Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced a new Pentagon autonomous warfare command in a speech on Wednesday to troops at the military base in Quantico, Virginia, a sequel to the speech he delivered last year to senior officers that focused on fitness and culture.
Hegseth said the new Autonomous Warfare Command, which will focus on AI robotics and autonomous weapons, will be led by a four-star general, a sign that it will have a key role in future military operations.
“The autonomous and robotic revolution has enormous implications for equipment, doctrine, organization, and the assumptions that have governed warfare for decades,” Hegseth said. “Lasting change must be anchored in military command structures.”
The Pentagon chief cited lessons learned from the war in Ukraine as motivation for the new command and said that a complementary effort known as Project Agincourt will work to clear the way for the new command and overhaul how the military acquires, tests, and fields drones and other similar weapons.
A memo released by the Pentagon said that the new command aims to go online in October 2027.
The speech also included Hegseth repeating a number of his past criticisms of military culture and saying that he had ordered further cuts to the ranks of senior officers to continue to remove “woke” policy.
He doubled the percentage target for cutting general and flag officer positions in the ranks to 20%, up from a 10% reduction of generals and admirals he had directed in a May 2025 memo.
Hegseth has fired more than two dozen senior officers across the military — many with little to no explanation, to the dismay of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The military services have also reduced the number of available four-star jobs, forcing some senior officers to leave the military.
Frustration over the firings was in part responsible for the resignation of former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll. CNN previously reported that Driscoll “brought up concerns with the administration surrounding Army transformation and readiness and Hegseth’s blocking those efforts specifically by firing the generals who were responsible,” in his resignation.
Some of the speech’s attendees included Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and Palmer Luckey, founder and head of defense tech company Anduril. Hegseth announced that the three will chair a new future of warfare study group known as Project Meridian.
