DoD acquisition reform: What will it take to make it last?
“Change is not something that happens by dictate. There has to be an aggressive, intentional, and holistic approach to change management,” Stan Soloway said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s acquisition system shakeup is being met with cautious optimism from acquisition experts who say the changes could meaningfully reshape how the Pentagon buys capabilities, manages programs and integrates emerging technologies — if the department can avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.
Stan Soloway, president and CEO of Celero Strategies and federal acquisition expert, said by and large the changes make a lot of sense — they could help to break down entrenched silos across the department’s acquisition enterprise and drive greater coordination and integration. They also expand on initiatives the department has tried before.
“There have been a lot of reform efforts over the years — and this one both incorporates similar themes and/or reflects a natural extension of them — and all faced similar challenges in both implementation and sustainability,” Soloway told Federal News Network.
But the success of Hegseth’s reforms will hinge on whether the department can change its culture and equip the workforce with the skills needed to operate differently. Otherwise, the system can quickly revert to its old ways.
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“Change is not something that happens by dictate. As they and scores of case studies have shown, there has to also be an aggressive, intentional, and holistic approach to change management, prominently including how the relevant workforces are developed. Absent re-aligning those processes, real change will remain elusive,” Soloway said.
Hegseth’s new proposed structure, Soloway said, somewhat resembles the Integrated Product Teams the department created in the 1990s as part of a major acquisition reform push. There were early successes, but they eventually faded, mainly because the workforce and culture never fully adapted.
And whether the department has the workforce to support such a sweeping overhaul remains an open question. DoD has already lost 5% to 8% of its civilian workforce since the start of the Trump administration through various means such as the Deferred Resignation Program and the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority.
“I’m excited about what [Hegseth’s] speech will do to attract the interest of high talent — folks who might want to come in and help us do this job. We’re certainly always looking for good people to come in and help. We do have some need for additional personnel, at least in my office, and I suspect across the acquisition workforce,” Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey told reporters Monday.
In addition, while the new structures and consolidations seem promising, there is always a familiar risk that the reforms could end up adding new layers of bureaucracy rather than eliminating old ones.
“It will take particularly strong, forward leaning leadership on both the civilian and military side as well as new levels of collaboration between and among the services and, importantly, [the office of the secretary of defense],” Soloway said.
And then the reforms Hegseth is proposing will require significant funding — but there is very little mention of resources in the strategy the department recently unveiled.
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“That’s one place where the rubber hits the road,” Soloway said.
“The next big thing will be the 2027 budget submission, because some of these things require prioritization, and prioritization requires resourcing. Some of the initiatives like a focus on exportability, focus on developing multi-sourcing for parts and components — these things require resourcing. Where are they going to be in the 2027 budget submission? Because that will show how important it is for the administration,” Jerry McGinn, the director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Center for the Industrial Base, told Federal News Network.
‘Speed to delivery’
Hegseth emphasized that speed will be at the center of this sweeping transformation the department is embarking on.
“The core principles of this transformation are simple: instill 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 [Warfighting Acquisition System] on speed, accountability and mission outcomes, and prioritize flexible requirements and resource trades to enable timely delivery at the speed of relevance,” he wrote in a memo.
The focus on speed, Solloway said, may be more critical now than ever. But speed alone isn’t the point – the department has spent the past decade chasing speed through tools like other transaction agreements and rapid prototyping, but the real measure is whether capabilities are actually fielded.
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