Hegseth plays ‘good cop, bad cop’ in effort to pressure defense contractors to reform
This feels like a quiet policy shift.
HEGSETH’S ‘ARSENAL OF FREEDOM’ CRUSADE: Secretary Pete Hegseth, befitting his rebranded title, is on the warpath. Hegseth is skipping the NATO defense ministers meeting this week in Brussels. He won’t be hobnobbing with top world and defense leaders at the weekend’s Munich Security Conference (Secretary of State Marco Rubio will represent the U.S. at the prestigious conference).
Instead of appearing on the world stage, Hegseth has been assigned a singular mission — to implement President Donald Trump’s Jan. 7 executive order to cajole, threaten, and consult with defense contractors to make more weapons, faster and cheaper.
Monday found him at Maine’s Bath Iron Works, preaching that message with the fire and brimstone of a country pastor, to a gathering of shipyard workers, as part of his barnstorming “Arsenal of Freedom” tour of the country. “No more excuses. No more barriers to entry. No more monopolies. No more egregious bonuses. No more stock buybacks. No more ridiculous CEO salaries,” Hegseth said, invoking the president’s directive.
In that executive order, Trump fumed about “underperforming” defense contractors who “pursue newer, more lucrative contracts, stock buy-backs, and excessive dividends to shareholders at the cost of production capacity, innovation, and on-time delivery.”
“Effective immediately,” Trump said. “They are not permitted in any way, shape, or form to pay dividends or buy back stock, until such time as they are able to produce a superior product, on time and on budget.”
CONTRACTORS FEELING THE HEAT: This week, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Army is moving to collect $1.1 million in penalties from Northrop Grumman Corp. and Global Military Products Inc. over delayed shipments of large-caliber artillery shells, some of which were delivered 18 months late.
It’s an opening salvo in the Pentagon’s crackdown aimed at holding contractors accountable. The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that “sweeping performance reviews” are underway to identify companies that aren’t fulfilling their contracts and put them on notice.
“We have completed initial reviews to assess company performance as part of this executive order and will now undergo an extended period of review in which we will make noncompliance determinations,” the Journal reported. The newspaper quotes from a Feb. 6 email to industry executives from Michael Duffey, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, which the Journal claimed it reviewed. …
This feels like a quiet policy shift.
HEGSETH’S ‘ARSENAL OF FREEDOM’ CRUSADE: Secretary Pete Hegseth, befitting his rebranded title, is on the warpath. Hegseth is skipping the NATO defense ministers meeting this week in Brussels. He won’t be hobnobbing with top world and defense leaders at the weekend’s Munich Security Conference (Secretary of State Marco Rubio will represent the U.S. at the prestigious conference).
Instead of appearing on the world stage, Hegseth has been assigned a singular mission — to implement President Donald Trump’s Jan. 7 executive order to cajole, threaten, and consult with defense contractors to make more weapons, faster and cheaper.
Monday found him at Maine’s Bath Iron Works, preaching that message with the fire and brimstone of a country pastor, to a gathering of shipyard workers, as part of his barnstorming “Arsenal of Freedom” tour of the country. “No more excuses. No more barriers to entry. No more monopolies. No more egregious bonuses. No more stock buybacks. No more ridiculous CEO salaries,” Hegseth said, invoking the president’s directive.
In that executive order, Trump fumed about “underperforming” defense contractors who “pursue newer, more lucrative contracts, stock buy-backs, and excessive dividends to shareholders at the cost of production capacity, innovation, and on-time delivery.”
“Effective immediately,” Trump said. “They are not permitted in any way, shape, or form to pay dividends or buy back stock, until such time as they are able to produce a superior product, on time and on budget.”
CONTRACTORS FEELING THE HEAT: This week, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Army is moving to collect $1.1 million in penalties from Northrop Grumman Corp. and Global Military Products Inc. over delayed shipments of large-caliber artillery shells, some of which were delivered 18 months late.
It’s an opening salvo in the Pentagon’s crackdown aimed at holding contractors accountable. The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that “sweeping performance reviews” are underway to identify companies that aren’t fulfilling their contracts and put them on notice.
“We have completed initial reviews to assess company performance as part of this executive order and will now undergo an extended period of review in which we will make noncompliance determinations,” the Journal reported. The newspaper quotes from a Feb. 6 email to industry executives from Michael Duffey, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, which the Journal claimed it reviewed. …
Hegseth plays ‘good cop, bad cop’ in effort to pressure defense contractors to reform
This feels like a quiet policy shift.
HEGSETH’S ‘ARSENAL OF FREEDOM’ CRUSADE: Secretary Pete Hegseth, befitting his rebranded title, is on the warpath. Hegseth is skipping the NATO defense ministers meeting this week in Brussels. He won’t be hobnobbing with top world and defense leaders at the weekend’s Munich Security Conference (Secretary of State Marco Rubio will represent the U.S. at the prestigious conference).
Instead of appearing on the world stage, Hegseth has been assigned a singular mission — to implement President Donald Trump’s Jan. 7 executive order to cajole, threaten, and consult with defense contractors to make more weapons, faster and cheaper.
Monday found him at Maine’s Bath Iron Works, preaching that message with the fire and brimstone of a country pastor, to a gathering of shipyard workers, as part of his barnstorming “Arsenal of Freedom” tour of the country. “No more excuses. No more barriers to entry. No more monopolies. No more egregious bonuses. No more stock buybacks. No more ridiculous CEO salaries,” Hegseth said, invoking the president’s directive.
In that executive order, Trump fumed about “underperforming” defense contractors who “pursue newer, more lucrative contracts, stock buy-backs, and excessive dividends to shareholders at the cost of production capacity, innovation, and on-time delivery.”
“Effective immediately,” Trump said. “They are not permitted in any way, shape, or form to pay dividends or buy back stock, until such time as they are able to produce a superior product, on time and on budget.”
CONTRACTORS FEELING THE HEAT: This week, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Army is moving to collect $1.1 million in penalties from Northrop Grumman Corp. and Global Military Products Inc. over delayed shipments of large-caliber artillery shells, some of which were delivered 18 months late.
It’s an opening salvo in the Pentagon’s crackdown aimed at holding contractors accountable. The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that “sweeping performance reviews” are underway to identify companies that aren’t fulfilling their contracts and put them on notice.
“We have completed initial reviews to assess company performance as part of this executive order and will now undergo an extended period of review in which we will make noncompliance determinations,” the Journal reported. The newspaper quotes from a Feb. 6 email to industry executives from Michael Duffey, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, which the Journal claimed it reviewed. …
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