On April 9, 2025, President Trump signed the Executive Order (EO), Modernizing Defense Acquisitions and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base. The EO indicated that the factory floor is as significant as the battlefield, and the current defense acquisition system must have a comprehensive overhaul to deliver state-of-the-art capabilities at speed and scale.
What Does This Entail?
This EO contains several requirements for the Secretary of Defense and reporting dates to the President as follows:
Acquisition Process Reform
The Secretary of Defense must submit a plan to the President within 60 days to reform the Department of Defense’s (DoD) acquisition processes to incorporate the following:
- Expedite acquisitions with
- first preference to commercial solutions
- general preference to Other Transactions
- application of Rapid Capabilities Office Policies
- Detailed review of roles in the acquisition workforce to:
- Eliminate unnecessary tasks
- Reduce duplicate approvals
- Centralize design-making
- Create a formal Configuration Steering Board to manage risk for all acquisition programs
Internal Regulations Review
The Secretary of Defense is required to oversee the review and revisions of DoD acquisition instructions, guides, manuals, and regulations and eliminate unnecessary supplemental regulations in order to promote expedited and streamlined acquisitions. This includes the ten-for-one rule, where 10 existing regulations are eliminated when a new regulation is added (EO 14192 - Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation).
Acquisition Workforce Reform
The Secretary of Defense must submit a plan to the President within 120 days, including:
- Restructure performance evaluation metrics for the acquisition workforce to demonstrate the application of risk consideration of commercial solutions
- Analysis of workforce staff to develop, deliver, and sustain warfighting capabilities
- Establishment of field training teams with expertise in innovative and commercial solutions
- Development of policies, procedures, and tools to utilize innovative acquisition and take measured and calculated risks.
Major Defense Acquisition Program Review
The Secretary of Defense must submit a review of all major defense acquisition programs (MDAP) within 90 days and provide:
- List of programs more than 15 percent behind schedule based on the Acquisition Program Baseline and submit a potential cancellation list to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
- Listing of all MDAP contracts comparing performance against original and approved Government cost estimates
- Provide a plan to review all remaining major systems that are not MDAP
Takeaway
We consider this a win-win for contractors, the Government, and the warfighters. The EO concentrates on expediting the acquisition process by procuring commercial products and services as first preference and training the Government staff on procuring commercial items and taking risks. We are hopeful that the review of the regulations will also result in a significant reduction in the clauses in commercial prime contracts as well as flowdowns to subcontracts. Awarding OTA’s as the general preference after commercial will also expedite acquisitions and hopefully reduce administrative costs. The use of commercial contracts and OTA’s will significantly reduce pre-award and post-award audit requirements.
GAO reported that the Government’s Procurement Administrative Lead Time (PALT), which is the number of days between the solicitation and award, averaged 322 days for DoD contracts based on FY 2019-FY2022 data. (GAO presentation issued in March 2024). However, we have seen proposals extending almost 2 years from solicitation to award. As well as extend undefinitized contracting action (UCA) periods.
While the Government is implementing this EO, we recommend contractors review their products and services that may qualify under one of the FAR 2.101 commercial product or service definitions and submit them to your prime contractor or the Government under your next solicitation.
It is apparent the President is looking for speed, reliability, and cost savings, so find a way to include all of these elements in your proposals.
How Can Redstone Help
Redstone Government Consulting offers a range of support services to assist with commercial products and services requirements. Our team can help draft or review commercial assertions and determinations, evaluate your commercial determination policies, and provide training on related topics. We also support proposal development and review proposals to ensure they align with what contracting officers will be seeking in future evaluations.
