General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) CEO Linden Blue recently sent a letter to Elon Musk advocating for U.S. defense acquisition reform. President Donald Trump appointed Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a new presidential advisory commission designed to regulate government spending.
Blue proposed to apply GA-ASI’s experience with defense acquisition to address the policies and procedures he said hindered timely delivery of critical capabilities to warfighters. He claimed U.S. Government policy and bureaucratic decision-making opened the door for competitors like China, Turkey and Israel to win important international customers.
In the letter, Blue highlighted areas for DOGE to address, including delays, buck-passing and self-shackling.
Use available authorities to expedite acquisitions, prioritizing warfighter needs over obsession with process. Special rules and processes exist to speed acquisition. But they aren’t used frequently enough and are often modified over time to conform with standard, slower processes.
The government could accelerate larger system acquisitions simply by setting time limits on DoD milestones to ensure that the period between “requirements definition” and “initial operating capability” does not exceed five years.
Establish accountability within the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) system, in which execution is fragmented across the Department of State, multiple DoD agencies, and the military services, with none of them able to direct the others. Nobody is ultimately accountable for achieving or failing to achieve the administration’s strategic objectives related to selling defense articles to allies.
Accountability can be achieved through clear lines of authority and responsibility, time limits for decision-making, and a modern IT system to track the distribution and expenditure of billions of dollars (entirely funded by foreign customers) in the US FMS administrative fund account.
Reform the U.S. interpretation of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) to focus on missile technology tied to weapons of mass destruction rather than UAS. Today, the antiquated MTCR interpretation ties the USG’s hands even on straightforward export programs which enjoy bipartisan support. We should counter the unfair market advantages gained by foreign suppliers not subject to self-imposed MTCR limitations.
Further, we must objectively balance the prioritization of technology security with that of arming allies and partners (using their own money) for future conflicts and increased burden-sharing.