Hegseth announces plans for new 4-star drone command, among other initiatives

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth today announced a series of new initiatives, highlighted by plans to create a new four-star command centered on drones and a new working group on the future of defense.

In a speech at Quantico, Va., billed as a “State of the Force,” Hegseth also discussed major cuts to the number of general officers at the Pentagon.

The biggest news focused on the new command, which Hegseth dubbed Autonomous Warfare Command, or AUTOWARCOM, that will have “service-like authorities built to scale autonomous and robotic capabilities across the joint force in the fastest peacetime shift in modern military history.”

“Ukraine’s lesson is not that one type of drone wins wars,” he later added, “but rather the need for a purpose-built system that maximizes the ability to adapt. We will fuse procurement with operations at scale, and then allow warfighters and engineers and entrepreneurs to learn, adapt, and rapidly iterate on their domain and their mission.”

The idea of AUTOWARCOM comes as part of a larger effort to scale drone production and push those weapons out to the force. That push has included the Drone Dominance program to buy aerial weapons, the creation of the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401) and, as first reported by Breaking Defense, creating the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager (DRPM) for autonomy.

However, the actual creation of this new effort will take time. Hegseth said he is taking an “interim step” of changing the autonomy DPRM into “Project Agincourt,” that will be lead by Defense Innovation Unit head Owen West and Max Strasiser. The goal, he said, is to follow a new prototyping construct dubbed “warfighting acquisition” that fuses operators with entrepreneurs and moves the “decisions and dollars” closer to frontline units.

Those two Project Agincourt leaders are expected to help pave the way for the new command, including by working with lawmakers to get the necessary legislation in place to stand it up by October 2027, according to a Sept. 30 Pentagon memo [PDF]. And creating something like what Hegseth described is almost certain to require in-depth Congressional approval, as the Hill has to approve giving combatant commands acquisition authorities, as it has with Special Operations and Cyber commands in the past.

While lawmakers have not yet passed a fiscal 2027 defense authorization bill, a Senate version makes a similar move and calls on the Pentagon to establish a Robotic and Autonomous Systems Combatant Command.

Hegseth also spent time talking about Project Meridian, an effort to study the future of warfare, that will be co-lead by what he called “our nation’s best minds” — SpaceX boss Elon Musk, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey, and Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House.

“The future of warfare is not about developing new strategies or new policies,” Hegseth said. “We already do that. Rather, its purpose is to creatively look to the future and identify the domains that we must conquer and capabilities we must master.”

Per the official memo, Project Meridian “will leverage critical perspectives from outside the Pentagon, drawing upon a group of top technologists, innovators, business leaders, policy makers, and national security experts. Project Meridian’s primary function will be to map the trajectory of future warfare, identify critical capability gaps, and propose actionable solutions in furtherance of the identified goals in the 2026 National Security Science and Technology Strategy.”

A report from this effort is due Jan. 28, 2027.

Hegseth also used today’s event to announce:

• FORTRESS America: A call for every “major military installation” inside the US to  generate its own power, independent of the civilian grid.
• The “Next Great American Base Site Selection,” which will seek to create a new military base in the US and, per Hegseth’s description, will be run as something of a contest between states.
• America’s Corps of Cadets: A new group of six Senior Military Colleges.
• The Office of Religious Affairs: An avenue for chaplains to report directly to the Secretary of Defense.

Officer Cuts

Hegseth also used today’s event to highlight ongoing cuts to general and flag officer posts, an effort he began last year.

“The number crunchers say we’ve fired 10 percent of the generals and admirals across the force, and that number sounds about right,” he said. “And I know, because I directed it, that we’ve also reduced the overall number of general officer slots by an additional 10 percent.”

Fox News reported earlier this week that Hegseth would use today’s speech to announce additional cuts to general and flag officers, prompting some lawmakers to make preemptive statements against the decision.

Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Hegseth has “taken countless reckless, partisan actions” during his tenure, including ending the careers of dozens of senior officers without any explanations. Citing Article I of the Constitution, which assigns Congress the power to raise and support the armed forces and to make rules for their government, Reed called on Hegseth to provide oversight committees with written information before there are further cuts.

“Our military is conducting major operations around the world, and the force is already under strain,” he said in a public statement. “Eliminating senior positions and leaders now will add to that strain and disrupt command when continuity matters most.

“The secretary has said this is a deliberative process aimed at readiness,” he added. “If so, he should welcome the chance to show his work.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., called Hegseth’s approach to force cuts “draconian” since he is not coming to Congress. 

“He is putting political loyalty above merit in reducing the numbers of officers,” Blumenthal told reporters today. “So, there may be a need to reduce the numbers of officers, but there’s no evidence that he’s conducted any kind of systematic or intelligent or strategic oversight, either in the number or the specific individuals beyond just personal discrimination.”

“We will push back for sure,” he added. “We’ll use every tool and power that we have, and hopefully we will be [in] the majority” next year. 

Hegseth’s ambitions to reshape the military were clear before he was tapped to take the Pentagon’s civilian reins. When it comes to the general officers, last year he issued an order to department leaders to remove “redundant force structure” and streamline leadership by reducing the number of general and flag officer postings.

The goal, he said at the time, was to remove at least 20 percent of the four-star jobs inside the active component and another 20 percent of general officers inside the National Guard. Then there were approximately 800 general officers, and about 40 four-stars, according to government data and Hegseth.

A litany of high-profile general officers have also exited under Hegseth’s watch including chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Slife, Defense Intelligence Agency head Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, National Security Agency and Cyber Command head Gen. Timothy Haugh, Gen. Christopher Donahue and others.

Valerie Insinna contributed to this report.

UPDATED 9/30/26 at 6:11 pm to clarify Hegseth’s comments regarding general and flag officer cuts.