As Secretary Pete Hegseth pushes to speed up the development and fielding of new weapons and systems, he should look to a powerful, yet underused tool: modular open systems approach.

The law already requires MOSA to be used in major warfighting programs “ to the maximum extent practicable ” and Secretary Hegseth’s own Systems Engineering and Architecture office has been pushing the approach since February. It is direction that, if enforced, could do more to speed acquisitions and cut costs than any process reform under consideration.

So why hasn't it worked? Because warfighting acquisition, in practice, continues to prioritize closed, proprietary architectures. Program offices lack the expertise and incentives to enforce open standards. Industry resists sharing interface specificat

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