Why America Needs Dynamic Defense Reform
It is Time to End the Broken System
The system is failing us. The Pentagon has spent trillions to defend America and deter our adversaries. Yet our fleet is shrinking, weapon systems are delivered late and overbudget, and warfighters lack the tools to win the fight of the future.
Even worse, in a conflict with a peer power, some key munitions would run out in a week.
How did the world’s most powerful military, backed by the most innovative economy, reach this point?
The answer will shock Americans. Years ago, the Pentagon abandoned market principles for Soviet-style central planning for its acquisition system. It replaced bottom-up innovation for top-down five-year plans, non-commercial buying practices, and over 5,000 pages of regulations.
This decision had dramatic consequences.
It removed the profit motive for defense companies, killing incentives for innovation and efficiency.
It rewarded bureaucrats, shunning builders and inventors.
It made working with the Pentagon so difficult that the Defense Industrial Base has withered to a shell of its former self.
If the U.S. military is Superman, the Pentagon’s acquisition system is its kryptonite.
The world is on fire because, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Caine stated, this failed system emboldens our adversaries. This month, China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea stood united at Beijing’s military parade. Each has vowed to dismantle the U.S.-led order – the system behind the greatest period of peace and prosperity in history – and replace it with war and tyranny.
China – whose manufacturing base now outproduces ours by orders of magnitude – is preparing to invade Taiwan as early as 2027, an act that could spark a global war.
Production is deterrence. The only path to rapidly scale defense production capability is to reintroduce market principles, opening defense contracts to any U.S. company able to compete and win on merit. To do that, as HASC Ranking Member Adam Smith put it, we must “blow[] up the system, instead of tweaking it.”
That’s why we’re launching the Dynamic Tech Defense Reform Initiative to restore innovation, speed, and accountability to defense acquisition. We’ve united thought leaders from venture capital, startups, Congress, the military, think tanks, and industry to champion bold reforms in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act. These reforms will end the Pentagon’s failed, Soviet-style system and realign it with American policies that we know work from historical and current evidence. The key reforms are as follows:
Commercial First: As NASA proved, requiring commercial solutions cuts costs, boosts efficiency, and drives innovation.
Portfolio Acquisition: Let the Pentagon buy what works, not what a bureaucrat chose years or decades ago.
Past Performance Requirements: Reward merit, not incumbency.
Expanded Definition of Non-Traditional Defense Contractors: Slash red tape for start-ups trying to serve their nation.
Procurement Workforce Reform: Align incentives to fix a risk-averse culture.
These reforms would return us to an acquisition system that helped win WWII and seeded Cold War-era tech dominance. They would unlock innovation, expand opportunities for thousands of U.S. businesses, and rapidly deliver the best products to our warfighters.
Perhaps most important of all, they will help usher in an industrial renaissance for the American people. A revitalized defense industrial base means new factories, better jobs, and durable middle-class careers anchored in innovation and production. These reforms can reignite American manufacturing in towns hollowed out by decades of offshoring and neglect.
We believe in the limitless potential of the American people – and that free markets always outperform central planning. These reforms will empower a new generation of innovators to deliver American Dynamism and secure peace through strength.
It’s time to build a new defense acquisition system.
Let’s build it for America.
Expert Perspectives
Why America Needs Dynamic Defense Reform
David Ulevitch, Katherine Boyle, and Matt Cronin
Pentagon procurement has devolved into Soviet-style central planning—stifling innovation and production—and calls for bold reforms like commercial-first acquisition, portfolio buying, and startup-friendly contracting to restore speed, scale, and industrial strength.
To Secure America’s Future, We Must Fix Defense Procurement Now
Dino Mavrookas
Outdated procurement rules stifle innovation and weaken U.S. shipbuilding. Reforms to expand commercial contracting, ease compliance for new entrants, and realign incentives are essential to rebuild the defense industrial base.
Tear Down the Barriers: Expanding NDC Status to Unleash Innovation
Nathan Mintz
Current rules shut out startups just as they begin scaling critical defense solutions—calling for expanded Non-Traditional Defense Contractor status to lower barriers, boost competition, and deliver innovation to warfighters at speed.
Big Ships and Little Tech: A Barbell Plan for Deterrence
Eyck Freymann and Harry Halem
A force that cannot see the battlefield cannot win on it. The battlefields of Ukraine have made this clear. Commercial sensors, cheap drones, resilient comms, and fast adaptation are imposing disproportionate costs on a...
War with China in the 21st Century?
Lieutenant General Michael Dana
U.S. institutions remain stuck in 20th-century models while China adapts rapidly. Only bold defense reforms, commercial integration, and accelerated procurement can ensure America fields a resilient arsenal for modern conflict.
Partnering with Dynamic Tech Can Return the Pentagon to its Warfighting Roots
William Greenwalt
Decades of bureaucracy and central planning have stifled defense innovation—urging a return to time-driven, venture-backed models that powered WWII breakthroughs, and calling for bold reforms to dismantle outdated acquisition systems.
The Commercial-First Future of Robotics & Autonomy in Defense
Oliver Hsu and Dima Kislovskiy
There is a general consensus that the future of defense will become increasingly autonomous, and involve deploying unmanned or autonomous systems across land, air, sea, and space. It is also true that the future of all m...
FORGED Can Strengthen National Security When DoD and Congress Move Together
Michael Robbins
America’s competitive edge has long been our ability to innovate and adapt faster than our rivals. From the earliest days of modern defense innovation to today’s advancements in robotics and uncrewed systems, that advant...
Forging a Stronger Defense Industrial Base
Julius Krein
Delays in defense procurement, eroded manufacturing capacities, and regulatory rigidity are undermining U.S. capability—streamlining acquisition, strengthening supply chains, and empowering new entrants must be priorities to match China's industrial surge.
Well now that you put it that way!
Military here;
Military terms:
Arlington 20301 is an obstacle that cannot be overcome, it must be bypassed.
The resources of funding and approval and research must altogether avoid The Pentagon (zip 20301) and go direct to trustworthy Patriot industries such as Anduril, et al. Congress - who are the real winners of the PPBE etc will need persuading as will their staff.
Do not assume good intentions of anyone in DC, Malice Oblige has replaced Noblesse Oblige long ago.