The military's acquisition reform push means 85% ready is good enough to start

Among the changes that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth laid out in his Nov. 7 address to industry is the idea that the Pentagon will be more willing to buy a system that provides “the 85% solution” now and the full solution later. On Tuesday, a panel of industry executives talked at a Defense One event about what that might take and what it might mean.

“It starts with how much acquisition risk are [they] willing to take to decrease operational risk,” said Steve Harris, vice president of defense and intelligence at the Professional Services Council, a GovCon trade association. “It is a culture change for the department writ large, and eventually, I think probably the government, in terms of what the tolerance is going to be for acquisition risk, and that’s going to be something tha