Joint Warfighting Program

The Joint Warfighting Program (JWP) is a strategic initiative under the Office of the Secretary of Defense. It supports the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition's responsibilities in acquisition and portfolio management. The program conducts analyses, studies, limited scope experiments, and wargaming to identify joint capability gaps and develop credible requirements for future acquisition efforts. By providing independent perspectives on potential solutions, the JWP seeks to align acquisition investments with the needs of joint forces in response to emerging threats and future warfighting environments.

A key objective of the Joint Warfighting Program is to support mission engineering integration management. This involves facilitating analyses that inform acquisition decisions impacting national security. The program addresses high-priority emerging issues by conducting integrated analyses across key mission areas such as Cruise Missile Defense of the Homeland and Defense of Guam. Additionally, it standardizes training materials for acquisition professionals to enhance the implementation of mission engineering efforts within acquisition portfolio management.

In FY 2023, the JWP focused on several accomplishments including providing mission engineering support for portfolio reviews and integrating intelligence data with acquisition programs. The program conducted mature integrated acquisition portfolio reviews to offer an enterprise perspective on health, risks, and opportunities across various domains like NC3, Space, EW, Cyber, and JADC2. It also supported initiatives like Competitive Advantage Pathfinder (CAPs) to accelerate joint capabilities through experimentation and cross-service transition efforts.

Looking ahead to FY 2024 and FY 2025, the Joint Warfighting Program plans to continue its efforts in acquisition analysis through a portfolio management lens. This includes developing a digital engineering environment for mission threads and optimizing capability investments across the Department of Defense. The program will focus on streamlining acquisition intelligence policies and training to ensure threat-informed acquisitions. Despite a slight decrease in funding due to departmental realignment in FY 2025, the JWP remains committed to completing ongoing studies and initiating new ones critical for making informed acquisition decisions.