Pete Hegseth is right now the belle of the defense acquisitions ball.

Why it matters: The defense secretary's Friday speech — invoking Donald Rumsfeld; roasting the way the U.S. military assesses and purchases weapons; warning that companies unable to modernize will "fade away"; promising to put portions of the Pentagon on a "wartime footing" — was the antithesis of his Quantico rally just weeks ago. • While that address was heavy on nostalgia and MAGA ideology, this latest one avoided such trappings. It instead offered an ambitious roadmap. • "This is the equivalent of the 'Ninety-five Theses' posted to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, in 1517," Steve Blank, a founding member of the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, told Axios. • "This whole gam

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