U.S. Resilient Defense: Delivering Warfighter Speed and Agility (General Catalyst)

Summary

• The strategic framework outlines 5 pillars to transform U.S. defense acquisition and maintain technological overmatch.p.7
• In November 2025, the Composite Readiness Index was proposed to replace administrative readiness metrics developed in the 1980s.p.8
• The proposed Pacing Challenge Strategic Capital Fund allows military services to retain 100% of savings from divested legacy systems for modernization.p.14
• The General Catalyst Institute works to bridge venture capital and government to amplify policy outcomes for over 900+ portfolio companies.p.26

Key insights

1. Traditional decade-long development cycles have become a strategic liability against adversaries operating on compressed timelines.p.5
2. Resilience through continuous adaptation and rapid delivery now holds decisive advantage over maintaining legacy platform mass.p.5
3. Software Readiness Detachments report directly to operational commanders to bypass centralized approval cycles and update software in days.p.9
4. Mandating adversarial testing across the development lifecycle ensures systems are proven against electronic warfare and cyber interference before deployment.p.10
5. The Pacing Challenge Strategic Capital Fund creates financial incentives by protecting divestment savings for service modernization priorities.p.11
6. Professionalizing capital literacy across the acquisition workforce helps government contracting align with commercial venture capital funding cycles.p.15
7. Formalizing a Venture-Capital-as-a-Prime model allows investment firms to oversee administrative and security compliance for portfolio startups.p.18
8. Sustained deterrence requires equal prioritization of domestic advanced manufacturing and industrial base capacity alongside capability development.p.20