For years, the answer was simple: only if you have five years and a high tolerance for pain.
The defense sector wasn’t just hard to enter. It was designed to keep you out. The Federal Acquisition Regulation ran thousands of pages. Contracts moved at geological speed. Traditional primes held the keys, and they weren’t sharing.
Something shifted in 2025.
Three separate policy changes converged at once. Pentagon acquisition reform. SBIR restructuring. The 2026 National Defense Strategy explicitly prioritizing the defense industrial base. Each one pointed the same direction.
The window for commercial-first companies is opening.
Here’s how I think about the decision now.
The Pentagon Changed Its Priorities
In March 2025, Secretary Hegseth made a call that rewrote the playbook. Commercial first contracting became the default for software-enabled technology.
This wasn’t a memo. It was a mandate.
Officials now favor Other Transaction Authorities and Commercial Solutions Openings over the Federal Acquisition Regulation. The lengthy, rigid process that kept commercial companies out? It’s no longer the first option.
The shift runs deeper than process. Speed to capability delivery now ranks above cost control. The Pentagon will accept trade-offs in cost and performance to accelerate fielding timelines.
This matters if you can deliver fast.
At DDM Systems, we’ve built our entire model around speed. Our Digital Foundry delivers precision metal castings 10x faster than traditional methods. We eliminate seven of twelve casting steps. We go from CAD file to ready-to-pour ceramic shell in days, not months.
The defense sector used to penalize that speed. Now it rewards it.
SBIR Got a Complete Overhaul
Congress passed the Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act in March 2026. The Senate approved it by voice vote on March 3. The House passed it 345 to 41 on March 17.
The five-year reauthorization created Strategic Breakthrough Awards. These offer up to $30 million per company over 48 months.
The structure changed everything. You need 100 percent matching capital from non-federal sources. The program targets technologies with demonstrated national impact potential.
This isn’t grant money for research projects. It’s deployment capital for proven technologies.
The approximately $6 billion measure sits on President Trump’s desk waiting for signature. When it goes through, companies with working technology and private backing can access serious funding without the traditional defense contractor pedigree.
You don’t need five years of defense work to qualify. You need a technology that works and investors who believe in it.
The 2026 National Defense Strategy Made It Official
The 2026 NDS lists four priorities in order:
1. Defending the U.S. homeland
2. Deterring China through strength
3. Increasing burden sharing with allies
4. Supercharging America’s defense industrial base
That fourth priority isn’t window dressing. The strategy commits to rebuild the nation’s defense industry. Return it to being the world’s premier arsenal. One that produces at scale, rapidly, and at the highest quality levels.
The plan calls for reinvesting in U.S. defense production, empowering innovators, adopting advances like AI, and clearing away outdated policies and regulations.
This isn’t aspirational. The Trump Administration made it a top fiscal priority. Spending for procurement, RDT&E, and DIB expansion is up more than a third.
Research and development costs have climbed steadily from 7.78 percent of the defense budget in 1970 to an expected 18.63 percent in 2026. Congress expanded DoD’s ability to use multiyear procurement contracts, including in 2025. This provides more stable demand signals to defense industrial base contractors.
The money is real. The commitment is documented. The door is open.
What This Means for Manufacturing Companies
I run a manufacturing company. We make precision metal castings using ceramic 3D printing technology. Our customers include aerospace, defense, space exploration, power generation, and energy sectors.
We have $8M+ in past and current contracts. A near-term pipeline around $50M. Active discussions for Digital Foundry installations at Tinker and Robins Air Force Bases. A strategic partnership with Eaton in the UK. Classified work with the Defense Industrial Base Consortium.
None of this would have been possible five years ago.
The traditional path required becoming a defense contractor first, then building commercial applications. That path took decades and required patient capital most companies don’t have.
The new path works differently. You build commercial technology that solves real problems. You prove it works in commercial markets. You demonstrate speed, cost savings, and performance improvements with data.
Then you show defense buyers how that same technology solves their problems faster and cheaper than current solutions.
President Trump’s Executive Order 14265 made this explicit. It establishes U.S. policy to accelerate defense procurement and revitalize the defense industrial base. The order requires first preference for commercial solutions and Other Transactions Authority.
The new Economic Defense Unit will deploy capital through grants, loans, options, and purchase commitments. They’re structuring deals that unlock private capital through advance market commitments, risk-sharing mechanisms, and commercial-like incentive structures.
This directly benefits advanced manufacturing companies with proven technologies.
The Real Barriers That Remain
The window is opening. That doesn’t mean it’s easy.
You still need ITAR registration. CAGE codes. DUNS numbers. Understanding of NAICS codes. Compliance infrastructure. Legal review capacity. Security protocols.
The paperwork is real. The compliance requirements are serious. The learning curve is steep.
You need to understand how defense buyers think. They don’t buy features. They buy mission capability. They don’t care about your technology. They care about the problem it solves and the risk it eliminates.
You need patience for long sales cycles. Defense procurement moves faster than before, but it’s still measured in quarters, not weeks.
You need financial runway. Even with faster processes, you’ll wait months between contract award and payment. You need working capital to bridge that gap.
You need technical credibility. Defense buyers want third-party validation. ASTM standards. Independent testing. Documented performance data. We have 26+ patents across six countries. Our castings meet ASTM standards. We’ve delivered parts for the RS-25 rocket engine, B-2 Spirit, A-10 Thunderbolt II, and hypersonic missile systems.
That credibility took years to build. You can’t shortcut it.
How I’m Making the Decision
I look at three factors.
First: Does your technology solve a defense problem that commercial markets also care about?
The best defense technologies have dual-use applications. Investment casting serves aerospace, defense, space exploration, power generation, energy, oil and gas, fluid handling, automotive, medical, and industrial sectors.
We’re not building defense-specific technology and hoping for commercial spinoffs. We’re building commercial technology that defense needs.
Second: Can you demonstrate measurable performance improvements?
Defense buyers need data. We deliver 10x faster timelines. 50% lower costs. 90% reduction in scrap. Up to 90% reduction in energy consumption. Zero tooling investment required.
Those numbers come from actual programs. Fighter aircraft components delivered in 39 days versus 100+ days traditional. A-10 control input arms from part model to casting in 10 days. Industrial gas turbine blades with cast-in film cooling holes.
The data proves the capability.
Third: Do you have the staying power?
Defense work requires patience and financial stability. You need runway to survive long sales cycles. You need infrastructure to handle compliance requirements. You need technical depth to deliver on complex programs.
If you’re burning cash and need revenue in 90 days, defense isn’t your path. If you have product-market fit, paying customers, and 18-24 months of runway, the timing might be right.
The Window Won’t Stay Open Forever
Policy changes create temporary opportunities. The current alignment between Pentagon priorities, SBIR restructuring, and National Defense Strategy focus won’t last indefinitely.
Administrations change. Budgets shift. Priorities evolve.
The companies that move now, while the window is open, will establish relationships and track records that persist through future policy changes.
Five years from now, when the next wave of companies asks whether they should pursue defense contracts, the answer will depend partly on what companies like yours do today.
If commercial-first companies prove they can deliver faster, cheaper, and better than traditional defense contractors, the window stays open. If they overpromise and underdeliver, it closes again.
The honest answer used to be: only if you have five years and a high tolerance for pain.
The honest answer now: if you have proven technology, measurable results, and financial stability, the path is clearer than it’s been in decades.
The question isn’t whether the opportunity exists. It does.
The question is whether you’re ready to pursue it.