©2025 The MITRE Corporation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Approved for Public Release; Distribution Unlimited. Public Release Case Number 25-2042. 7-11-2025
BREAKING BARRIERS TO ACCELERATE
ACQUISITION WITH ALLIES AND PARTNERS
LeAnne Noelani Howard, DMgt
MITRE’s Breaking Barriers Acquisition Summit was a call to action to accelerate
acquisition reform. Congressional, defense, and industry leaders offered
near-term recommendations to better leverage the Department of Defense’s
(DoD’s) extensive rapid acquisition toolkit through efforts including software
pathways implementation plans, AI-rapid adoption, supply chain diversification,
and adaptive manufacturing. Each critical acquisition reform area that was
explored illuminated the need for collaboration with allies and partners in this
transformation—from sourcing, force structure, and posture implications to
interoperable capability design, and acquisition policy reform. Ultimately better
burden sharing, shifting, and integration with allies and partners strengthens
U.S. national security.
The ‘need for speed’ in acquisition reform will persist, along with better ways
to purchase iterative advances in capabilities. These points have been flagged
in hundreds of papers and events, with an exponential increase in the first five
months of the Trump Administration. The acquisition ecosystem is clear-eyed about
the challenge—processes, policies, and tools like International Traffic in Arms
Regulations (ITAR) often impede the ability to prepare for future conflicts—
and it is moving out from words of change to tangible actions.
MITRE offered initial considerations for Strengthening Allied Defense Cooperation
to include building a broader, stronger supply chain; enhancing DoD acquisition
workforce partnerships; institutionalizing international collaboration and ‘buying the
way we fight’; and reforming regulatory frameworks. These recommendations set
the table for deeper exploration of practical solutions with industry, U.S., and Allied
government representatives. This paper outlines tangible next steps in 12 areas
brought forward through the Breaking Barriers Summit.
ULTIMATELY BETTER
BURDEN SHARING,
SHIFTING, AND
INTEGRATION
WITH ALLIES
AND PARTNERS
STRENGTHENS U.S.
NATIONAL SECURITY.
JULY 2025
