New era of agility or just another process? Pentagon kills JCIDS

The Pentagon has quietly pulled the plug on one of its most entrenched bureaucratic systems. In a memo signed last week, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Deputy Secretary Dan Feinberg ordered the end of the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System, or JCIDS, a process that for more than twenty years dictated how military requirements were approved.

According to an opinion piece by Defense News, at first glance, this might sound like a mere paper shuffle. But in practice, it could reshape how the US military decides what systems to build, how quickly they get fielded, and how industry gets involved in the process.

The change was tucked inside an April executive order on modernising defence acquisitions, largely overlooked at the time amid a flurry of other reforms.

JCIDS was born in 2003 to create common standards across the Department of Defence. In reality, it became an insular loop that slowed everything down—adding more than 800 days to approval timelines while delivering little value. In an era where US forces are racing to keep pace with China and Russia, such delays are no longer sustainable.

The replacement approach puts agility front and center. Instead of trying to define every possible capability years in advance, the new system focuses on identifying the most pressing needs of the Joint Force and aligning resources to meet them. 

To help with that, the Pentagon plans to create a Joint Acceleration Reserve, a pool of flexible funding meant to address urgent requirements outside the rigid budget cycle. Congress may question whether this amounts to a slush fund, but the Pentagon sees it as essential breathing room.

Another striking change is how industry is treated. Under JCIDS, industry barely registered in the 100-plus pages of guidance. In contrast, the new framework mentions industry repeatedly and even creates a Mission Engineering and Integration Activity to engage companies more directly.

The message is clear: the Pentagon wants commercial innovation injected into the requirements process early, not as an afterthought.

Of course, no major defence reform can survive without a process to guide it. To prevent this new approach from becoming just another well-meaning memo, the Pentagon is establishing the Requirements and Resourcing Alignment Board, a forum that not only develops requirements but also holds some budget authority. In a department where money equals power, that detail could make all the difference.

The death of JCIDS doesn’t guarantee a more agile system—bureaucracies have a way of reinventing themselves under new names, the op ed says. But it does mark a serious attempt to break from two decades of slow, rigid decision-making.

If the Pentagon can manage to integrate this approach without smothering it in red tape, the result could be a faster, more responsive process for getting capabilities to the battlefield. For now, it’s one of the most significant signals yet that the Defence Department is willing to disrupt its own machinery in order to keep ahead of its rivals.

By Sabina Mammadli