Selling Software, AI and Digital Platforms into the Department of War’s New Acquisition Model
The Department of War’s (DoW) newly released Acquisition Transformation Strategy marks the most consequential shift in defense buying in decades and it is being designed explicitly to unlock commercial technology at speed. While headlines focus on weapons and platforms, the real transformation is in how DoW intends to acquire software, data, AI, cyber, autonomy, digital infrastructure and mission applications across the enterprise.
Webinar recording from February 25, 2026
The Portfolio Manager Is New and It Changes How Software Vendors Must Scale Inside DoW
This post is Part Two of a Marion Square blog series examining the Department of War’s shift to the Warfighting Acquisition System and what it means for commercial technology vendors.
The new acquisition strategy responds to this reality by introducing something DoW did not previously have in a formal, empowered way: portfolio level ownership of digital and software capabilities.
That is where the new Portfolio Manager role comes in.