Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week issued a mandate to Defense Department acquisition offices requiring all new programs that rely on software to use existing tools aimed at delivering those capabilities faster.
In a memo dated March 6 and released publicly Friday, Hegseth directs all DOD components to use the Pentagon’s Software Acquisition Pathway, as well as other authorities created to leverage commercial capabilities — all in an effort to speed up the process for fielding software-heavy systems.
“The Department of Defense has been slow to recognize that software-defined warfare is not a future construct, but the reality we find ourselves operating in today,” Hegseth said in the memo, which is addressed to all senior Pentagon leaders, combatant commanders and field activity directors. “When it comes to software acquisition, we are overdue in pivoting to a performance-based outcome and, as such, it is the warfighter who pays the price.”
Senior defense officials told reporters Friday the memo is the first of what will likely be a series of steps from Hegseth, who has said on several occasions he wants to change the way the military buys and builds both software and hardware. The officials requested anonymity to speak freely about the secretary’s guidance.
The Defense Department created the Software Acquisition Pathway in 2020 as the recommended approach for buying software. The pathway offers a tailored acquisition mechanism, recognizing that software can’t, and shouldn’t, be procured under the same process as an aircraft or ship.
DOD program offices adopted the approach fairly broadly, and today 82 programs representing each of the military services are using the pathway to buy a range of capabilities — from command-and-control systems to cyber. The problem, according to one official, is that the pathway hasn’t been combined with other authorities designed to attract and take advantage of commercial capabilities.
Those authorities include an approach championed by the Defense Innovation Unit called a Commercial Solutions Opening, a type of solicitation that allows startups and non-traditional defense companies to sell products and services to DOD. DIU also leverages a contracting tool called Other Transaction awards, which isn’t subject to the same regulations as a standard contract and allows the government to award contracts on faster timelines.
As part of Hegseth’s memo requiring use of the Software Acquisition Pathway, he calls for acquisition organizations to make Commercial Solutions Openings and Other Transaction contracting approaches “the default” for buying capabilities.
“Department components are prohibited from implementing further guidance on this point that would set out restrictive measures, guidelines, frameworks, directives or policies other than required by statute,” he said.
The under secretary of acquisition and sustainment, as well as DIU — because of its experience with these tools — will craft an implementation plan over the next month.
DIU expects to see an uptick in the number of program offices wanting to work with the organization to procure software using these methods, one official said. As part of the implementation plan, the department will identify what resources DIU will need to support the increased workload and help train acquisition officials on how to use these authorities.
“The combination of DIU innovation with acquisition modernization is creating a streamlined mechanic to both deliver capability fast and simultaneously open up the industry base to a broader audience,” one official said.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Defense Department’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.
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