Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed the Department of Defense’s (DoD) acquisition leaders to embrace existing authorities to speed up software procurement for warfighters.
In a memo publicly released on March 7, Hegseth directed all DoD components to use the department’s Software Acquisition Pathway (SWP) program in combination with other existing authorities – such as commercial solutions opening and Other Transaction authority – to speed up the procurement of digital tools.
“When it comes to software acquisition, we are overdue in pivoting to a performance-based outcome,” Hegseth wrote. “To meet this challenge, I am directing all DoD Components to adopt the [SWP] as the preferred pathway for all software development components of business and weapon system programs in the department.”
Launched in 2020, SWP is the department’s tailored approach for purchasing software by recognizing its distinct nature as compared to hardware. Created under the first Trump administration by then Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord, SWP was part of a broader push for an Adaptive Acquisition Framework, allowing software programs to bypass “bureaucratic hurdles in traditional acquisition processes.”
Since its launch, the DoD has widely adopted the Software Acquisition Pathway, with 82 programs across all military services using it to acquire a variety of capabilities, including command-and-control systems and cybersecurity solutions.
However, according to one defense official the challenge with the software pathway is that “it did nothing in and of itself for how we expose commercial and nontraditional vendors who are also developing innovative software to those software programs.”
“When we take that software pathway mechanism and we combine it with innovation … working in commercial solutions openings and other transaction authorities we get to the point where now we can expose software programs to nontraditional and commercial software developers while we simultaneously lower the barrier for those nontraditional and commercial software developers to get in to defense programs of record,” the defense official said during a press call on Friday, adding that this combination allows DoD to leverage existing acquisition tools “to manage programs and get capability out there fast.”
In the memo, Hegseth explains that he wants all components taking advantage of the pathway and is “directing the use of Commercial Solutions Openings and Other Transactions as the default solicitation and award approaches for acquiring capabilities under the SWP.”
“[DoD] Components are prohibited from implementing further guidance on this point that would set out restrictive measures, guidelines, frameworks, directives, or policies other than required by statute,” the memo reads.
According to a DoD official, the memo is the first of what will likely be a series of steps from Hegseth, who has said on several occasions he wants to change the way the military buys and builds both software and hardware.
DoD’s Under Secretary of Acquisition and Sustainment and the Defense Innovation Unit – drawing on their experience with these tools – will develop an implementation plan over the next month.
