Secretary of War Pete Hegseth acknowledged on Monday the department’s culpability in the shortcomings of the defense industrial base it is trying to revitalize.
Hegseth has traveled to different defense industrial company manufacturing facilities in recent weeks to highlight the importance of the changes the department is implementing. He spoke at General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works in Maine on Monday.
“A lot of the hang-up has been us, so we’ve gotta look at ourselves first, the way we do business,” he acknowledged after the event. “We’ve been impossible to deal with, a bad customer, who year after year changes our mind about what we want or what we don’t want — and then we make little small technological changes, which makes it more difficult for them to produce what they need to produce on time.”
Hegseth added: “There’s mazes of requirements that this department has traditionally put on different systems and platforms that are impossible to navigate, and by the time you navigate them, you’re, you know, five years behind the actual technology.
“We have to fix our own house first — provide clarity, simplify the system, allow more people to access it.”
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January giving Hegseth until Feb. 6 to review contractor performance and identify any companies that are failing to meet expectations, whether it’s “underperforming” on relevant contracts, failing to invest in production capacity, or “not sufficiently prioritizing United States government contracts.”
The Pentagon completed its initial assessment of defense contractors, a spokesman announced on Monday, saying it will be moving to an extended review before outing underperformers.
Specifically, this initial review “assessed whether defense contractors were investing in their own production capacity or engaging in stock buybacks and dividend payments,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on Monday. “Defense contractors have been notified and made aware that today marks the start of an extended review period in which we will make noncompliance determinations.”
Since the executive order, Parnell said, “Many companies have taken steps to comply, and there will be a continuous evaluation of their activity,” and he noted that, “If progress doesn’t continue to be made, we will take enforcement actions. The Department of War will partner with those who perform – and hold accountable those who do not.”
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Also, last month, Trump specifically called out Raytheon, which now goes by RTX, though it’s unclear what exactly prompted the direct criticism from the president. He also called for the executives of underperforming defense contractors to have a cap on their salaries.
