The California congressional delegation should treat advances in high-tech warfare as both economic development and a national security opportunity.

First, expand and protect flexible contracting authorities so that companies with combat-proven systems can move from prototype and early operational use into sustained production without restarting the full traditional acquisition clock. Second, insist on metrics that reward cost-per-effect and iteration speed, not just unit cost or exquisite performance. Third, ensure that the growing autonomy and unmanned budget lines are structured to favor competition from non-traditional suppliers rather than defaulting to the usual primes. Fourth, use oversight to demand that lessons from Ukraine and similar conflicts are rapidly translated into requirements documents instead of being filtered through legacy assumptions.

This is not about abandoning all high-end platforms. It is about recognizing that the force needs both and cannot afford to shoot down $16,000 drones with $ 6 million missiles.

California’s companies are already building the affordable, software-centric half. The procurement system must be made capable of absorbing them at the volume the threat environment requires. Failure means California’s innovation advantage is partially wasted, jobs and capital migrate or underperform, and the Department of War continues to buy for the last war.

At the same time, the next one is already being fought with different tools. Acquisition reform language appears regularly in National Defense Authorization Acts, and appropriators have shown willingness to fund autonomy lines more explicitly. California members sit in key positions—Defense Appropriations subcommittee leadership and districts that contain both traditional bases and the new tech companies. That leverage is underused if it is applied only to protecting existing programs rather than forcing structural change that lets cheaper, high-tech systems scale.

The Ukrainians adapted because they had to, because the war was on their doorstep. We should adapt our processes before that happens.