Department of War Signs Framework Agreement With Lockheed Martin to Increase Production of AIM-260 JATM, Boost FMS Sales

Sept. 17, 2026 |

The Department of War, in cooperation with Lockheed Martin, today announced a new framework agreement to expand production capacity of critical next generation air-to-air missiles, the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM). This agreement is critical to ensuring long-term demand signals flow to key suppliers, allowing Lockheed Martin and the munitions supply chain to invest in manufacturing capacity, workforce, and production efficiencies.

"Speed, scale, and stability drive acquisition excellence, and these gears must turn in unison," said Michael P. Duffey, Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment. "Today's announcement reflects our commitment to sending clear, long-term demand signals across the defense industrial base, ensuring our Warfighters receive unmatched capability exactly when and where the mission demands."

This agreement represents the latest milestone in expanding the Arsenal of Freedom under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth's joint vision. It establishes a framework for future Multi-Year Procurement (MYP) of JATM, executing congressional authority to secure the nation's highest-priority missile systems.

Executed in direct support of the Department's Acquisition Transformation Strategy, the initiative reflects close collaboration among the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment, the Munitions Acceleration Council, the Economic Defense Unit, the Navy, and the Air Force.

Deputy Secretary of War Directs Actions to Foster One Strong Industrial Base

Sept. 15, 2026 |

Deputy Secretary of War Steve Feinberg today signed a memorandum, Fostering One Strong Industrial Base, directing the Department of War to remove the accounting, audit, and compliance barriers that have separated the companies serving the warfighter from the rest of the American economy. The memorandum and its implementation appendix set deadlines for the Department's senior leaders to open competition, confine government-unique cost accounting to the narrow set of work that requires it, and rely on the financial controls and audits companies already maintain.

For decades, the Department walled the most dynamic economy on earth off from the industrial base that serves the warfighter. The wall was built from cost accounting rules, duplicative audits, and compliance obligations that attach to entire companies rather than the work procured. It was built to control contractor costs; instead it limited who competes and raised prices. The memorandum moves the Department from government-unique Cost Accounting Standards to the accounting every American company already uses – Generally Accepted Accounting Principles – and pushes those benefits to every tier of the supply chain.

"Selling to the Department of War should be a line of business, not a corporate identity. Our nation's greatest strength is its private sector, and our defense industry must harness and mimic it – unleashing industry first, and protecting taxpayers by confining our most burdensome oversight tools to the narrow set of work that genuinely demands them," said Deputy Secretary of War Steve Feinberg. "Transparency and partnership runs both ways: the Department opens its buying to market forces, pays fair prices with honest margins, and in exchange industry shares, when asked, the cost and pricing information it already keeps."

The memorandum governs how the Department requests and uses contractor cost and pricing information and is the next step in the Warfighting Acquisition System reforms the Secretary of War directed on November 7, 2025. It implements Executive Order 14402, which makes fixed-price contracts the default and cost-reimbursement the exception, and carries forward the August 18, 2026 direction on supplier transparency so that contracting officers can see through the prime to its suppliers when needed – and connect those suppliers to Office of Strategic Capital loans, Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment funds, and the Department's business operators. Where there is a market – competition, comparable sales, reliable price history – the Department will rely on the market to set the price. Where no market exists, the Department will rely on cost, drawing on the cost and pricing information companies already keep, with no new accounting systems or special data formats required. Information industry provides is used only for authorized Government purposes and is never made available to another company for its own use.

Three objectives drive the change:

•     Compete continuously for speed and volume. Carry several performers to production, send real orders to those who deliver, and keep future opportunities open.

•     Attach rules to contracts, not companies. One award that carries an oversight regime must not force a company to remake itself. No company should be barred from this market, or trapped in it, by government-unique requirements.

•     Audit only what matters, only when risk exists, and never twice. Rely first on the independent audits companies already pay for; reserve government-unique oversight for high-risk work where the Department has no alternative.

Actions directed in the appendix include:

• a Department proposal to the Cost Accounting Standards Board to make exemption the default and confine coverage to cost-based development contracts awarded without adequate competition
• immediate use of the higher cost-accounting thresholds enacted in the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act;
• senior-level approval before any acquisition strategy brings a new business unit under full coverage;
• commercial product and service determinations within 15 business days;
• simplified, commercial-aligned business-system criteria with acceptance of independent public accounting firm certification in place of separate government review;
• risk-based audit rules;
• expanded use of other transactions and advance market commitments;
• and profit policy under which negotiated margins reflect value delivered, risk carried, and private capital invested – not merely cost incurred.

No new organization or compliance framework will be created, and implementing guidance may not add requirements beyond the memorandum and applicable law.

The memorandum and its implementation appendix are available here. Information for companies seeking to do business with the Department is available at business.defense.gov.

Department of War Launches Secure Space Network to Break Down Barriers to Classified Defense Work

Sept. 3, 2026 |

New capability will remove barriers to classified collaboration, strengthen the defense industrial base and accelerate delivery of critical capabilities

The Department of War today announced the Secure Space Network, a new effort to expand access to classified work by designing, producing, and deploying approximately 50 mobile Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIFs) and related information systems across the United States. This effort will enable more defense suppliers to participate in classified development, collaboration, and production by broadening regional access to accredited secure workspaces.

Led by the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment's Office of Industrial Base Growth, the Secure Space Network will provide rapidly deployable secure facilities that can be positioned at military installations, industry-focused sites such as APEX Accelerators, and other mission-relevant locations. 

"We must make it easier for capable companies to contribute at every level of the mission. Industry has identified access to classified environments as a major barrier, and the Secure Space Network directly addresses that challenge by opening the door to classified work for more companies. With strong partnership across the agency and support from Congress, this effort will strengthen our supplier base and help deliver the capabilities our warfighters need faster and at greater scale," said James R. Mismash, Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Growth and Director of the Office of Small Business Programs.

The Secure Space Network addresses a persistent barrier facing companies seeking to support national defense: access to the secure infrastructure necessary to perform classified work. By making accredited secure environments available for companies in more locations across the country, the Department can expand the pool of companies able to contribute capabilities, collaborate directly with government teams, and compete for classified defense work.

Expanding the Defense Industrial Base

Many companies with technologies relevant to national security do not have ready access to accredited facilities where classified information can be discussed, developed and integrated. For emerging and non-traditional suppliers seeking to work with the Department, establishing fixed classified infrastructure can require significant time and investment, creating a barrier to entry and business expansion.

The Secure Space Network provides a scalable alternative.

Mobile secure facilities can be rapidly deployed, while fixed facilities can provide enduring secure collaboration capacity. Together, these capabilities will drastically expand where government and authorized industry partners can conduct classified work.

The result is a larger and more capable supplier base with greater opportunities to move from unclassified engagement into classified development and production, increasing competition across the industrial base.

Building Secure Capacity at Speed and Scale

This initial production effort will establish a repeatable capability to expand secure infrastructure as national and industrial requirements grow.

The Secure Space Network will also establish scalable production capacity for the mobile units, providing the Department with a surge-capable pathway for rapidly increasing accredited secure workspace capacity across the defense industrial base.
Rather than relying solely on traditional facility construction, the approach gives the Department greater flexibility to position secure capabilities closer to emerging mission requirements, suppliers and technology development activities.

Advancing Acquisition Transformation

The Secure Space Network advances Acquisition Transformation by using an agile, iterative approach to reduce risk and accelerate delivery, in partnership with Space Development Agency. At the same time, expanding access to secure infrastructure enables more suppliers to participate in classified work—strengthening competition and growing defense industrial base to deliver capability to the warfighter faster.