Senate panel presses Pentagon to overhaul acquisition and expand U.S. manufacturing

The Senate Armed Services Committee convened Oct. 12 to examine barriers to defense innovation and ways the Department of Defense can speed the transition of commercial technologies into military use.

Chairman Wicker opened the hearing by saying, “We must change the way the Pentagon does business,” and framed the discussion around his FORGE proposals and a white paper urging budgeting and acquisition reforms to reduce regulatory burdens and accelerate procurement.

The hearing brought three witnesses: Shyam Sankar, chief technology officer at Palantir; Nate Diller, chief executive officer of Divergent Technologies; and James Gertz, a former acquisition executive who led procurement efforts for U.S. Special Operations Command and the Navy. Each described overlapping problems and potential fixes for what they called a risk‑averse, slow acquisition system that often cannot absorb commercial innovation quickly enough.

Shyam Sankar said, “defense innovation and procurement are broken at precisely the moment we need them to deter and defeat our adversaries,” and urged removing barriers that prevent commercial firms from competing. He and other witnesses pointed to the growth of…