War Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a military-wide review of human performance programs aimed at improving troop readiness, combat effectiveness and cognitive performance across the services.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
War Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Pentagon to develop a department-wide strategy to improve troop readiness, lethality and combat effectiveness, according to newly released War Department documents.
The initiative, called “Warfighter Performance Optimization,” is intended to unify how the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and other War Department components approach physical readiness, mental performance, data analytics and emerging technologies.
In a May 6 memo obtained by the Military Times, Hegseth directed Under Secretary of War for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata to evaluate existing human performance programs across the military.
Hegseth said the goal is to identify ways “to equip our service members and leaders with the tools, data and resources necessary to meet and exceed readiness standards and to maximize their lethality and effectiveness.”
The review will be used to shape a Pentagon-wide action plan that sets common performance goals and readiness standards across the force.
A central part of the effort is cognitive readiness. Hegseth’s memo says mental performance should be treated as a core element of occupational readiness, similar to physical fitness.
“The Department will establish cognitive performance as a core occupational readiness competency, measuring and managing it with the same attention and discipline we apply to our physical standards,” the memo states.
“We will mitigate brain health risks that erode cognitive performance and leverage tactics, techniques, and procedures to train and optimize Warfighter cognition,” the memo adds.
A separate Pentagon memo obtained by the Military Times lays out the implementation process. Military departments and combatant commands have been instructed to provide detailed information about current human performance programs, including budgets, research priorities, best practices and use of technology.
“Information will include overviews, definitions, resource data, best practices, collaborators, coordination with clinical care, utilization of digital health technologies (e.g., wearables, mobile sensors), research priorities, and data capabilities,” the memo stated.
The Pentagon plans to release a department-wide strategic plan in September. That plan is expected to establish performance goals and readiness metrics for the military.
New “human performance program enhancement activities” are scheduled to begin in January. At least three pilot programs using “innovative capabilities designed to address mission gaps” are expected to launch by next July.
The Warfighter Performance Optimization initiative comes as each military service continues to pursue its own readiness and performance programs.
The Army has promoted its Holistic Health and Fitness program. The Navy is rolling out a Human Performance Optimization program. The Air Force recently broke ground on a new performance facility at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, while the Marine Corps operates resiliency-focused performance centers across the force.
Supporters of the Pentagon-wide review say it could help determine which programs are producing measurable results and which can be scaled across the military.
“Hopefully this effort will find out what the best practices are, so those which stand out and can be done at scale while being compliant with different cyber security mandates,” a former military human performance official told the Military Times.
The same former official cautioned that technology alone will not solve the readiness challenge.
“Wearables aren’t the answer to everything,” the former official said. “They’re complementary to a lot of the other practices, but we’ll see what the yield is.”
The review signals a broader Pentagon effort to bring physical readiness, cognitive performance, brain health, data collection and technology under a more coordinated strategy as the department seeks to prepare troops for future combat demands.
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