Key Points
- The Pentagon says it will become an AI-first warfighting force, using top commercial models on unclassified and classified networks.
- It is not “sprinkling AI” onto old doctrine. It claims it will invent new ways of fighting, tested in recurring combat-style experiments.
- A single Pentagon-wide CTO, a barrier-busting SWAT team, and forced data-sharing aim to end the slow, committee-led era—backed by Trump’s floated $1.5 trillion FY27 budget.
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth chose Starbase, Texas—SpaceX’s rocket factory on a public highway—to deliver a blunt message: America’s military power will no longer be measured by plans and promises, but by how fast it can build, integrate, and iterate.
He argued the post–Cold War system drifted into consolidation and caution. Too few suppliers. Too many councils. Too many programs that “coordinate but never decide.”
The result, he said, is late delivery, swollen costs, and a culture that treats innovation as a box to tick instead of capability to field.
The overhaul starts with who decides. He named Emil Michael as the department’s single chief technology officer, with authority to set direction and judge progress by measurable outcomes.
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Inside America’s $1.5T A.I. War Plan
The War Secretary then announced seven “pace-setting” AI projects, each with one accountable owner, aggressive timelines, and monthly reporting—no shared blame, no endless meetings.
The core of the speech was doctrine, not dashboards. He warned against using AI like “digital pixie dust” on legacy tactics.
Instead, he promised brand-new warfighting approaches, proven through quarterly force-on-force “combat labs,” AI-coordinated swarms, agent-based cyber defense, and distributed command and control—learning quickly, including through failure.
Hegseth also signaled rapid adoption at scale. Gemini is already in use, he said, and xAI’s Grok will join GenAI.mil, with leading models pushed across both unclassified and classified networks.
To speed deployment, he ordered velocity metrics within 30 days and formed a Barrier Removal SWAT Team to waive non-statutory hurdles and escalate slowdowns in ATO approvals, contracting, and testing.
Data becomes a weapon. Services must catalog data assets in 30 days. Denials must be justified fast. “Data hoarding,” he said, is now a national security risk, with escalation up to funding and personnel remedies within legal limits.
$1.5 Trillion FY27 Budget
The Secretary rewired the innovation map: he abolished multiple innovation councils, created a CTO Action Group, made DIU and SCO field activities aligned under the CTO, and set a two-lane on-ramp—MIA to define problems, DIU to transition what industry already built.
He named Cameron Stanley as CDAO and Owen West to lead DIU. He mandated an “innovation insertion increment” in FY2028 budgets to fund last-mile integration.
Money is the accelerant. He cited the Office of Strategic Capital deploying $4.5 billion in commitments across six critical-mineral deals, crowding in nearly $5 billion in private capital, often in under 30 days.
Hegseth pointed to Trump’s floated $1.5 trillion FY27 budget as the once-in-a-generation fuel for this shift.
The speech was designed to unsettle rivals: a claim that the U.S. intends to turn speed, AI, capital, and industrial scale into deterrence—and, if deterrence fails, into dominance.