create competitive pressure, and build surge capacity within the industrial base.
• A MOSA-based, module-level competition supported by machine-readable interface repositories that enable third-party integration independent of original equipment manufacturers.
• Scalable production strategies that decouple design from manufacturing and allow third-party surge production.

In coordination with Military Department test organizations, establish persistent test environments to enable rapid certification of modified systems.

These initiatives move the system away from proprietary, vertically integrated architectures and towards open, modular designs.  Companies relying on closed systems may face new pressures, while software, subsystem, and specialized technology vendors may find expanded opportunities.  This approach aligns naturally with consortium-based Other Transaction Authorities, which can leverage large vendor pools and accelerate prototype-to-production transitions. 

4. Modernizing Contracting and Incentives:  Capital as a Policy Tool

Within 180 days, USW(A&S) must also modernize contracting guidance to provide clear incentives and potential penalties to industry.  Updated guidance must: 

• Establish incentives for timely delivery, including rewards for early performance and penalties for delay;
• Provide “investable demand signals” such as multi-year procurement, options, and purchase commitments intended to catalyze private investment; and
• Leverage the new Economic Defense Unit (“EDU”), which will deploy grants, loans, purchase commitments, and other government capital tools tied to performance metrics.

This reflects a more assertive use of federal demand and capital to shape industrial investment and production behavior.  Firms capable of scaling rapidly and managing supply chain volatility may benefit, while time-indexed penalties may heighten contractual risk for firms operating in complex or fragile supply chains. 

Open Questions and Next Steps for Industry

The WAS Memo and Acquisition Transformation Strategy together mark one of the most ambitious attempts in decades to restructure defense acquisition around speed, modularity, and industrial base resilience.  Their effects are magnified by the earlier Joint Requirements Process reform and the contemporaneous realignment of the Department’s security cooperation enterprise, which we will examine in our next post.

Key implications for industry include: 

• Speed as the dominant metric for portfolio oversight, contracting, and incentives. 
• Streamlining without statutory change, meaning underlying obligations under procurement law or export control regimes will remain.
• A competitive advantage for firms adopting open and modular approaches; and
• Expanded use of government grants, loans, purchase commitments, and performance incentives, increasing both opportunity and risk.

Forthcoming congressional action—including SPEED Act and FoRGED Act provisions expected in the impending NDAA for FY 2026—may further shape the implementation landscape.  For now, industry should view the WAS framework as both an accelerator in the near term and a signal of a medium-term environment that continues to evolve.