General Atomics CEO complains to Musk about lag in drone technology VIDEO

In a recent letter, the CEO of General Atomics' Aeronautical Systems Division has urged the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to take action to accelerate the defence acquisition process and lower obstacles to foreign military sales. 

“Within GA-ASI’s own export market, poor US Government (USG) policy and sluggish bureaucratic decision-making has opened the door for competitors like China, Türkiye, and Israel to win important international customers,” Linden Blue wrote in the January 24 letter addressed to DOGE head Elon Musk and released by the company, Caliber.Az reports per foreign media. 

Mojave’yi Bayraktar TB3’ten önce yapacaklardı… ABD’li şirket SİHA alanındaki geri kalmayı Elon Musk’a şikayet etti!

General Atomics CEO’su Linden Blue, Elon Musk’a yazdığı mektupta ABD’nin savunma tedarik sistemindeki sorunlara dikkat çekti.

Blue, bürokratik yavaşlık nedeniyle… pic.twitter.com/g3As1avDee

— SavunmaSanayiST.com (@SavunmaSanayiST) January 27, 2025

“Sales lost to these competitors while we waited on some USG action means less funding available for re-investment into R&D and modernized manufacturing infrastructure. 

“Bold leadership is needed. Past reform efforts, often supervised by the very organizations most in need of reform, have failed. DOGE has the potential to drive meaningful change, and we are ready to help where we can,” he said. 

Blue’s letter follows just a week after L3Harris CEO Chris Kubasik sent a letter to Musk outlining his suggestions for reducing Pentagon bureaucracy, such as eliminating certain government accounting rules and easing regulations that require defense contractors to submit detailed pricing data. At the time, Kubasik’s letter— which also criticized the outgoing Biden administration— seemed like an outlier. However, with General Atomics now echoing similar concerns, it could indicate a growing trend of industry leaders pushing to present their perspectives to DOGE. 

The agency, which is not actually a department despite its name, was officially established on inauguration day when the White House issued an executive order creating the Department of Government Efficiency. The order renamed the existing US Digital Service to the US DOGE Service and tasked it with “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” with a focus on improvements to software, networks, and IT systems. 

As the Defense Department waits to see how DOGE might approach reforming existing processes or systems, defense contractors have begun reaching out to Musk with their own proposals for change. In his letter, Blue advocates for setting time limits on Defense Department milestones for major acquisition programs, specifically suggesting that the period between defining a program's requirements and achieving a product’s initial operational capability should be capped at five years. 

He also critiques a culture of “buck-passing” in the foreign military sales process, emphasizing the need for increased accountability across the State Department, Pentagon, and military services to ensure that administrations are meeting their security cooperation objectives. 

That can be accomplished by instating “clear lines of authority and responsibility, time limits for decision-making, and a modern IT system to track the distribution and expenditure of billions of dollars (entirely funded by foreign customers) in the US FMS administrative fund account,” he said.

Lastly, Blue suggests revising the US government's current interpretation of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), an international agreement regulating the export of missiles and uncrewed aerial systems (UAS). He argues that the U.S. should concentrate on missile technology related to weapons of mass destruction rather than focusing on UAS. 

🇹🇷Hamaset değil; gerçeğin kendisi: Reaper ve Predator tedarik edemeyen Türkiye, şimdi dünya İHA pazarının 4’te 3’üne sahip…

🔴Türkiye, 2000’li yılların başında ABD’den birçok kez Predator ve Reaper İHA tedarik etmeyi talep etmiş ancak bu talepler bir türlü karşılanmamıştı.… https://t.co/4LeKWhot9f pic.twitter.com/iIsWOXg5vC

— SavunmaSanayiST.com (@SavunmaSanayiST) January 27, 2025

The MTCR has long been a point of concern for General Atomics, which believes that the US stance is overly restrictive. The company argues that this has led to stricter controls on drones compared to other military aircraft, including advanced, lethal systems like fighter jets. 

Before leaving office, the Biden administration issued guidance easing the interpretation of the MTCR, though this mainly applied to space-related technologies. 

“We should counter the unfair market advantages gained by foreign suppliers not subject to self-imposed MTCR limitations. Further, we must objectively balance the prioritization of technology security with that of arming allies and partners (using their own money!) for future conflicts and increased burden-sharing,” he wrote.

By Naila Huseynova