Pentagon Creates 'Deal Team Six' to Oversee Defense Contractor Negotiations

The Department of Defense has launched a team of elite private sector businessmen tasked with handling and approving defense contractor negotiations. Dubbed “Deal Team Six,” the unit is folded inside the Pentagon’s Economic Defense Unit and stood up in early April 2026.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth introduced the unit in a November 2025 memorandum that referred to it as a way to modernize contracting and provide incentives and possible penalties to industry partners.

In a social media video posted on Thursday, Hegseth described the team’s goals and criticized past practices that he said burdened taxpayers. In the video, Pete Hegseth said 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 said in the video.

C. in November 2025. In that speech, he announced that the department would grant larger and longer contracts to companies for systems that have shown their merit.

In exchange for companies footing the bill for expansion efforts, new factories, assembly lines and factory plants, the department will provide “steady, long-term orders,” according to the video. This arrangement is intended to enable defense companies to produce equipment in higher volumes and at faster speeds while maintaining flat prices.

Hegseth warned that the department will simply find other companies if partners do not comply.

“We’re not tolerating delays in production or cost overruns anymore,” Hegseth said in the video. ” George Kollitides was named director of Deal Team Six. He is the former head of defense at Cerberus Capital Management.

The unit was included in fiscal year 2026’s National Defense Authorization Act and appropriated more than $266 million for research, development, test and evaluation. 5 trillion defense budget allots the unit over $593 million for research, development, test and evaluation. ” The new system is meant to speed up project timelines and increase production.