Democrats had barely finished complaining about the last round of changes at the Pentagon when War Secretary Pete Hegseth came back with another. This time he did it in front of hundreds of troops.
On Wednesday, September 30, Hegseth stood at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia and delivered what he called the “State of the Force” address. It ran about 52 minutes, and he says it will now be an annual tradition.
His message was blunt. The department, he said, is no longer the woke department or the weak department.
The headline announcement was the creation of a new four-star Autonomous Warfare Command, known as AutoWarCom. It will drive the military’s push into drones, robotics and autonomous weapons, with service-like authorities.
Hegseth called it the fastest peacetime shift in modern military history. He pointed to lessons from the war in Ukraine and argued that the Pentagon’s acquisition system simply cannot keep up with the pace of battlefield technology.
To clear the way, he launched a companion effort called Project Agincourt. It aims to pull military operators, engineers and private companies into rapid development cycles, and to move buying decisions and funding closer to the commanders and units who actually fight.
Then came the number that shook the brass. Hegseth ordered the services to double the 10 percent cut he announced last spring to roughly 800 general and flag officer positions, bringing the reduction to 20 percent by January.
For years, conservatives have complained about a top-heavy Pentagon, with too many generals and admirals and too little accountability. Hegseth is now acting on it.
He also announced plans for a brand new military base, and he invited all 50 states to compete to host 15,000 to 25,000 service members. On top of that, he said every military base will become self-powered.
None of this came out of thin air. It builds on the standards he rolled out a year ago, when he told senior leaders that combat roles would be held to the highest male standard, with no special treatment based on gender.
He also codified daily physical training for every duty day and said every service member, from a private to a four-star general, must pass two fitness tests a year and meet height and weight standards. Grooming rules were tightened as well.
Another piece of the puzzle is the new Joint Warfighter Evaluation, a battlefield-style assessment for colonels and Navy captains who want to make general or admiral. The idea is to test whether a future star officer can fight, adapt and win.
And there is the testosterone initiative. The Pentagon is moving to screen service members aged 30 and over annually, with testing optional for younger troops and any treatment voluntary. Hegseth framed it as a way to keep troops on the leading edge of lethality.
Predictably, the left came unglued. Democrats mocked the program as “gender-affirming care,” then backlash piled up online when people noticed the irony.
One House Democrat went so far as to suggest the program reflected “homoeroticism.” Senate Democrats sent a letter demanding the scientific basis, the costs and the risks.
After the Quantico speech, Democratic veterans in the House called it beneath the dignity of the office and said Hegseth was more focused on culture war than on military strength. They also tried to tie the criticism to the Iran war.
Hegseth’s answer was typically unapologetic. He declared that the ideological clowns are out and the patriotic cowboys are in, with testosterone testing on top.
Supporters see a Pentagon finally returning to its mission, which is to win wars. They point to the push for lethality, accountability, fitness and speed, and they note that Americans have wanted exactly that for years.
Hegseth also made a move that disarms one favorite line of attack. He announced that every US troop will get one day off in October to vote in the midterms, with the stand-down to be completed by October 15, and that it will continue in every even-numbered election year.
He was careful to say he is not telling anyone whom to vote for. He wants troops to know how to register, request a ballot, and use the federal write-in absentee ballot if theirs is delayed.
So the picture is a Pentagon pushing toward drones, fitness, fewer generals and higher standards, and a left that seems to have no answer except outrage.
