Acquisition Reform Means a Focus on Warfighter Success

The War Department aims to modernize how acquisition — the buying of weapons and other materiel from manufacturers — is done to ensure American warfighters get the best tools, at the right price, and as quickly as possible. 

In November 2025, for instance, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced a reorganization of the existing program executive offices into portfolio acquisition executives. 

“The acquisition chain of authority will run directly from the program manager to the PAE,” Hegseth said at the time. “Each PAE will be the single accountable official for portfolio outcomes and have the authority to act without running through months or even years of approval chains. And they’ll be held accountable to deliver results.” 

The secretary said PAEs will be empowered with authorities to make decisions on cost, schedule and performance trade-offs that prioritize time to field and mission outcomes.  

During a panel discussion yesterday as part of the Air and Space Forces Association’s warfare symposium in Aurora, Colorado, Air Force Gen. Dale R. White, director of critical major weapon systems, said that effort will be transformational in the acquisition community. 

“I think now we take it down to the next level and just think about where we are with our [program offices], what we’re doing with the PAEs, giving them authority to make decisions in real time, make trades, and be able to do probably the most important thing with this whole transformation,” White said. “[And that] is not measure ourselves against acquisition outcomes but measure ourselves against mission outcomes, allowing that PAE to look at the operational problem and work to figure out a solution to that problem and be able to have the decision space to do so.” 

White said it’s not just PAEs that must be empowered to do their job, but the acquisition enterprise as a whole must be aligned to make acquisition success about meeting mission requirements for the warfighter, not just a positive business outcome. 

“We’re just not empowering PAEs; the idea is you get unity of command,” he said. “You get unity of effort. You allow that contracting officer to have a voice in solving that operational problem, that [financial management] person, that engineer; you change the cultural mindset of how we look at what we’re doing.” 

There are plenty of examples, White said, of where there was acquisition success that didn’t result in operational mission success. 

“We may have done well on the acquisition side, but how well did that align to the operational need and what we’re trying to do,” he asked. “It is really that hard reset. It’s the empowerment piece and changing the dynamic by which we study the problems that we have.” 

For acquisition professionals, White said, acquisition reform will require them to lead with conviction. 

“Lead with vision, lead ruthlessly and lead with an intent to solve the operational problem,” he said. “If you want to know what acquisition as a warfighting function means, it means come together as a team, the operational team, the acquiring team, and deliver on the outcome. Sometimes that means you’re going to make some tough decisions that you have to have courage to make; make the decision, drive for the outcome.”