The Pentagon’s process for acquiring military capabilities is due for a total replacement – not just a fix – according to the House Armed Services Committee’s top leaders from both sides of the aisle.
Speaking during a Hudson Institute webinar today, committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Ranking Member Adam Smith, D-Wash., said the Department of Defense (DoD) must dramatically reform how it fields new technologies to keep pace with modern threats and innovation cycles.
“We want to replace it. We’re not trying to fix [DoD’s acquisition system],” Rogers said. “We’re trying to replace what they do in the Defense Department with something more commercially comfortable to interact with, but also hopefully inviting to more participants.”
Smith agreed and emphasized the urgency for change. “We have to be able to field new capabilities quickly, more so now than at any point in human history … because of the rapid pace of technology. The Pentagon’s ill-suited to do that,” he said.
A full-scale overhaul, he added, is essential. “We want to get there quickly.”
To that end, the lawmakers are pushing forward new legislation aimed squarely at the earliest stage of the acquisition process.
The Streamlining Procurement for Effective Execution and Delivery (SPEED) Act, introduced earlier this month by the congressmen, proposes a dramatic reshaping of how military requirements are developed and delivered. Its goal: slash the timeline for identifying and approving new capabilities from nearly three years to just a few months.
Central to the SPEED Act is a proposal to transform the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) into a new body called the Joint Requirements Council (JRC). Rather than validating narrowly scoped capability documents, the JRC would focus on assessing evolving threats and future force needs. Within 30 to 60 days, the JRC would send its recommendations to a new organization – the Requirements, Acquisition, and Programming Integration Directorate (RAPID).
If the bill is approved, RAPID would be charged with evaluating the feasibility and cost of proposed technologies, with direct input from combatant commanders and other stakeholders. RAPID would then have up to 60 days to make a recommendation to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, who would make a final decision within 30 days.
Smith explained that the primary motivation behind the layered structure is speed.
“As we said, we want to get to more rapid procurement … [and] the purpose of [this] is to shrink that [procurement time] down and really get those investments, get better decisions, and get to a better place,” he said.
Rogers also highlighted that the legislations seeks to push for a more risk-tolerant cultural shift within the Pentagon.
“Perfect cannot be the enemy of the good. And it has been this. The Department is completely risk averse, and that’s insane,” he said. “It’s going to be incumbent on us, as we move into this, that we reward risk taking as a part of our future activities,” he said.
The SPEED Act will serve as a cornerstone of the House Armed Services Committee’s version of the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., is pursuing parallel reforms through his own legislation, the Fostering Reform and Government Efficiency in Defense (FORGED) Act. Introduced in December 2024, that bill would make commercial contracting the default method for Pentagon acquisitions and expand access for nontraditional defense firms – even for highly specialized weapon systems like missiles.