TL;DR DoW Directory revision 3 is Online here, Order a print copy here.
In November 2025 the Department of War (DoW) unveiled the biggest changes in 60 years of how they will buy weapons and services. This month Congress, with bipartisan support, rapidly made them into law in the National Defense Authorization Act (the NDAA) – 3,096 pages of legislative text and 636-page Joint Explanatory Statement.
This is a top-to-bottom transformation of how the DoW plans and buys weapons, moving from contracts that prioritized process and how much a weapon costs, to how fast it can be delivered. It’s the Lean Startup plan for the Department of War.
Instead of buying custom-designed weapons, the DoW will prioritize a “commercial first” strategy – buying off-the-shelf things that already exist and using fast-track acquisition processes, rather than the cumbersome existing Federal Acquisition Regulations. To manage all of this, they are reorganizing the entire Acquisition ecosystem across the Services.
December 2025 Directory Update – Now Available Online and in Print
Our December 2025 update to the Directory (Online here, Print copy here) describes the New Warfighting Acquisition Organizations – The Portfolio Acquisition Executive and the Capability Program Managers.
If you’re a startup trying to sell to the DoW, until now the biggest barrier has been a lack of information. That changes with this 3rd edition of the 2025 DoW Directory.
Online here, Order a print copy here.
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Filed under: Air Force, Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, National Security, Navy |
With tanks, aircraft, destroyers . . . now essentially obsolete, a major problem is, on what do you sacrifice the national economy, for a reform and the inevitable increase of the defence budget that is now 20X what it was at the height of the cold war. For all of the treasure that the US spilt in Afghanistan, Trump formally conceded defeat to the Taliban. Trump and the DoW need to be reminded of this, before he and the DoW go all in on the Trump Corollary, south of the US border.
An unintended consequence of telling bureaucrats that fast is the primary metric means costs might sky rocket! We know the federal government is not efficient. This new legislation might make it even worse.
Thanks for sharing this. On the surface this may sound like great news. Less cumbersome supply chains, on demand purchases, etc. But, when it comes to high ticket items like nuclear subs – I don’t get it. Are you expecting the private sector to develop them in the hope they maybe purchased when needed. Look forward to some clarity on this.
I applaud the change of focus. In order to maintain the speed/nimbleness advantage the DoW will still need to buy lots of intermediate products, test them, then stockpile them for rapid response. I just hope we don’t take the money for the next Ford Class Carrier and just spend it on different “looks good” stuff.