🇺🇸 We are launching the Dynamic Tech Defense Reform Initiative to rebuild America’s defense industrial base and secure the future of our national security through innovation. Joined by dozens of voices from across the technology and defense ecosystem, we believe America has a once-in-a-generation chance to reform defense procurement and reset the trajectory of how we defend our nation. The Pentagon has spent trillions of dollars, yet our fleets are shrinking, our weapons are delivered late and over budget, and our troops do not have the tools they need to fight and win. In a conflict with an adversary, our key munitions would run out in a week. This happened because decades ago the Pentagon abandoned market principles and replaced them with central planning, five-year programs, and thousands of pages of regulations. That decision removed the profit motive, punished innovation, rewarded bureaucracy, and drove entrepreneurs and venture-backed companies away from the defense industrial base. We believe the only way forward is to restore market principles and open defense procurement to any American company that can deliver. The reforms we are championing in this initiative are clear and achievable: - Make commercial solutions the default for defense procurement - Empower leaders to buy what works for the mission, not what was planned years ago - Reform past performance rules to reward merit, not incumbency - Expand the definition of non-traditional contractors so startups can serve the warfighter - Align procurement workforce incentives with speed, efficiency, and accountability These changes would unlock innovation, expand the defense industrial base, and return America to a system that helped win World War II and seeded Cold War-era technological dominance. We are doing this because production is deterrence. Reform is survival. America must build a new defense system that rewards innovation, delivers speed, and secures peace through strength.(a16z)