Hegseth aims to cut through the bureaucracy with ‘Deal Team Six’
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stands outside the Pentagon during a welcome ceremony for the Japanese defense minister on Jan. 15, 2026. (Kevin Wolf/AP)
The Department of Defense launched a team of elite private sector businessmen tasked with handling and approving defense contractor negotiations, aimed at fixing the former “broken Pentagon bureaucracy.”
Dubbed “Deal Team Six,” the crew is tasked with creating better deals with defense companies to ensure their production of U.S. military equipment is not at the expense of the taxpayer, but that of the contractor, according to a Thursday social media video posted by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth claims in the video that for decades, the department allowed contractors to “double-dip” when service members needed weapons, aircraft or ships, charging the taxpayer for factory builds and again for the final product.
“Despite paying companies to make weapons faster, scheduled delays were constant and cost overruns were the norm, all while their CEOs got rich,” Hegseth says in the video.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2026/05/08/hegseth-aims-to-cut-through-the-bureaucracy-with-deal-team-six/
