Can the Pentagon’s New Innovation System Deliver? (opens in new tab)

Welcome to The Iron Triangle, the Cipher Brief column serving Procurement Officers tasked with buying the future, Investors funding the next generation of defense technology, and the Policy Wonks analyzing its impact on the global order.On January 12, 2026, Secretary Hegseth's office published a memo that ought to be hanging in every PEO's office: "No longer a loose federation. They are the Office of the Secretary of War's innovation operating system." The memo took six previously-warring fie...