General Atomics CEO Urges DOGE to Reform Pentagon Acquisition to Keep U.S. Defense Edge
San Diego, January 27, 2025 – In a call for bold changes to modernize U.S. defense acquisition processes, Linden Blue, CEO of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), submitted a detailed letter to the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk. The letter outlines critical inefficiencies in the current system that delay the delivery of vital technologies to U.S. forces and allies, risking the nation’s competitive edge in global security.
In the letter dated January 24, Blue emphasized the urgency of addressing delays, bureaucratic bottlenecks, and outdated regulatory frameworks that hinder U.S. defense exports. He pointed to competitors like China, Turkey, and Israel capitalizing on these gaps, which he argued result in lost sales, reduced funding for research and development, and weakened industrial infrastructure.
“Bold leadership is needed,” Blue wrote. “Past reform efforts, often supervised by the very organizations most in need of reform, have failed. DOGE has the potential to drive meaningful change, and we are ready to help where we can.”
Key Proposals for Reform
Blue’s recommendations included:
- Expedited Acquisitions: Enforce time limits on Department of Defense (DoD) milestones, ensuring programs progress from “requirements definition” to initial operational capability (IOC) within five years.
- Improved Accountability in Foreign Military Sales (FMS): Streamline decision-making processes by clarifying lines of authority across agencies and implementing modern IT systems to track funds and approvals.
- Revised Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) Policies: Shift the focus of MTCR compliance to missile technology tied to weapons of mass destruction, reducing restrictions on unmanned aerial systems (UAS) exports that hamper U.S. competitiveness.
GA-ASI's Global Role
As the leading developer of unmanned aerial systems, including the Predator and Reaper drones, GA-ASI has been at the forefront of technological innovation for more than three decades. With over eight million flight hours logged, the company’s drones have become indispensable to U.S. and allied military operations. However, Blue argued that current U.S. policies undermine the ability to support allies with advanced capabilities, particularly when competitors face fewer restrictions.
Musk’s DOGE: A Path to Efficiency
DOGE, created through a presidential executive order, is tasked with modernizing federal technology and optimizing governmental processes. Under Musk’s leadership, the agency has pledged rapid progress in transforming outdated systems. The letter from General Atomics comes on the heels of similar calls for reform from other defense industry leaders, signaling growing momentum for a comprehensive overhaul of Pentagon contracting practices.
“We should counter the unfair market advantages gained by foreign suppliers not subject to self-imposed MTCR limitations,” Blue asserted. “Further, we must objectively balance the prioritization of technology security with that of arming allies and partners for future conflicts.”
Industry Eyes on DOGE
As DOGE embarks on its mission to enhance governmental efficiency, stakeholders across the defense sector are keenly watching for signs of progress. General Atomics’ recommendations highlight the high stakes of acquisition reform, with implications for national security, allied partnerships, and the future of the U.S. defense industry.
Sidebar: General Atomics and the Blue Brothers – Pioneers of UAV Technology
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) has been a transformative force in military aviation, leading the development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that have revolutionized modern warfare. Under the leadership of Linden and Neal Blue, the company became a cornerstone of U.S. defense strategy, delivering advanced technologies that enable persistent surveillance and precision strikes.
The Blue Brothers’ Vision
Linden and Neal Blue, Yale-educated entrepreneurs with a background in aerospace and energy, acquired General Atomics in 1986. At the time, the company was a modest research outfit focused on energy technologies. Under their guidance, it expanded into cutting-edge aerospace innovation, including the development of UAVs.
Recognizing the potential of unmanned systems for intelligence gathering and combat operations, the Blue brothers pushed for technological advancements that would shape modern warfare. Their efforts laid the groundwork for the Predator and Reaper drones, which became indispensable tools for the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Accelerating UAV Development
General Atomics’ breakthrough came in the 1990s with the development of the MQ-1 Predator, a long-endurance UAV equipped with advanced surveillance systems. Initially deployed for reconnaissance, the Predator quickly evolved into an armed platform, integrating Hellfire missiles to perform precision strikes.
The Predator’s success led to the creation of the MQ-9 Reaper, a more powerful and versatile UAV designed for both intelligence gathering and combat missions. With its extended range and payload capacity, the Reaper became a cornerstone of counterterrorism operations, particularly in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other theaters.
Supporting the DoD and CIA
General Atomics has been a key partner in enabling the DoD and CIA to execute high-stakes missions with unprecedented precision and situational awareness. Its UAVs provide critical capabilities for targeting insurgent leaders, tracking enemy movements, and supporting ground troops.
Innovation Beyond UAVs
The Blue brothers’ influence extends beyond UAVs. General Atomics has pioneered advancements in sensors, radar systems, and data link technologies, cementing its reputation as a leader in aerospace innovation. Their work has ensured that U.S. forces maintain a technological edge over adversaries in increasingly complex operational environments.
A Legacy of Disruption
Under the leadership of Linden and Neal Blue, General Atomics transformed from a niche energy research firm into a global leader in unmanned systems. Their unwavering commitment to innovation and their ability to navigate bureaucratic hurdles have been instrumental in redefining the future of warfare and solidifying America’s dominance in aerial technology.
Sidebar: Elon Musk and SpaceX – Redefining Aerospace Through Efficiency
Elon Musk, the visionary entrepreneur behind SpaceX, has disrupted the aerospace industry by prioritizing efficiency, cost reduction, and rapid innovation. Since its founding in 2002, SpaceX has revolutionized space travel and satellite deployment, setting new standards for speed, affordability, and reliability in an industry traditionally dominated by government agencies and legacy contractors.
Efficiency at the Core
SpaceX’s success is built on streamlining operations, eliminating waste, and embracing vertical integration. By manufacturing the majority of its components in-house, SpaceX reduces dependency on external suppliers, cuts costs, and maintains strict quality control. This approach allows the company to iterate rapidly and deliver groundbreaking technologies at unprecedented speeds.
Reusable Rockets
One of SpaceX’s most transformative innovations is the development of reusable rocket technology. The Falcon 9, with its first-stage booster capable of landing and being reused multiple times, dramatically lowers the cost of space launches. This breakthrough made space more accessible, enabling missions that were once financially prohibitive.
The Starship, SpaceX’s fully reusable spacecraft, aims to take efficiency to new heights by supporting missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond with minimal refurbishment costs between launches.
Streamlined Design and Operations
SpaceX’s lean design philosophy emphasizes simplicity and reliability. Musk has famously promoted a culture of questioning established norms, encouraging engineers to remove unnecessary parts and processes. This mindset allows SpaceX to develop cutting-edge systems faster and more affordably than its competitors.
Additionally, the company has integrated design, testing, and production facilities into a single location, minimizing delays and enabling a rapid pace of development.
Rapid Iteration and Innovation
Unlike traditional aerospace firms, SpaceX embraces failure as a learning opportunity. The company’s iterative approach—building, testing, and refining prototypes in rapid succession—has accelerated the development of complex systems like the Starship and its Raptor engines.
A New Era of Space Exploration
Musk’s vision extends beyond Earth. By drastically reducing launch costs and increasing mission frequency, SpaceX has unlocked new possibilities for commercial space ventures, satellite constellations, and interplanetary exploration. The Starlink program, for instance, aims to provide global internet coverage via a constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites, demonstrating how efficiency can drive both profitability and societal impact.
Lessons for Defense and Beyond
Musk’s emphasis on efficiency, innovation, and disruption has reshaped the aerospace industry and offers a compelling blueprint for other sectors, including defense. His leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) underscores his commitment to applying these principles to modernize government processes, much like he has transformed aerospace.
Reforming Defense Acquisitions To Promote Global Security | General Atomics
SAN DIEGO – 27 January 2025 – For more than 30 years, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) has invented, innovated and delivered disruptive new defense technologies in support of the United States and its allies, redefining the future of global security in the process. This position as the world leader in unmanned aerial systems gives us unique insights into the policy and regulatory challenges America faces when adopting revolutionary new capabilities and technologies.
We remain a vocal advocate for reform within the U.S. defense acquisition system and support recent calls for ideas and engagement on the topic. To further this dialogue, GA-ASI recently submitted a letter to the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) outlining several steps we believe to be instrumental in reformation efforts.
A copy of that letter is provided below, to generate additional public discussion on the current state of operations and the path forward.
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24 January 2025
Dear Mr. Musk,
This is an exciting time in Washington, DC and across the nation. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI), the leader in unmanned aerial systems, is eager to work with the DOGE on the important task of reforming defense acquisition to enhance its efficiency and contribution to national security. GA-ASI, an industry upstart and disruptor, led the world in the design and development of unmanned aerial vehicles, and touched off a revolution in military affairs. All of this was accomplished despite significant friction and resistance from the establishment. We continue to feel this resistance as we seek to break new ground with technologies that will ensure the U.S. and allied forces maintain a decisive operational edge in an increasingly dangerous world.
We propose to apply our decades of experience with defense acquisition to address the policies, procedures, and organizational oddities that hinder timely delivery of critical capabilities to warfighters. Within GA-ASI’s own export market, poor US Government (USG) policy and sluggish bureaucratic decision-making has opened the door for competitors like China, Turkey, and Israel to win important international customers. Sales lost to these competitors while we waited on some USG action means less funding available for re-investment into R&D and modernized manufacturing infrastructure.
Bold leadership is needed. Past reform efforts, often supervised by the very organizations most in need of reform, have failed. DOGE has the potential to drive meaningful change, and we are ready to help where we can.
As you search for efficiencies within the USG’s defense acquisition system, let me flag a few areas that deserve special attention. We can provide more detailed descriptions and recommendations upon request.
- Delays: Use available authorities to expedite acquisitions, prioritizing warfighter needs over obsession with process. Special rules and processes exist to speed acquisition. But they aren’t used frequently enough and are often modified over time to conform with standard, slower processes. The USG could accelerate larger system acquisitions simply by setting time limits on DoD milestones to ensure that the period between “requirements definition” and “initial operating capability” (IOC) does not exceed five years.
- Buck-passing: Establish accountability within the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) system, in which execution is fragmented across the Department of State, multiple DoD agencies, and the military services, with none of them able to direct the others. Nobody is ultimately accountable for achieving or failing to achieve the administration’s strategic objectives related to selling defense articles to allies. Accountability can be achieved through clear lines of authority and responsibility, time limits for decision-making, and a modern IT system to track the distribution and expenditure of billions of dollars (entirely funded by foreign customers) in the US FMS administrative fund account.
- Self-shackling: Reform the U.S. interpretation of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) to focus on missile technology tied to weapons of mass destruction rather than UAS. Today, the antiquated MTCR interpretation ties the USG’s hands even on straightforward export programs which enjoy bipartisan support. We should counter the unfair market advantages gained by foreign suppliers not subject to self-imposed MTCR limitations. Further, we must objectively balance the prioritization of technology security with that of arming allies and partners (using their own money!) for future conflicts and increased burden-sharing.
We look forward to collaborating with you in your important new role.
Sincerely,
Linden Blue
Chief Executive Officer
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.
About GA-ASI
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), an affiliate of General Atomics, is a leading designer and manufacturer of proven, reliable RPA systems, radars, and electro-optic and related mission systems, including the Predator® RPA series and the Lynx® Multi-mode Radar. With more than eight million flight hours, GA-ASI provides long-endurance, mission-capable aircraft with integrated sensor and data link systems required to deliver persistent situational awareness. The company also produces a variety of sensor control/image analysis software, offers pilot training and support services, and develops meta-material antennas.
For more information, visit www.ga-asi.com 
Avenger, Lynx, Predator, Reaper, SeaGuardian, and SkyGuardian are registered trademarks of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.
Predator drone maker urges Musk's DOGE to reform Pentagon contracting system
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, maker of the Predator drone, has urged Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to pursue a Pentagon contracting overhaul. As per the drone maker, the current system is too slow and bureaucratic to be effective against threats from China or Iran.
The letter:
- In a letter dated January 24, General Atomics CEO Linden Blue urged Musk of the Department of Government Efficiency to reform the Pentagon’s defense acquisition system.
- As per the CEO, a reform to the Pentagon’s defense acquisition system could enhance its efficiency and contribution to national security
- Blue highlighted several issues in his letter, such as delays, buck-passing, and self-shackling, which are prevalent in the current system, as noted in a Reuters report.
Reform proposals:
- The General Atomics CEO shared some proposals in his letter to Elon Musk.
- Among these are time limits on Pentagon milestones, which could pave the way for faster large system acquisitions.
- Blue called for increased accountability in the U.S. Foreign Military Sales system as well.
- He also called for a reform of the U.S. interpretation of the Missile Technology Control Regime so that it is more closely focused on weapons of mass destruction instead of drones.
Musk’s DOGE:
- Elon Musk’s DOGE has been very busy after it was formally formed by an executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump.
- As per Trump’s executive order, DOGE was created to modernize federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.
- Musk has pledged that DOGE would see meaningful progress every week.
General Atomics aeronautics CEO calls on DOGE to speed acquisition, cut FMS red tape
American flag displayed on a laptop screen and Elon Musk post about DOGE on X displayed on a phone screen are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on November 13, 2024. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) should take steps to speed up the defense acquisition process and reduce barriers to foreign military sales, the chief executive of General Atomics’ aeronautical systems division said in a new letter.
“Within GA-ASI’s own export market, poor US Government (USG) policy and sluggish bureaucratic decision-making has opened the door for competitors like China, Turkey, and Israel to win important international customers,” Linden Blue wrote in the Jan. 24 letter addressed to DOGE head Elon Musk and released by the company today. “Sales lost to these competitors while we waited on some USG action means less funding available for re-investment into R&D and modernized manufacturing infrastructure.
“Bold leadership is needed. Past reform efforts, often supervised by the very organizations most in need of reform, have failed. DOGE has the potential to drive meaningful change, and we are ready to help where we can,” he said.
Blue’s letter comes about a week after L3Harris CEO Chris Kubasik sent a letter to Musk laying out his ideas on how to reduce Pentagon bureaucracy, including by eliminating certain government accounting rules as well as reducing regulations that require defense contractors to submit detailed pricing data. At the time, Kubasik’s letter — which also directly criticized the outgoing Biden team — seemed an outlier. With General Atomics now following suit, it could signify a trend in which others in industry now race to get their own takes in front of DOGE.
RELATED: Such efficiency, very defense: Congress, industry waiting for Elon’s DOGE to wow
The agency (not a Department, despite the name) was formally established on inauguration day, with the White House issuing an executive order establishing the Department of Government Efficiency. The order renamed the existing US Digital Service as the US DOGE Service and tasked it with “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” specifically by improvements to software, networks and IT systems.
While the Defense Department waits to see how DOGE could seek to overhaul existing processes or systems, defense contractors have begun soliciting Musk with their own ideas for reform.
In his letter, Blue calls for setting time limits on Defense Department milestones for larger acquisition programs, specifically suggesting that the length of time between when a program’s requirements are first defined and a product’s initial operational capability be capped at five years.
He criticizes a culture of “buck-passing” in the foreign military sales process, stating that greater accountability is needed across the State Department, Pentagon and military services to ensure an administration is meeting its security cooperation goals.
That can be accomplished by instating “clear lines of authority and responsibility, time limits for decision-making, and a modern IT system to track the distribution and expenditure of billions of dollars (entirely funded by foreign customers) in the US FMS administrative fund account,” he said.
Finally, Blue recommends revamping the US government’s current interpretation of the Missile Technology Control Regime, an international agreement that governs the export of missiles and uncrewed aerial system, arguing that the US should focus its attention on “focus on missile technology tied to weapons of mass destruction rather than UAS.”
The MTCR has been a longstanding concern of General Atomics, which has held that the US’s current posture is too restrictive, and has resulted in stricter controls for drones than exist for other military aircraft, including advanced, lethal capabilities like fighter jets. (On the way out the door the Biden administration issued guidance loosening the interpretation of MTCR, but primarily for space-related technologies.)
“We should counter the unfair market advantages gained by foreign suppliers not subject to self-imposed MTCR limitations. Further, we must objectively balance the prioritization of technology security with that of arming allies and partners (using their own money!) for future conflicts and increased burden-sharing,” he wrote.
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