AbstractThe Department of Defense acquisition process has gone through a decade of change intended to improve war fighting capabilities, to field products with a shorter cycle time, and to lower system life cycle costs. The intensity of change has increased during 1991 in response to the short comings of prior changes to correct acquisition problems and to deal with declining budgets, changing threats, and reduced manpower. The focus of this paper is on the major changes taken to re‐energize systems engineering. In addition, issues are highlighted that have resulted from several technical documents under revision at the same time without a formal integration or lead effort. This paper calls for someone in authority to take the lead to ensure that conflicting signals are not given to industry by the several different standards under revision. Harmonization is imperative if the rising expectations of defense and public leaders are to be realized in an environment of shrinking manpower and fiscal resource