AURORA, Colo. (AFNS) -- Top acquisition leaders for the Department of the Air Force detailed how the acquisition process is being reshaped to meet the demands of modern warfare, during a panel at the Air and Space Forces Association’s 2026 Warfare Symposium, Feb. 25.
The roundtable discussion brought together key architects of this transformation: Gen. Dale White, director for Critical Major Weapon Systems and direct reporting portfolio manager to the Deputy Secretary of War; William Bailey, performing the duties of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics; Thomas Ainsworth, performing the duties of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration; and Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, senior advisor to the Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition.
The DAF’s new approach, laid out by Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink earlier in the symposium, is the department’s implementation of the Secretary of War's Warfighting Acquisition System. The system is designed to accelerate the delivery of capabilities to the warfighter by prioritizing speed, agility and mission outcomes.
“There's a lot of top-down support,” Bailey said. “The leadership is ready to knock us out of whatever rut we found ourselves in. A lot of support from the Secretary of War, deputy and leadership to walk the walk.”
The core objective of the new strategy is to shift from a process-oriented bureaucracy to one focused on mission outcomes. Central to this is empowering Portfolio Acquisition Executives, giving them the authority and accountability to make real-time decisions and deliver integrated capabilities.
“The idea is you get unit unity of command. You get unity of effort. You allow that contracting officer to have a voice in solving that operational problem,” White said. “That [financial management] person, that engineer, you change the cultural mindset of how we look at what we're doing, right? It's really key.”
This new strategy redefines success by shifting away from internal process metrics. Instead, measuring success by how quickly complete, operational capabilities are delivered to Airmen and Guardians.
“It’s all about delivery, right? Victory is not getting something on contract,” Ainsworth said. “Victory is getting something into the field, into the hand of the warfighter, and actually being able to use it.”
This change requires empowering leaders at all levels. White emphasized that while senior leaders will set the conditions for success, program leaders must step up to drive the change.
“We need PAEs to step up and find a way to work with industry, build that partnership, deliver the capabilities,” said White.
The panelists stressed that this transformation is not happening in isolation. They described it as a holistic reform of the “three-legged stool” that underpins capability delivery: requirements, acquisition, and resourcing. For the system to work, they emphasized that all three must be stable, aligned, and integrated from the start.
“I think it's different this time, because we're actually doing it right now,” Purdy said. “So as I mentioned earlier on the Space Force side, we are proliferating our systems, we are awarding to multiple contractors, we are stopping bad performance activities and taking actions on the contracts and the (program managers) on both sides, we are actually getting on contract faster.”
Purdy added, “We are finding more innovative ways to do that, and we are learning to copy and paste those good ideas and actually apply those in other areas, instead of just waiting for a PM to be individually brilliant and come up with it all themselves.”
As the discussion concluded, the panelists made it clear that this reform is not a bureaucratic exercise, but a warfighting necessity aimed to strengthen the nation's defense by building a more responsive and lethal force and fostering a more competitive and innovative Defense Industrial Base.
“Militaries don’t go to war, nations do,” White said. “And, if and when, the time comes, it’s not inevitable. I totally get that. But deterrence isn't cheap, and so we really need to have a true partnership that is focused primarily on the defense of this nation, and I understand that we'll also have to balance the business side of that as well, but we have to get our priorities straight.”
