Timothy W. Cooke
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s recent “Arsenal of Freedom” speech promised sweeping reforms — portfolio acquisition executives with incentive pay, commercial-first contracting, four-year program manager appointments instead of revolving-door leadership.
None of it will matter if the nearly 200,000 military contracting officers, program managers and acquisition specialists charged with executing these plans don’t fundamentally change how they think and behave.
The real problem isn’t with the regulations. It’s with the personnel following them.
Consider a typical scenario — a contracting officer knows a faster, cheaper artificial intelligence solution exists from a Silicon Valley startup. The regulations explicitly allow “best value” and encourage innovation. Yet, the officer chooses the slower, more expensive option from an established contractor. Why? Because the innovative choice, while technically compliant, requires justification. Justification means scrutiny. Scrutiny means career risk.
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