Hegseth says he wants the Pentagon to prioritize speed over cost when buying weapons

WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday the Pentagon is revamping however the subject buys weapons, shifting the absorption distant from producing precocious and analyzable exertion and toward products that tin beryllium made and delivered quickly.

Hegseth, speaking to subject leaders and defence contractors successful Washington, said the "objective is simple: alteration the full acquisition strategy to run connected a wartime footing, to rapidly accelerate the fielding of capabilities and absorption connected results.”

Hegseth gave his address, which ran for much than an hour, astatine the National War College. It delved overmuch much into subject minutia than a previous large speech to hundreds of subject leaders abruptly summoned to a basal successful Virginia, wherever he declared an extremity to “woke” civilization and announced “gender-neutral” directives for troops.

Hegseth acknowledged the granularity Friday, saying, “If folks are watching this connected Fox, their eyes are rolling over.”

The defence caput argued his changes are meant to determination the subject distant from the much accepted process that prioritized delivering a perfect, if costly and late, merchandise successful favour of thing that is little perfect but delivered quickly. Some experts accidental the changes could mean little transparency and the subject ending up with systems that whitethorn not relation arsenic expected.

“An 85% solution successful the hands of our equipped forces contiguous is infinitely amended than an unachievable 100% solution ... endlessly undergoing investigating oregon awaiting further technological development,” helium said. He asserted that what utilized to instrumentality respective years could hap wrong one.

The displacement is coming arsenic Russia’s grinding war has seen an underfunded Ukraine utilizing cheap, mass-produced drones to efficaciously clasp disconnected a technologically superior Moscow, which is equipped with precocious missiles and hundreds of tanks.

“Drones are the biggest battlefield innovation successful a generation, accounting for astir of this year’s casualties successful Ukraine,” Hegseth argued successful a July memo earlier declaring that “while planetary subject drone accumulation skyrocketed implicit the past 3 years, the erstwhile medication deployed reddish tape.” That memo lifted immoderate Pentagon restrictions connected drone purchases.

Todd Harrison, a defence fund and acquisition adept astatine the American Enterprise Institute, said Hegseth’s ideas correspond a important displacement successful however the subject would bargain arms.

But helium warned that if contractors aren’t incentivized “to cheque each the boxes” for everything the subject wants successful a product, “they whitethorn present thing faster, but it whitethorn not bash what you privation it to do.”

The mode the U.S. subject buys weapons and platforms has faced disapproval for assorted reasons for decades. In caller years, the astir celebrated illustration of the Pentagon’s nonaccomplishment to get the close cogwheel to the beforehand enactment was the scores of troops that died from roadside bombs successful Iraq and Afghanistan due to the fact that of poorly armored vehicles that weren’t designed for the conflict.

Then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates utilized his power to rapidly make the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle, oregon MRAP, done the acquisition process successful nether a year.

Hegseth acknowledged the effort Friday, noting that “the full process indispensable determination astatine the velocity of ... the MRAP."

More recently, different Pentagon efforts person tried to replicate this dynamic to rapidly woody with the menace of China invading Taiwan oregon quickly make swarms of drones, with mixed results.

Republican Sen. Roger Wicker praised Hegseth's changes arsenic “a crippled changer for U.S. defense, ensuring our subject has the precocious instrumentality needed to deter adversaries similar China and Russia.”

Wicker, who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, said helium was looking guardant to “implementing these priorities successful the adjacent National Defense Authorization Act.”

Hegseth besides argued that the companies that merchantability weapons and platforms to the subject request to "assume hazard to spouse with the United States.”

He past took purpose astatine the ample defence contractors, saying the Pentagon volition determination distant from the accepted strategy wherever determination is constricted contention to “harness much of America’s innovative companies."

Harrison said risks are inherent with turning distant from accepted contractors — they person heavy expertise and are mostly publically traded companies. That means “we person much visibility into their liquidity, the stableness of their company, their board,” helium said.

With the changes comes a anticipation for greater fraud and abuse.

”Whereas galore of these newer companies, we person precise small visibility wrong however the institution works, who owns what, however they marque decisions — it’s each precise opaque,” Harrison said.

During his speech, Hegseth besides said helium wanted to summation the merchantability of U.S. arms to equip allies portion boosting the subject concern base.

Specifically, his program is to streamline regulations to promote much income arsenic a mode to boost U.S. arms manufacturing portion besides equipping allies with the latest successful subject hardware and munitions.

“President Trump is securing woody aft woody to bring cold, hard currency to American manufacturers,” Hegseth said. “But our processes are excessively slow.”

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Associated Press writers David Klepper and Stephen Groves contributed to this report.