As the Pentagon pushes sweeping acquisition reforms aimed at speeding how the department buys and fields “functionally relevant capabilities,” senior officials at the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) said the agency is largely on track to meet the new requirements.
Jason Martin, DISA’s component acquisition executive and acquisition director, told reporters Monday that the agency has already made most of the necessary structural and financial adjustments.
“From a portfolio setup perspective, for the most part, we are there. We’ll need to make some tweaks, but I think we’re largely there. From a financial consolidation, same thing,” Martin said. “We worked directly to ensure that funding is aligned, and then we prioritize within our portfolios already, and when we’re able, I will prioritize across the acquisition organization.”
Martin added that the required renaming under the Pentagon’s new framework will have “minimal impact” and overall feels “very comfortable with where we are and what we’ve previously done,” he said.
The Defense Department’s – now rebranded as the War Department by the Trump administration – reform push stems from a Nov. 7 announcement by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth outlining a departmentwide overhaul of acquisition practices, changes that mirror an April executive order from President Trump directing federal agencies to reshape their procurement processes.
Hegseth set tight deadlines to make these changes a reality, with the DOD acquisition chief required to issue guidance within 45 days and each military service submitting implementation plans within 60 days.
Martin told reporters that he has already sent DISA’s plan of action to Lt. Gen. Paul Stanton, DISA’s director and the commander of the DOD’s Cyber Defense Command.
Martin did not outline the full scope of DISA’s plan but offered some insight into what it is likely to include.
One pillar of the agency’s plan involves shifting DISA’s culture toward agile, faster procurement. Beginning in March 2026, at least 40% of DISA programs must use one of the “acquisition accelerators,” with at least 80% doing so by the end of fiscal 2026.
Those accelerators include mechanisms already used for task order awards, such as blanket purchase agreements or internal contracting vehicles. Oral presentations, used as a substitute for or supplement to written proposals, are another option.
By expanding the use of tools like oral presentations, DISA aims to accelerate the source-selection process and move new capabilities into the field more quickly.
A central part of DOD’s acquisition reform is shifting away from waiting for a fully finished product and instead fielding systems that meet about 80% of operational needs – giving warfighters usable, relevant capabilities far sooner than a 100% solution that may never materialize.
Martin emphasized that the approach does not involve starting new programs and stopping at 80% completion. Instead, he said DISA is focusing on upgrading existing capabilities with technology that reflects the priorities of combatant commanders.
“The vast majority of our requirements come through operational discussions, operational meetings, meetings with the customer base or the mission partner … and we are either slightly adjusting things or incorporating new capability into existing products,” he said.
Stanton said the shift to align with DOD’s plan is not a heavy lift for DISA, because the agency was already moving in that direction. He explained that DISA has been applying the strategy across its portfolios for some time and is now focused on scaling it across the entire enterprise.
“What we’re doing now is bringing them together in time and space aligned with the requirement presented by a combatant command,” Stanton said. “It’s not that we’re doing less, it’s [that] we’re organizing ourselves to deliver functionally relevant capabilities in support of an actual mission, and then we’ll look to scale that.”