War Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled six initiatives intended to reshape the U.S. military around autonomous warfare, hardened installations, new officer pipelines and emerging technology while separately ordering a 20% reduction in general and admiral positions.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
War Secretary Pete Hegseth has laid out one of the Trump administration’s broadest military restructuring plans to date, announcing a new four-star command for autonomous warfare, a major new military base, hardened and independently powered installations, a new officer-development program and a 120-day study of future warfare co-led by Elon Musk.
Hegseth announced the initiatives Wednesday during his “State of the Force” address at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, where the War Department said six programs would help govern its direction for years to come.
The announcements put drones, artificial intelligence, robotics and other autonomous systems near the center of future U.S. war planning while extending Hegseth’s broader effort to change the military’s leadership structure, personnel policies and culture.
He also doubled a previously ordered reduction in senior military billets, directing the services to eliminate 20% of general and admiral positions by Jan. 1, 2027.
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Autonomous Warfare Gets Its Own Four-Star Command
The most significant organizational change is the planned Autonomous Warfare Command, or AUTOWARCOM, a four-star command intended to coordinate the development and deployment of drones, robotics, unmanned vehicles, autonomous aircraft and artificial-intelligence-enabled systems throughout the armed forces.
Hegseth described the effort as part of “the fastest peacetime shift in modern military history.”
The War Department is targeting Oct. 1, 2027, for establishment of the command, which would receive dedicated personnel, resources and authorities focused on bringing autonomous capabilities into the joint force. The department said military occupational specialties also will be developed to support the transition.
Creating a new command at that level is unusual. U.S. Space Command, established in 2019, was the most recent new combatant command, according to Reuters. The military currently operates 11 combatant commands divided among geographic regions and specialized missions.
Hegseth said rapidly changing battlefield technology requires the military to move faster than traditional acquisition systems have allowed.
“The pace of war is changing faster than the process to support it,” he said.
The war in Ukraine has provided one of the clearest demonstrations of that change, with relatively inexpensive drones increasingly used for reconnaissance, surveillance and precision attacks.
“Ukraine’s lesson is not that one type of drone wins wars, but rather the need for a purpose-built system that maximizes the ability to adapt,” Hegseth said.
The changing threat is also evident in the Middle East, where Iranian forces have repeatedly relied on inexpensive drones and missiles against U.S. forces and allies, forcing militaries to confront the economics of using costly defensive interceptors against much cheaper incoming weapons.
Hegseth said the military now needs both sophisticated traditional weapons and large quantities of lower-cost systems.
“Today we need both quality and quantity,” he said.
Project Agincourt Will Build the Path to AUTOWARCOM
Before AUTOWARCOM becomes fully established, the department will use a program called Project Agincourt to develop the organizational and acquisition structure behind it.
The project is intended to place military operators closer to engineers, technology companies and manufacturers so that equipment can be tested, altered and fielded more quickly.
Rather than spending years moving through conventional procurement cycles before a system reaches troops, the new model is designed around repeated battlefield-style evaluations and rapid production.
The War Department said the official overseeing unmanned systems will lead Project Agincourt while continuing existing unmanned-system programs and testing the new acquisition model.
The long-term objective is to give AUTOWARCOM what Hegseth described as “service-like authorities” capable of developing autonomous warfare capabilities across the services instead of allowing individual programs to remain fragmented.
The department also intends to establish dedicated career paths for personnel specializing in autonomous warfare.
Musk, Luckey and Gingrich Will Study the Future of War
Hegseth’s second major technology initiative, Project Meridian, reaches beyond the existing military establishment.
Elon Musk, Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will co-lead the effort under the direction of War Department technology chief Emil Michael.
The group has 120 days to examine how warfare could change over the coming decades and recommend technologies, weapons and organizational capabilities the United States should begin developing now. Its work is expected to produce a public report accompanied by a classified annex.
Hegseth said the project would concentrate on “discovering, developing and fielding” capabilities required by future generations of American service members.
Its scope is deliberately broad, covering potential battlefields “from under the Earth to beyond the moon.”
Hegseth said the Pentagon should not assume that government officials alone are best positioned to anticipate the next transformation in warfare.
“The best forecasters of future conflict do not solely reside inside the Pentagon,” Hegseth said. “There are obvious biases and risks to asking ourselves to both ask the questions and answer them.”
Project Meridian will be tasked with examining technological trends, future domains and weapons systems before recommending actions the department can begin taking to develop, test and deploy them.
Musk brings experience in space launch, satellites, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing through companies including SpaceX, while Luckey’s Anduril develops autonomous aircraft, drones, sensors and other military systems.
Both SpaceX and Anduril already do substantial business with the federal government, making the commercial relationships of the project’s private-sector participants another issue likely to receive scrutiny as the initiative proceeds.
The assignment also marks Musk’s return to a formal Trump administration advisory role after his earlier work leading the Department of Government Efficiency.
General and Admiral Billets to Fall 20%
Hegseth separately ordered a significant reduction in the number of positions designated for generals and admirals.
The new target doubles the 10% cut he had previously ordered, bringing the planned reduction to 20% by Jan. 1, 2027.
Roughly 800 active-duty general and flag officer positions were subject to the earlier structure discussed by Hegseth, meaning the expanded reduction could eliminate or downgrade a substantial number of senior billets.
“I call it accountability, and long overdue,” Hegseth said.
The move has generated disagreement on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a former Navy combat pilot, characterized the reductions as a “purge” and argued that losing experienced senior officers could weaken military leadership.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, took a more reserved position, saying he wanted to see the reasoning behind the reductions before deciding whether they would improve the force.
“If it’s simply a matter of eliminating a very heavy top, there may be some validity to it, but I want to see it first,” Rounds said.
Hegseth has argued that the number of senior officers should be determined by military requirements rather than maintaining layers of command because they already exist.
FORTRESS America Would Give Bases Independent Power
Another initiative, FORTRESS America, focuses on protecting military installations against failures or attacks affecting civilian infrastructure.
FORTRESS stands for Federal Operations for Resilience, Troop Resources, Energy, Supply and Survivability.
The plan calls for major U.S. military installations to develop their own independent power-generation capabilities so operations can continue if civilian electric grids are disabled by cyberattacks, physical sabotage, natural disasters or other disruptions.
The initiative also extends to military supply chains.
The department wants to reduce reliance on vulnerable foreign sources for strategically important materials and products, including critical minerals, semiconductors and components used in weapons manufacturing.
Hegseth has framed the program as a form of national insurance: installations expected to fight through an attack should not depend entirely on outside infrastructure that an adversary could target first.
States Will Compete for a New Major Military Base
The Pentagon also intends to build a major new military installation, with Hegseth inviting governors from all 50 states to make the case for locating it in their state.
The proposed installation would accommodate approximately 15,000 to 25,000 service members and would be designed around current military requirements rather than adapted from infrastructure built decades ago.
Hegseth described it as the first new major U.S. military base of its kind in about 40 years.
The project is expected to incorporate the FORTRESS America concept from the beginning, including independent energy capacity and infrastructure hardened for modern threats.
No host state has been selected.
The competition could become economically significant because an installation housing tens of thousands of service members would also bring civilian employees, military families, construction contracts and extensive demand for surrounding housing and services.
Five Universities Join New Officer Pipeline
The department’s America’s Corps of Cadets initiative will establish another route for developing future officers outside the military service academies and existing senior military colleges.
The initial program will include Louisiana State University, Liberty University, Tuskegee University, Mississippi State University and Hillsdale College.
The War Department said the program is intended to expand military training and leadership development at civilian institutions while increasing the pool of prospective officers entering the joint force.
The first five schools do not include any Ivy League universities.
Hegseth has repeatedly criticized elite universities he believes have become disconnected from the values and culture of the military, while presenting the new cadet initiative as a way to cultivate officers at institutions the department believes can support its approach to discipline and leadership.
Religious Affairs Office Will Report to Hegseth
A sixth initiative will create an Office of Religious Affairs with a direct reporting line to the secretary.
The office will oversee policy involving religious support and military chaplaincies and will advocate for resources and infrastructure, including chapels and other facilities needed by service members.
The War Department has presented the change as an effort to strengthen spiritual resilience and ensure military personnel have access to religious support.
The department says participation in religious services will remain voluntary and the military’s chaplain system will continue serving personnel from different faith traditions.
Hegseth Again Targets Military Culture
The six initiatives came within a much broader speech in which Hegseth reviewed personnel and cultural changes undertaken during his tenure.
He cited the administration’s rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, changes involving gender-related policies, scrutiny of physical standards in combat formations and a new screening effort addressing testosterone deficiency among male service members.
Hegseth has described those policies as part of restoring a “warrior ethos,” while critics have questioned some of the changes and argued that personnel policies should remain focused on military effectiveness rather than political or cultural disputes.
He again made his preferred direction explicit Wednesday with a blunt line describing the force he wants the department to build.
“No fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors.”
The larger structural changes announced at Quantico, however, extend beyond the cultural issues that have defined much of the public debate surrounding Hegseth.
If fully implemented, they would create a four-star command devoted to autonomous warfare, a specialized acquisition pathway for drones and robotics, a major new military installation, independently powered bases, an expanded officer-training pipeline, a religious-affairs office and a private-sector-led effort to chart technologies needed for conflicts decades into the future.
AUTOWARCOM alone would represent a rare addition to the military’s command architecture, while Project Meridian places some of the country’s most prominent technology and business figures directly into long-range defense planning.
Together, the initiatives show the War Department attempting to build a force around two priorities Hegseth emphasized throughout the Quantico address: maintaining traditional combat readiness while moving much faster to incorporate the autonomous, robotic and AI-driven systems reshaping modern warfare.
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