{"id":250580,"date":"2025-11-08T04:12:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T04:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/250580\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T04:12:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T04:12:07","slug":"pete-hegseth-issues-warning-to-major-us-defence-contractors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/250580\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Hegseth issues warning to major US defence contractors"},"content":{"rendered":"

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US defence secretary Pete Hegseth demanded major defence contractors speed up weapons development and production or \u201cfade away\u201d, as he declared a new era of procurement competition.<\/p>\n

In a speech on acquisition reform on Friday, Hegseth<\/a> also called for unprecedented private investment in the defence industry and announced the formation of a specialised \u201cdeal team\u201d to bolster the Pentagon\u2019s weapons purchases.<\/p>\n

As the secretary detailed plans for the Pentagon to speed up its notoriously slow and expensive acquisition process, he invited new companies to compete against defence heavyweights such as Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and General Dynamics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese large defence [groups] need to change the focus on speed and volume and invest their own capital to get there\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009if they do not, those big ones will fade away,\u201d he told industry executives at the National War College in Washington.<\/p>\n

Hegseth also called on legacy aerospace and defence companies to invest more of their own capital instead of \u201csaddling taxpayers with every cost\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the Pentagon\u2019s move to slash contract requirements and regulations would increase competition. Quoting a speech by former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Hegseth declared the Pentagon\u2019s bureaucracy an \u201cadversary\u201d. <\/p>\n

Consolidation because of post-cold war Pentagon budget cuts shrunk the pool<\/a> of major contractors from 51 in 1990 to just five companies that dominate the production of the US military\u2019s weapons and other technologies.<\/p>\n

The secretary\u2019s changes aim to unleash more private sector investment in defence production capacity by stabilising the Pentagon\u2019s commitment to purchase certain systems over time.<\/p>\n

The new \u201cdeal team\u201d, which would be part of a recently established acquisition unit known as the Wartime Production Unit, would be \u201cempowered to forging [sic] groundbreaking business deals that revolutionise production capacity and completely overhaul contract execution\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hegseth also said the Pentagon would take on more \u201cacquisition risk\u201d so that no bid would be considered non-compliant. The defence department would also slash certain reporting requirements, accounting standards, testing rules, oversight and study and analysis regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the beginning of an unrelenting onslaught to change the way we do business and to change the way the bureaucracy responds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jerry McGinn, director of the centre for the industrial base at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Hegseth was \u201cright to focus on changing incentives to drive better outcomes\u201d. <\/p>\n

He added that while there are dangers to gutting regulations and requirements, \u201cWe are definitely too far in the other direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth also vowed to speed up sales of US weapons to allies and partners, calling it a \u201ctop priority\u201d for his team given President Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to secure deals for American hardware. <\/p>\n

The secretary said foreign military sales are \u201ccritical to our strategic vision on the global landscape\u201d.<\/p>\n

McGinn said he was \u201cpleased\u201d by the secretary\u2019s \u201cstrong emphasis on allies and partners\u201d, because such focus \u201cruns counter to some of the narrative of the administration\u201d. <\/p>\n

Josh Kirshner, managing director at Beacon Global Strategies, said Hegseth\u2019s speech reflected long-held concerns of traditional players and defence start-ups, and echoed what the Pentagon has been telling the companies in recent months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think longtime defence companies and ones new to the Pentagon agree with many of the frustrations the secretary laid out,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re just as eager and invested in seeing the department move more quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Kirshner warned the changes would take time, which Hegseth also acknowledged. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenges in implementing this will be far-reaching and significant, likely taking far longer than leadership expects,\u201d Kirshner said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-250580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}