Hegseth announces plans for new 4-star drone command, further general officer cuts

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gives a State of the Force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico on September 30, 2026 in Quantico, Virginia. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth today announced a series of new initiatives, highlighted by plans to create a new four-star command centered on drones and a new working group on the future of defense.

In a speech at Quantico, Va., billed as a “State of the Force,” Hegseth also pledged major cuts in the number of general officers at the Pentagon.

The biggest news focused on the new command, which Hegseth dubbed Autonomous Warfare Command, or AUTOWARCOM, which will have “service-like authorities built to scale autonomous and robotic capabilities across the joint force in the fastest peacetime shift in modern military history.

“Ukraine’s lesson is not that one type of drone wins wars,” he later added, “but rather the need for a purpose-built system that maximizes the ability to adapt. We will fuse procurement with operations at scale, and then allow warfighters and engineers and entrepreneurs to learn, adapt, and rapidly iterate on their domain and their mission.”

The idea of AUTOWARCOM comes as part of a larger push to scale drone production and push those weapons out to the force. That push has included the Drone Dominance program to buy aerial weapons, the creation of the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401) and, as first reported by Breaking Defense, creating the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager (DRPM) for autonomy.

However, the actual creation of this new effort will take time. Hegseth said he is taking an “interim step” of changing the autonomy DPRM into “Project Agincourt,” that will be lead by Defense Innovation Unit head Owen West and Max Strasiser. The goal, he said, is to follow a new prototyping construct dubbed “warfighting acquisition” that fuses operators with entrepreneurs and moves the “decisions and dollars” closer to frontline units.

Those two Project Agincourt leaders are expected to help pave the way for the new command, including by working with lawmakers to get the necessary legislation in place to stand it up by October 2027, according to a memo . And creating something like what Hegseth described is almost certain to require in-depth Congressional approval, as the Hill has to approve giving COCOMs acquisition authorities, as it has with Special Operations and Cyber commands in the past. While lawmakers have not yet passed a fiscal 2027 defense authorization bill, a Senate version makes a similar move and calls on the Pentagon to establish a Robotic and Autonomous Systems Combatant Command.

Three exercises that proved a new approach to C-UAS

Architecture that linked sensors, C2, RF effects, and lasers into a distributed c-UAS kill chain.

Hegseth also spent time talking about Project Meridian, an effort to study the future of warfare, that will be co-lead by “our nation’s best minds” — SpaceX boss Elon Musk, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey, and Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House.

“The future of warfare is not about developing new strategies or new policies,” Hegseth said. “We already do that. Rather, its purpose is to creatively look to the future and identify the domains that we must conquer and capabilities we must master.”

Per the official memo, Project Meridian “will leverage critical perspectives from outside the Pentagon, drawing upon a group of top technologists, innovators, business leaders, policy makers, and national security experts. Project Meridian’s primary function will be to map the trajectory of future warfare, identify critical capability gaps, and propose actionable solutions in furtherance of the identified goals in the 2026 National Security Science and Technology Strategy.”

A report from this effort is due Jan. 28, 2027.

Hegseth also used today’s event to announce:

FORTRESS America: A call for every “major military installation” inside the US to generate its own power, independent of the civilian grid.

The “Next Great American Base Site Selection,” which will seek to create a new military base in the US and, per Hegseth’s description, will be run as something of a contest between states.

America’s Corps of Cadets: A new group of six Senior Military Colleges.

The Office of Religious Affairs: An avenue for chaplains to report directly to the Secretary of Defense.

Hegseth also used today’s event to promise a a further cut to general and flag officer posts, double his vow from last year.

“The number crunchers say we’ve fired 10 percent of the generals and admirals across the force, and that number sounds about right,” he said. “And I know, because I directed it, that we’ve also reduced the overall number of general officer slots by an additional 10 percent” — meaning Hegseth is aiming for a 20 percent overall reduction in top officers since he took over the Pentagon.

Fox News first reported Hegseth planned to use today’s speech to announce additional cuts to general and flag officers, prompting some lawmakers to make preemptive statements against the decision.

Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Hegseth has “taken countless reckless, partisan actions” during his tenure, including ending the careers of dozens of senior officers without any explanations. Citing Article I of the Constitution, which assigns Congress the power to raise and support the armed forces and to make rules for their government, Reed called on Hegseth to provide oversight committees with written information before there are further cuts.

“Our military is conducting major operations around the world, and the force is already under strain,” he said in a public statement. “Eliminating senior positions and leaders now will add to that strain and disrupt command when continuity matters most.

“The secretary has said this is a deliberative process aimed at readiness,” he added. “If so, he should welcome the chance to show his work.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., called Hegseth’s approach to force cuts “draconian” since he is not coming to Congress.

“He is putting political loyalty above merit in reducing the numbers of officers,” Blumenthal told reporters today. “So, there may be a need to reduce the numbers of officers, but there’s no evidence that he’s conducted any kind of systematic or intelligent or strategic oversight, either in the number or the specific individuals beyond just personal discrimination.”

“We will push back for sure,” he added. “We’ll use every tool and power that we have, and hopefully we will be [in] the majority” next year.

Hegseth’s ambitions to reshape the military were clear before he was tapped to take the Pentagon’s civilian reins. When it comes to the general officers, last year he issued an order to department leaders to remove “redundant force structure” and streamline leadership by reducing the number of general and flag officer postings.

The goal, he said at the time, was to remove at least 20 percent of the four-star jobs inside the active component and another 20 percent of general officers inside the National Guard. At the time, there were approximately 800 general officers , and about 40 four-stars, according to government data and Hegseth.

A litany of high-profile general officers have also exited under Hegseth’s watch including chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown , Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George , Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Slife, Defense Intelligence Agency head Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, National Security Agency and Cyber Command head Gen. Timothy Haugh, Gen. Christopher Donahue and others.

Valerie Insinna contributed to this report.

2026年9月30日，美国国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯在弗吉尼亚州匡蒂科海军陆战队基地发表部队状况报告。（图片来源：Alex Wong/Getty Images）

华盛顿——国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯今天宣布了一系列新举措，其中最引人注目的是计划创建一个以无人机为中心的新四星司令部和一个关于国防未来的新工作组。

在弗吉尼亚州匡蒂科发表的题为“部队状况报告”的演讲中，赫格塞斯还承诺大幅削减五角大楼的高级军官人数。

最大的新闻集中在新成立的指挥部上，赫格塞斯将其命名为“自主作战指挥部”（AUTOWARCOM），该指挥部将拥有“类似军种的权力，旨在以现代军事史上最快的和平时期转变，在联合部队中扩展自主和机器人能力”。

他后来补充道：“乌克兰的经验教训并非在于某种类型的无人机就能赢得战争，而是需要一种能够最大限度提高适应能力的专用系统。我们将把采购与大规模作战行动融合起来，然后让作战人员、工程师和企业家能够在其领域和任务中学习、适应并快速迭代。”

“自主作战司令部”（AUTOWARCOM）的构想是扩大无人机生产规模并将其推广至部队的更大规模举措的一部分。这项举措包括旨在采购空中武器的“无人机优势计划”（Drone Dominance program）、成立联合跨部门特遣部队401（JIATF-401），以及正如《防务新闻》（Breaking Defense）率先报道的那样，设立自主作战直接报告项目组合管理机构（DRPM）。

然而，这项新举措的实际启动需要时间。赫格​​塞斯表示，他正在采取“过渡措施”，将自主的国防采购与风险管理（DPRM）项目转变为“阿金库尔项目”，该项目将由国防创新部门负责人欧文·韦斯特和马克斯·斯特拉西泽领导。他表示，该项目的目标是采用一种名为“作战采购”的新型原型开发模式，将作战人员与企业家融合起来，并将“决策权和资金”下放到更靠近前线部队的地方。

据一份备忘录显示，这两位“阿金库尔计划”的领导人预计将为新司令部的成立铺平道路，包括与立法者合作，推动必要的立法工作，以便在2027年10月前完成该司令部的组建。而创建类似赫格塞斯所描述的那种机构几乎肯定需要国会的深入审批，因为国会必须批准授予联合作战司令部（COCOM）采购权，就像过去对特种作战司令部和网络司令部的授权一样。虽然国会尚未通过2027财年国防授权法案，但参议院版本的法案也采取了类似的举措，呼吁五角大楼设立机器人与自主系统作战司令部。

三个演习证明了反无人机系统（C-UAS）的一种新方法。

将传感器、C2、射频效应和激光连接成分布式 c-UAS 杀伤链的架构。

赫格塞斯还花时间谈论了“子午线计划”，这是一项研究未来战争的计划，将由“我们国家最杰出的头脑”共同领导——SpaceX 老板埃隆·马斯克、Anduril 创始人帕尔默·勒基和前众议院议长纽特·金里奇。

“未来战争的关键不在于制定新的战略或政策，”赫格塞斯说。“我们已经在做这些了。它的目的是创造性地展望未来，并确定我们必须征服的领域和我们必须掌握的能力。”

根据官方备忘录，“子午线计划”将“利用五角大楼以外的重要视角，汇集顶尖技术专家、创新者、商业领袖、政策制定者和国家安全专家。该计划的主要职能是描绘未来战争的发展轨迹，识别关键能力差距，并提出切实可行的解决方案，以推进2026年国家安全科技战略中确定的目标。”

这项工作的报告将于 2027 年 1 月 28 日提交。

赫格塞斯还利用今天的活动宣布：

美国堡垒：呼吁美国境内所有“主要军事设施”独立于民用电网自行发电。

“下一个伟大的美国基地选址”旨在在美国创建一个新的军事基地，根据赫格塞斯的描述，这将以各州之间的竞赛形式进行。

美国军校生团：由六所高级军事院校组成的新团体。

宗教事务办公室：牧师直接向国防部长汇报工作的途径。

赫格塞斯还利用今天的活动承诺进一步削减将军和高级军官职位，比他去年的承诺增加了一倍。

“据统计，我们已经解雇了全军10%的将军和海军上将，这个数字听起来差不多，”他说。“而且我知道，因为这是我指示的，我们还额外削减了10%的将军职位”——这意味着，自赫格塞斯接管五角大楼以来，他的目标是将高级军官总数削减20%。

福克斯新闻率先报道，赫格塞斯计划在今天的演讲中宣布进一步削减将军和高级军官的职位，这促使一些议员先发制人地发表声明反对这一决定。

参议院军事委员会首席民主党议员杰克·里德表示，赫格塞斯在其任期内“采取了无数鲁莽的党派行动”，包括在没有任何解释的情况下终止了数十名高级军官的职业生涯。里德援引宪法第一条——该条款赋予国会组建和维持军队以及制定军队管理规则的权力——呼吁赫格塞斯在进一步裁军之前向监督委员会提供书面信息。

他在一份公开声明中表示：“我们的军队正在世界各地开展重大行动，部队已经不堪重负。现在裁撤高级职位和领导人只会加剧这种压力，并在最需要保持连续性的时候扰乱指挥。”

“部长曾表示，这是一个旨在做好准备的深思熟虑的过程，”他补充道。“如果真是如此，他应该欢迎这个展示自己工作成果的机会。”

康涅狄格州民主党参议员理查德·布卢门撒尔称赫格塞斯强制削减开支的做法是“严苛的”，因为他不会到国会来。

布卢门撒尔今天告诉记者：“他削减警力时，将政治忠诚置于能力之上。因此，或许有必要削减警力，但没有任何证据表明，除了个人歧视之外，他在警力数量或具体人员方面进行过任何系统性、明智或战略性的监督。”

“我们一定会反击，”他补充道。“我们会动用一切手段和力量，希望明年我们能成为多数派。”

在赫格塞斯被任命掌管五角大楼文职工作之前，他重塑军队的雄心就已昭然若揭。去年，他曾下令各部门领导精简将级军官，要求他们移除“冗余的部队结构”，并通过减少将级和高级军官的职位来精简领导层。

他当时表示，目标是裁减现役部队中至少20%的四星上将职位，以及国民警卫队中另外20%的将军职位。根据政府数据和赫格塞斯的说法，当时大约有800名将军，其中约40名是四星上将。

在赫格塞斯的领导下，众多高级将领相继离职，其中包括参谋长联席会议主席 CQ 布朗上将、陆军参谋长兰迪·乔治上将、海军作战部长丽莎·弗兰切蒂海军上将、空军副参谋长詹姆斯·斯莱夫上将、国防情报局局长杰弗里·克鲁斯中将、国家安全局和网络司令部局长蒂莫西·豪格上将、克里斯托弗·多纳休上将等等。

Valerie Insinna 对本报道亦有贡献。