In case you missed it, SecDef Pete Hegseth issued a memo last Thursday calling for major changes to how the DoD buys software. The “Directing Modern Software Acquisition to Maximize Lethality” directive calls for:
- Further adoption of the Software Acquisition Pathway (SWP)
- Buying more software from commercial defense companies
- Using existing authorities—like Commercial Solutions Openings and Other Transactions—designed to benefit commercial companies as the “default” for buying software
- Adapting to today’s “software-defined warfare”
This is a pretty big deal for commercial and nontraditional companies building the programs needed to win wars.
“The way the Pentagon buys software is slow, outdated and filled with bureaucracy. Meanwhile, our adversaries are moving fast,” a defense official said in a briefing on the memo.
Hegseth ordered the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment to present a plan in coordination with DIU within 30 days.
Agile: The software acquisition is a process introduced in 2020 as part of the Adaptive Acquisition Framework (AAF) aimed at fielding more software built by commercial companies. It’s part of the reason why systems built by companies like Palantir and Anduril have become such a big part of the way the US fights wars.
The framework basically aims to make the DoD work more like a tech company. It was designed to help move the department away from the multi-year acquisition path for software and towards a more agile, iterative approach.
SWP has struggled to make its way across the Pentagon. It’s faced major cultural resistance and has been hobbled by PPBE and traditional acquisition processes. But now, per the memo, it’s the name of the game.
The digital threat: Experts agree that the Pentagon needed to rely on commercial companies for software development, like, yesterday. In an interview with Tectonic in January, Raj Shah of Shield Capital and DIU said that the weakest link in the Pentagon is software development.
And in a Q+A last month, defense innovation godfather Steve Blank told Tectonic that the Pentagon should leave software development to the experts in Silicon Valley.
“You can’t tell me that primes can build better AI systems and deliver them more quickly than most companies in Silicon Valley,” he said.
And, at least in theory, officials in the DoD now agree.
“We’re cutting out middlemen. Software companies make software. We’re going to buy software from software companies,” the official said in the briefing on the memo.