Hegseth announces new autonomous weapons command while repeating attacks on "woke" culture during speech to troops

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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 overhaul how the military acquires, tests, and fields drones and other similar weapons.

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 Meridan.

The address comes on the anniversary of his September 30, 2025 speech at Quantico to many of the military’s generals and admirals. In that speech, Hegseth railed against what he described as “the woke department,” describing his preferred vision for how the military will look (no “fat troops” or “beardos”) and act. He said the Trump administration would “rip out the politics” of the Pentagon and that the “only mission” would be “warfighting, preparing for war and preparing to win.”

This year’s attendance list was different, though the Pentagon chief repeated many of the criticisms from his first speech. Hegseth’s office invited around 600 junior officers and noncommissioned officers — lower-level leaders who carry out the day-to-day work of the military — to attend Wednesday’s event as his primary audience.

In Wednesday’s speech, he blasted the media’s coverage of US military operations, likening it to “treason” while also conceding that a “free press” is “important.”

Hegseth’s Wednesday speech also comes on the day US troops completed their withdrawal from Iraq. The move marked the end to the Iraq chapter of the US mission that launched in 2014 to combat ISIS as the terrorist group swept across the region, capturing major cities in Iraq and Syria.

This is a developing story and will be updated

Davis Winkie’s work at CNN is supported by a partnership between Outrider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners (JFP). CNN retains full editorial control of the reporting.

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国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯周三在弗吉尼亚州匡蒂科军事基地向部队发表讲话，宣布成立新的五角大楼自主作战司令部。这是他去年向高级军官发表的关于体能和文化的讲话的后续。

赫格塞斯表示，新的自主作战司令部将专注于人工智能机器人和自主武器，并将由一名四星上将领导，这表明它将在未来的军事行动中发挥关键作用。

“自主和机器人革命对装备、作战理论、组织结构以及几十年来主导战争的各种假设都产生了巨大影响，”赫格塞斯说。“持久的变革必须根植于军事指挥结构。”

五角大楼负责人表示，从乌克兰战争中吸取的教训是成立新司令部的动机，并表示一项名为“阿金库尔计划”的补充计划将致力于彻底改革军方获取、测试和部署无人机及其他类似武器的方式。

在演讲中，赫格塞斯重申了他过去对军队文化的诸多批评，并表示他已下令进一步削减高级军官的人数，以继续清除“觉醒”政策。

他将削减将军和海军将领职位的百分比目标提高了一倍，达到 20%，而他在 2025 年 5 月的一份备忘录中指示的将军和海军上将的削减比例为 10%。

赫格塞斯已解雇了军方二十多名高级军官——其中许多人几乎没有给出任何解释，这令两党议员都感到不满。军方还减少了四星上将的职位数量，迫使一些高级军官离开军队。

前陆军部长丹·德里斯科尔的辞职，部分原因在于他对此次人事解雇感到不满。CNN此前报道称，德里斯科尔在辞职信中“向政府表达了对陆军转型和战备工作的担忧，以及赫格塞斯通过解雇负责相关工作的将领来阻挠这些努力的做法”。

出席此次演讲的嘉宾包括特斯拉和SpaceX首席执行官埃隆·马斯克、前众议院议长纽特·金里奇以及国防科技公司Anduril的创始人兼负责人帕尔默·勒基。赫格塞斯宣布，这三人将共同主持一个名为“子午线计划”（Project Meridan）的未来战争研究小组。

此次讲话正值赫格塞斯于2025年9月30日在匡蒂科向众多军方将领发表讲话周年纪念日。在那次讲话中，赫格塞斯猛烈抨击了他所谓的“觉醒部门”，并阐述了他对军队未来面貌（摒弃“肥胖士兵”和“留着胡子的士兵”）和行动方式的理想愿景。他表示，特朗普政府将“彻底清除”五角大楼的政治因素，而军队的“唯一使命”将是“作战、备战和赢得战争”。

今年的出席名单有所不同，尽管五角大楼负责人重申了他在首次演讲中的许多批评意见。赫格塞斯办公室邀请了约600名初级军官和士官——这些负责军队日常工作的基层领导——作为他周三活动的主要听众。

在周三的演讲中，他猛烈抨击了媒体对美国军事行动的报道，将其比作“叛国”，同时也承认“新闻自由”是“重要的”。

赫格塞斯周三发表讲话的当天，美军也完成了从伊拉克的撤军。此举标志着美国在伊拉克的军事行动正式结束。该行动于2014年启动，旨在打击席卷该地区、占领伊拉克和叙利亚主要城市的“伊斯兰国”。

这是一个正在发展中的新闻，我们将持续更新。

戴维斯·温基在CNN的工作得到了Outrider基金会和新闻资助伙伴（JFP）的合作支持。CNN对报道内容拥有完全的编辑控制权。