Hegseth uses AUSA spotlight to highlight autonomy, ‘generational’ defense investment

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) 2026 Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, DC on October 14, 2026. The AUSA Meeting and Exposition is a defense trade show and networking event for the global defense community. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and service leaders took center stage at the Association of the US Army’s annual conference this morning discussing broad plans to scale autonomous weapons and stand up a new four-star command.

“You have autonomy. You have robotics. You have SI [super intelligence]. You have space,” Hegseth told an audience full of servicemembers and industry figures. “It’s that the folks who acquire it [defense platforms] need to be right there, up with the warfighter at the same time, who understand how to iterate it and change on and innovate on it.”

While Hegseth and service civilian leader steered clear of many specifics about autonomy development and investment plans today, they used the event to discuss the need to stand up the recently announced Autonomous Warfare Command , or AUTOWARCOM, that is envisioned as having service-like authorities to scale autonomous and robotic capabilities across the joint force.

While Congress will have to sign off on the plan — a move that could take time— the Defense Department is moving out with several efforts to pave that path forward. For instance, the Pentagon has shifted the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager (DRPM) for autonomy into an umbrella unmanned tech initiative called Project Agincourt.

Owen West , who is now leading that project, moderated today’s AUSA autonomy panel that provided some insight into management changes, including to the Defense Autonomous Working Group (DAWG).

DAWG was established as follow-on to the Biden-era Replicator initiative to dramatically increase the production of drones and counter-drone tech. In 2025 DAWG was placed under Special Operations Command (SOCOM) with the goal of focusing on different capability portfolios.

“We’re smaller. We’re able to iterate at the speed of relevancy,” said Derrick Anderson, the assistant secretary of defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict.

Anderson said now DAWG is being absorbed by a new Task Force Autonomous Warfare inside SOCOM to support Project Agincourt and, eventually, AUTOWARCOM, to “keep iterating” inside the autonomy space and so that there isn’t a “stagnant pause.”

“Our guys are going to keep pushing forward,” Anderson added.

While lawmakers have not yet approved a fiscal 2027 defense spending bill or moved ahead with the administration’s separate reconciliation request, the Pentagon has laid out plans to spend nearly $55 billion on DAWG.

It remains unclear how much of that request will ultimately be approved by Congress, but Hegseth reiterated this morning that the full request is necessary to “drive change” inside the department.

“[It is] a one-time generational investment gives us a chance to reflect the president’s priorities,” Hegseth said on stage.

“Investments now are going to matter, and they’re going to ripple not just for years but for decades across our joint force,” he later added.

美国国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯于2026年10月14日在华盛顿特区举行的美国陆军协会（AUSA）2026年年会暨展览会上发表讲话。AUSA年会暨展览会是面向全球国防界的国防贸易展览会和交流活动。（图片来源：Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images）

华盛顿——今天上午，国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯和各军种领导人在美国陆军协会年会上成为焦点，讨论了扩大自主武器规模和建立新的四星司令部的广泛计划。

“你们拥有自主能力，你们拥有机器人技术，你们拥有超级智能，你们拥有太空，”赫格塞斯对满座的军人和业内人士说道。“关键在于，那些负责采购这些（国防平台）的人必须与作战人员并肩作战，了解如何迭代、改进和创新这些平台。”

虽然赫格塞斯和军方文职领导人今天没有透露太多关于自主发展和投资计划的具体细节，但他们利用这次活动讨论了成立最近宣布成立的自主作战司令部（AUTOWARCOM）的必要性，该司令部被设想拥有类似军方的权力，以在联合部队中扩大自主和机器人能力。

虽然该计划最终需要国会批准——这可能需要一些时间——但国防部正在采取多项措施推进该计划的实施。例如，五角大楼已将负责自主系统的直接报告项目组合管理机构（DRPM）并入名为“阿金库尔计划”的无人技术综合计划。

现任该项目负责人欧文·韦斯特主持了今天 AUSA 自主性小组会议，会议深入探讨了管理变革，包括国防自主工作组 (DAWG) 的变革。

DAWG的成立是拜登时代“复制者”计划的后续举措，旨在大幅提升无人机和反无人机技术的产量。2025年，DAWG被划归特种作战司令部（SOCOM）管辖，目标是专注于不同的能力组合。

“我们规模较小，能够以与时俱进的速度进行迭代，”负责特种作战和低强度冲突的国防部助理部长德里克·安德森说道。

安德森表示，现在 DAWG 正在被 SOCOM 内部一个新的自主战争特遣队吸收，以支持阿金库尔计划，并最终支持 AUTOWARCOM，以便在自主领域“不断迭代”，避免“停滞不前”。

安德森补充道：“我们的队员们会继续努力前进。”

尽管立法者尚未批准 2027 财年国防开支法案，也未推进政府单独提出的预算协调请求，但五角大楼已制定计划，将在国防授权工作组 (DAWG) 上花费近 550 亿美元。

目前还不清楚国会最终会批准多少这项请求，但赫格塞斯今天上午重申，这项完整的请求对于“推动部门内部变革”是必要的。

“这是一项一次性的世代投资，让我们有机会体现总统的优先事项，”赫格塞斯在台上说道。

“现在的投资将会产生重要影响，其影响不仅会持续数年，还会持续数十年，波及我们的联合部队，”他后来补充道。