Pentagon Moves to Replace JCIDS with a Leaner, Problem-Driven Pipeline
On August 20, 2025, the Office of the Secretary of Defense issued a directive that retires the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System and replaces it with a faster, more focused approach to identifying and funding solutions to the Joint Force’s toughest operational problems. Anchored in Executive Order 14265’s push to modernize defense acquisition, the memorandum—signed by Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg—orders the disestablishment of JCIDS within 120 days, reorients the Joint Requirements Oversight Council to rank “Key Operational Problems,” and ties requirements directly to resourcing decisions that move at the pace of need.
At the center of the reform is a new Requirements and Resourcing Alignment Board co-chaired by the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Deputy Secretary. Each budget cycle, the RRAB will select top-ranked problem sets and, by exception, may recommend changes—including starts, realignments, or terminations—to Component programs. Crucially, the Board will steer dollars from a newly created Joint Acceleration Reserve, a CAPE-maintained set-aside in Fiscal Guidance intended to bridge the “valley of death” by lining up real money behind validated solutions during the Program and Budget Review.
To turn problems into fielded capability, the memorandum directs the Under Secretaries for Research & Engineering and for Acquisition & Sustainment to stand up a Mission Engineering and Integration Activity. MEIA is charged with rapid industry engagement, mission engineering analysis to refine requirements, and structured, iterative experimentation campaigns. Its work will stitch together Service capabilities, industry prototypes, and new concepts while driving technical interoperability across the Joint Force. Findings and recommended solution elements flow back to the RRAB for potential JAR funding—without adding new layers of bureaucracy.
The Services are given 90 days to launch their own process reforms. The memo tells them to strengthen force design, issue clearer demand signals to industry, embrace experimentation and buy-before-build approaches, give acquisition professionals more flexibility to make performance trades for speed or cost, and remove low-value reviews and certifications. Within 180 days, the Services must deliver initial findings and, 90 days thereafter, detailed implementation plans. Throughout, they must share approved requirements, program data, and design activities with the Joint Staff, OUSD(A&S), and CAPE to support portfolio management and mission engineering.
While JCIDS winds down, interim guidance sharply narrows what the Joint Staff will validate. Only documents that legally qualify as “joint performance requirements” will be adjudicated—within 15 days—and only when the VCJCS issues a memorandum establishing the legal basis and necessity. The Joint Staff must also streamline urgent needs pathways (JUON/JEON) and revise portfolio reviews to align with the new problem-first, outcome-driven model. In parallel, USD(A&S) will scrub JCIDS references from the 5000-series directives and lead a rewrite of DoDD 7045.20 and a new DoDI 7045.20 to modernize Capability Portfolio Management.
The memo’s standard is blunt: every organization must prove it is accelerating delivery of integrated capabilities to solve the most pressing operational problems—or adapt and realign until it does. For industry, this is a call to engage earlier and more substantively, with experimentation campaigns offering tangible routes to integration and scale. For program and resource leaders, RRAB decisions will feed directly into the budget build, pairing prioritized problems with disciplined funding to shorten the path from concept to combat-credible capability.
This summary is based on the August 20, 2025 memorandum from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, signed by Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg, and issued on behalf of senior Pentagon leadership.
Disclaimer: This post is an informal summary provided for general information only and does not constitute legal, procurement, or compliance advice. Readers should review the source memorandum and consult qualified counsel or acquisition authorities for authoritative guidance.