Hegseth vows to shrink the Pentagon — and then announces plans to grow it

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday pulled together hundreds of troops to lay out cuts to the Pentagon’s bureaucracy — and ended up announcing major plans to add to it. At first, the Pentagon chief’s “State of the Force” speech at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, sounded similar to his more publicized talk last year, where he declared new grooming and fitness standards and vowed to get rid of “fat generals and admirals.” He touted an effort Wednesday to monitor testosterone levels and cut 20% of the military’s top officers — particularly those he considered too “woke” for their jobs. But Hegseth then took an abrupt U-turn, declaring a half-dozen new initiatives that are likely to add to the Pentagon’s budget — among them a combatant command for drones, a commission led by SpaceX founder Elon Musk and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and a new military base that the Pentagon chief said governors could compete over to house in their states. The moves appear in some instances to be in direct contrast with Hegseth’s campaign to slash red tape, cut rules that hamper the military’s “lethality” and decrease the top-heavy nature of the armed forces. “We’ve thrown out the failed bureaucratic playbook and replaced it with an unrelenting focus on speed, scale, and rapid innovation,” Hegseth said. “We are in a war of attrition against the Pentagon bureaucracy every single day, and it is a war that we intend to win.” By the end of the 52-minute speech, Hegseth had created a new commission to study the future of war — led by two ultra-wealthy tycoons whose companies do substantial business with the Pentagon — and have a financial stake in how the military modernizes itself. The initiative, dubbed Project Meridian, will spend 120 days looking into “the future of war.” It will be led by Musk, who also owns Starlink — which, like SpaceX, is a major defense contractor — and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey, who also makes tech for the military, along with Gingrich. “Project Meridian, the future of warfare, is not about developing new strategies or new policies,” Hegseth said. Instead, it will “identify the domains that we must conquer, and capabilities we must master.” He also established a new four-star command, AutoWarCom, that will focus on drone warfare, an arena where the U. S. has lagged behind. In a memo released after his speech, the Pentagon clarified it would work with Congress to stand up the command by Oct. 1, 2027, meaning that it will have to be squeezed into the next defense budget request. The newly established initiatives took on a very Hegseth-like look. The Pentagon chief, who has credited prayer for helping him overcome his turbulent past, announced a new corps of cadets, some of which would be drawn from Christian colleges instead of “DEI-worshipping woke factories.” He also established an Office of Religious Affairs, which will make the military services’ top chaplains report directly to him. “Our department is, you might say, putting on the full armor of God, because while we wage physical war, we all know the real battle is spiritual,” Hegseth said. The speech was met with skepticism. Some in the Pentagon considered Hegseth’s proposals outdated, more in the mold of Obama-era strategies to deter Russia and China with superior technology. “This was predicted 12 years ago,” said a defense official, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Others said that, after two years, Hegseth’s campaign to overhaul the military was wearing thin.”The Pentagon isn’t a personal playground in the culture wars, and Republicans facing voters in five weeks shouldn’t have to defend this tomfoolery,” said John Ullyot, a former Pentagon spokesperson. “The president and our troops deserve better.”