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Last year, I released two plans for reforming the military. The first, 21st Century Peace through Strength, focused on the need for additional defense funding to produce what the U.S. military needs to keep the peace.
The second, Restoring Freedom’s Forge, outlined a plan to change fundamentally the Pentagon’s business processes away from a Soviet-style bureaucratic mess to a modern process that rewards commercial innovation and fosters competition.
Fortunately, President Donald Trump campaigned on both these issues. He promised a defense spending boost, and we are well on our way after the $150 billion military infusion included in the reconciliation bill. And the president promised to pursue wholesale Pentagon reform, getting rid of red tape and instead freeing our innovators to build weapons better, faster and at lower cost.
In Congress, we recognize that we have no time to waste. The Senate Armed Services Committee recently voted overwhelmingly (26-1) to advance Congress’ annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This bill contains the most significant reforms to the Pentagon’s weapons-buying process in generations.
ARMY UNVEILS MODERNIZATION PLAN BECAUSE, ‘NO LOBBYIST EVER WON A WAR’
For decades, we have paid defense companies to develop weapons primarily with taxpayer money. While this process will still be necessary for some systems, there are thousands of innovative companies who are developing weapons using private capital. This bill is written to encourage acquisition by those companies, who are often outpacing the Pentagon’s processes by years.
We have also spent many years under a broken weapons buying process. At dozens of stages, officials can say “No” and slow programs down. As it stands, program managers decide what to buy but shortly thereafter lose authority over the process. From there, contracting officers under a separate reporting structure can take 18 months to run a compliance-based process. This NDAA would create portfolio acquisition executives who are empowered to make decisions, take risk and then be held accountable for decisions.
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For decades, we have levied a crazy, years-long bureaucratic process to qualify new parts and types of weapons for military use. That process rewards the status quo and severely discourages competition. This bill will create a new streamlined process for qualification, pairing it with a new $1 billion fund from the reconciliation bill. Taken together, we will dramatically improve competition at the Pentagon and protect against price-gouging.
The United States has a legacy of building some of the most advanced munitions in the world. The track records of our GMLRS surface-to-surface missiles and Patriot air defense interceptors are undeniable. But not every one of our weapons needs to be “exquisite,” a term of art for systems that are sophisticated, intricate and difficult to build. Instead, we are providing nearly $5 billion in defense reconciliation for new lower-cost munitions, many of which will be produced through advanced manufacturing.
We are living in the most dangerous moment since World War II. To enable an American-led 21st century, we need a military and a defense industrial base capable of maintaining the peace. The defense reconciliation bill made a big bet on American innovation, and the Senate’s 2026 NDAA introduces fundamental Pentagon reforms. With both, we can achieve a generational rebuilding of the U.S. military.
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