in effect
This is Executive Order 14265, signed April 9, 2025, directing changes to how the Department of Defense buys weapons, equipment, and services. It orders the Secretary of Defense to overhaul the military’s acquisition (procurement) system with a stated emphasis on speed and flexibility, and to review existing programs and the workforce that manages them. As an executive order, it instructs federal agencies but does not itself change any law or create rights anyone can sue over.
It sets several deadlines for the Secretary of Defense: a plan to reform acquisition processes within 60 days, a plan to reform and “right-size” the acquisition workforce within 120 days, a review of all major defense acquisition programs within 90 days, and a review of the requirements system (JCIDS) within 180 days. The reforms are told to favor commercial products and “Other Transactions Authority” (non-standard contracts) and to use faster pathways under the existing Adaptive Acquisition Framework, applied immediately to pending contracts while the plans are being written. In the program review, any major program more than 15 percent behind schedule, more than 15 percent over cost, unable to meet key performance targets, or out of step with the Secretary’s priorities is to be flagged for possible cancellation, with the list sent to the Office of Management and Budget for budget decisions. The order also requires cutting unnecessary internal DoD regulations and applies the “ten-for-one” deregulation rule (from Executive Order 14192) to any new internal acquisition guidance.
The Department of Defense and the military branches (Army, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force offices named in the order) carry out the reviews and reforms, and the Office of Management and Budget receives the program and cost lists. The defense acquisition workforce — program managers, contracting officers, engineers, financial managers, cost estimators, and logisticians — faces restructured performance metrics, new field training teams, and staffing analysis. Defense contractors and companies offering commercial or privately funded solutions are affected because the order pushes toward commercial-first buying and flags underperforming major programs for potential cancellation.