The Special Sauce: How Hegseth’s Software Memo Can Start a Revolution

Reliable, fast, working, and user-friendly software is the basis of our everyday lives — something we all take for granted. The military can’t always say the same thing. A new memo endeavors to address that by announcing a huge, structural shift in procurement policy. The Commercial Solutions Opening, pioneered by the Defense Innovation Unit, has been named by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as the default contracting approach for software acquisition pathway programs and projects. This expansion from a niche contracting approach to a default process marks a decisive move away from the Defense Department’s traditional procurement mode and more The post The Special Sauce: How Hegseth’s Software Memo Can Start a Revolution appeared first on War on the Rocks.

Apr 22, 2025 - 08:31

Reliable, fast, working, and user-friendly software is the basis of our everyday lives — something we all take for granted. The military can’t always say the same thing. A new memo endeavors to address that by announcing a huge, structural shift in procurement policy. The Commercial Solutions Opening, pioneered by the Defense Innovation Unit, has been named by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as the default contracting approach for software acquisition pathway programs and projects. This expansion from a niche contracting approach to a default process marks a decisive move away from the Defense Department’s traditional procurement mode and more

The post The Special Sauce: How Hegseth’s Software Memo Can Start a Revolution appeared first on War on the Rocks.