Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled six major initiatives Wednesday aimed at reshaping how the U.S. military fights, recruits and prepares for future wars. The initiatives include a new four-star command dedicated to autonomous warfare, a new national officer-development program and a sweeping effort to strengthen military bases and supply chains against attack. Hegseth also announced plans for a new major military installation, a new Office of Religious Affairs and Project Meridian, a 120-day effort to identify technologies that could give the United States an advantage in future conflicts.
The project will be co-directed by Elon Musk, defense-tech entrepreneur Palmer Luckey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The changes come as the United States remains engaged in a seven-month war with Iran, where U.S. forces have faced sustained drone and missile attacks. The war has put a renewed focus on the vulnerabilities of American bases, the need for large stocks of precision munitions and the growing role of drones and autonomous systems.
"Cheap compute, superintelligence, and advanced commercial manufacturing have enabled the proliferation of low-cost, high-precision strike.” Hegseth said that America's military remained "the strongest" but that "need to get stronger and quickly.” The developments also come as the Pentagon draws down one of its longstanding Middle East missions. The Defense Department announced Wednesday that U.S. forces had formally completed their combat mission in Iraq. Hegseth separately confirmed plans to cut 20 percent of general and admiral billets, doubling the reduction target announced last year.
The speech marked the latest step in Hegseth’s effort to remake the military around what he calls “lethality,” “readiness” and the “warrior ethos”—but Wednesday’s announcements put a new emphasis on technology, infrastructure and preparing for the next generation of warfare. The most significant operational change is the planned creation of an Autonomous Warfare Command, which Hegseth said will become a four-star functional combatant command by October 2027. The command is intended to accelerate the military's use of autonomous and robotic systems, building on the Pentagon's “Drone Dominance” program and a new effort known as Project Agincourt.
The initiative reflects the rapid spread of drones and autonomous systems on modern battlefields, particularly in Ukraine and the Middle East. The Iran war has provided another test of the Pentagon's ability to defend against large numbers of drones and missiles while deploying its own increasingly sophisticated unmanned systems. What it could mean: Creating a dedicated four-star command would give autonomous warfare considerably more institutional weight and could speed development and deployment of new systems.
It also creates a new senior command structure even as Hegseth seeks to reduce the number of senior military positions. Hegseth announced America's Corps of Cadets, a program designed to expand the pipeline of officers coming from civilian universities with structured military programs. Five universities—Louisiana State University, Liberty University, Tuskegee University, Mississippi State University and Hillsdale College—will join the initiative, alongside the nation's existing senior military colleges.
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