New portfolio acquisition executives gain sweeping authority to accelerate weapons procurement, cut bureaucracy, and expand access for non-traditional defense firms
WASHINGTON | The Department of the Air Force is taking its first concrete steps toward a sweeping acquisition overhaul, naming five senior leaders to oversee the service’s most critical modernization portfolios as Portfolio Acquisition Executives (PAEs)—a move aimed at dramatically accelerating how new capabilities reach warfighters.
The announcement marks the opening phase of a broader transformation aligned with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s directive to replace what he has described as the Pentagon’s sluggish procurement bureaucracy with a faster, more agile “Warfighting Acquisition System.”
“These moves are a generational opportunity for the Department of the Air Force,” Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said in a statement. “They allow us to holistically reform our enterprise—from requirements, to acquisition, to test—to deliver warfighting capability faster and more efficiently.”
