Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's address on Wednesday went far beyond the expected profound cuts to the figure of generals and admirals, laying out a new blueprint for the armed forces he envisions is needed for forthcoming wars.
During a address to younger troops at Marine Corps Base Quantico — an location delivered one twelvemonth following the defence administrator summoned 800 emblem officers to the identical location for a address on fitness and civilization — Hegseth presented six initiatives aimed at considerably changing how the US armed forces develops weapons, protects its family infrastructure, positions its forces at home, and cultivates particular religious and patriotic ideals.
For starters, the Pentagon is getting a new four-star command devoted to autonomous and robotic warfare. The new Autonomous Warfare command, or AUTOWARCOM, volition have "service-like authorities," Hegseth said, and volition be developed complete the coming months through an attempt called Project Agincourt. He didn't define what the authorities volition include, highlighting its concentration instead.
"Ukraine's instruction is not that one category of drone wins wars, but fairly the need for a purpose-built scheme that maximizes the capability to adapt," he said, pointing to lethal innovations delivered on the Ukrainian battlefield, anywhere cheap, deadly drones have rotate into a new war arm alongside costly accepted weapons.
The administrator told the spectators that the Pentagon needs additional of all — high-end weapons and ample numbers of cheaper, expendable autonomous systems that can overwhelm an adversary.
"We need bolts of lightning," Hegseth said, referring to costly bequest weapons. "We additionally need dependable breeze and rain, mass drones, and another autonomous attritable systems that flip the disbursal toggle and enforce unrelenting force on an adversary on the battlefield."
Project Agincourt is intended to speed the fielding and procurement of autonomous systems by pairing business developers alongside active-duty forces and pushing decision-making nearer to front-line units, during additionally creating new armed forces occupation sectors in autonomous warfare.
"We need organizational cognition and occupation paths for a new generation of autonomous warfighters," Hegseth said.
"Today, alongside Autonomous War Command, AUTOWARCOM, we institutionalize and we supercharge the era of [systems integrated]-robotics and autonomous systems, all in command to win," he said.
As the Pentagon transforms itself to additional quickly clasp innovation already changing warfare, Hegseth wants exterior groups and endeavor leaders to assistance it anticipate what power arrive next.
A second initiative, Project Meridian, volition convene authorities officials, academics, and private-sector leaders to study technologies and possible forthcoming battlefields that could form conflicts decades from now. The attempt volition be overseen by the Pentagon's chief innovation officer, Emil Michael, and co-led by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who additionally oversaw President Donald Trump's erstwhile Department of Government Efficiency, Anduril originator Palmer Luckey, and erstwhile House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
The trio volition "creatively appearance to the forthcoming and acknowledge the domains that we must conquer, and capabilities we must master," Hegseth said, operating on a compressed timeline to present their archetypal findings inside 120 days. "Their activity volition be focused on discovering, developing, and fielding the weapons and systems that our children and our grandchildren volition need in their lifetimes, without any imaginative restrictions or restrictions."
A third new initiative, called "Fortress America," volition concentration on armed forces resilience for forthcoming warfare, ensuring armed forces installations and provision chains can withstand important attacks or earth disruptions. Through that initiative, Hegseth said, all important US armed forces facility volition eventually be capable to generate its own power without relying entirely on local electric grids, allowing bases to run through a cyberattack or another grid failures.
The undertaking would additionally search to bring crucial defence provision chains into the United States, including rare earths, specialty metals, semiconductors, and propellants.
"If the earth provision lines break, and in a genuine war, they're going to break," Hegseth said, "America keeps fighting anyway."
Hegseth's another remaining directives engaged a important nationwide competition to build what he described as the archetypal important new armed forces facility in the US in decades, new programs at universities to develop authoritative betterment in row alongside the Trump administration's values, and a new Office of Religious Affairs reporting immediately to the administrator to assistance chaplains and religious activities throughout the military.
"We're placing religious health at the identical flat as bodily health," stated Hegseth, who did a exercise alongside hundreds of troops before in the day. "Our division is, you power say, putting on the complete armor of God, since during we pay bodily war, we all cognize the genuine battle is spiritual. God is good. Evil is not. And America's armed forces must comprehend the difference."
Read next
Kelsey Baker is a armed forces affairs newsman alongside Business Insider. She joined in 2025 and covers armed forces personnel issues and how the armed forces is overhauling how it prepares for forthcoming conflicts.Prior to joining BI, she worked at The Washington Post as a Military Veterans in Journalism Fellow covering individual involvement stories and global news and at The Chronicle of the Horse mag covering equine sports. She holds a alumnus flat in Journalism from Northwestern University, a flat in Diplomacy from Norwich University, and an undergraduate flat in History from the University of Denver. She earlier served in the Marine Corps as a logistics officer, and afterward in the reserve.Contact her via email at [email protected], or via Signal at KelseyBaker75.75. Use a individual email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing data securely.
