# Hegseth's Military Shift > Defense secretary Pete Hegseth announces new military commands, tech projects, and cultural changes in State of the Force speech. - Title: Hegseth's Military Shift · Foreign Policy | Shortify - Summary: Defense secretary Pete Hegseth announces new military commands, tech projects, and cultural changes in State of the Force speech. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete… - Keywords: pete hegseth, autonomous warfare command, project meridian, fortress america, military culture, u.s. defense secretary, elton musk, newt gingrich, palmer luckey, fbi cyberattack, nato, united states - Source: Foreign Policy — https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/10/01/hegseth-speech-state-force-autonomous-musk-luckey-gingrich - Author: Rishi Iyengar - Read time: 2 min - Topics: pete hegseth, autonomous warfare command, project meridian, fortress america, military culture, u.s. defense secretary, elton musk, newt gingrich, palmer luckey, fbi cyberattack, nato, united states ## State of the Force Speech U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gives a consequential speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia on Sept. 30. > U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gives a "State of the Force" address at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Virginia, on Sept. 30 ## Autonomous Warfare Command Hegseth announced a new combatant command focused on military adoption of autonomous weapons to scale capabilities in the fastest peacetime shift in modern military history. > Autonomous Warfare Command, or Autowarcom, the new command’s goal will be to "scale autonomous and robotic capabilities" across the military in what Hegseth said will be "the fastest peacetime shift in modern military history" ## Project Meridian Project Meridian studies future warfare with Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey, and Newt Gingrich overseeing a 120-day timeline for findings to submit to Hegseth’s office. > Project Meridian that aims to study the future of warfare. That project will be overseen by emil michael, the defense department’s chief technology officer, and co-led by elon musk, defense tech company anduril’s founder palmer luckey, and former u.s. speaker of the house newt gingrich ## FORTRESS America U.S. military establishes FORTRESS America office within 30 days to ensure bases develop independent energy and supply chains for rare earths and semiconductors. > The military will also establish a new office within 30 days to ensure that u.s. military bases develop their own infrastructure, including independent energy supplies in case of disruption to civilian electricity grids and self-sufficient supply chains of rare earths, semiconductors, and other materials ## Military Purge Hegseth cut 20 percent of the overall force, calling it accountability rather than a purge. > Now, the media calls that a "purge." I call it accountability and long overdue, and frankly, the bare minimum ## Military Culture Shift Hegseth requires male officers to be clean-shaven and institutes testosterone tests, calling it unity over diversity. > The ideological clowns are out, the patriotic cowboys are in, with testosterone testing on top. Diversity is not our strength, unity is our strength ## Military Metrics Hegseth claims sexual assaults and suicides decreased while black and female recruitment increased. > At the same time, hegseth claimed that sexual assaults and suicides in the department had been reduced and that "black and female recruitment" had increased ## Religious Affairs Office Hegseth establishes Office of Religious Affairs with direct reporting to him and no staff filters. > The final new announcement of hegseth’s speech was the establishment of an office of religious affairs that will report directly to him with "no staff filters, no bureaucratic dilution, a direct line to the secretary" ## Senate Labor Confirmation Senate confirms Keith Sonderling as U.S. secretary of labor after his acting role since April. > The u.s. senate voted on wednesday to confirm keith sonderling as the new u.s. secretary of labor, a role that he has held in an acting capacity since his predecessor, lori chavez-demere, resigned in april amid allegations of misconduct ## Ambassadors Confirmed Senate confirms 10 career diplomats as U.S. ambassadors to Benin, Gabon, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Malaysia, Cape Verde, Kyrgyzstan, Togo, Malawi, and Nicaragua. > Sen. jeanne shaheen, the ranking member of the senate foreign relations committee who is set to retire at the end of her term, forced the confirmation of 10 career diplomats as u.s. ambassadors by unanimous consent ## Cyberattack Impact Defense Department confirms 3 million military personnel impacted by data breach of human resources system. > The defense department confirmed on tuesday that close to 3 million current and former military personnel were impacted by a data breach of the department’s human resources system ## ShinyHunters Hack Cybercrime group ShinyHunters hacked thousands of FBI personnel records, prompting active investigation. > A cybercrime group called shinyhunters said last week that it had hacked the personal data of thousands of fbi personnel. The fbi said it was "actively and aggressively investigating" the attack ## Digital Europe Digital Europe director-general Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl highlights european tech leadership in 6G, drones, and semiconductors. > Many people think that the u.s. does all the technology and that europe does not really have anything, which is actually not true if you look at some of the technologies ## NATO Exclusion U.S. leaves out key allies from NATO meeting in Poland, including UK, France, and Baltic countries. > The united states has left out several key allies, including the united kingdom, france, and multiple baltic countries, from a nato meeting in poland that colby is set to chair next month ## Trump's AI Rebrand Trump rebrands U.S. as "President of the Unites States" in White House AI accord with tech executives. > A new white house accord on artificial intelligence, signed by half a dozen leading technology executives who met with trump this week, contained the unfortunate typo "president of the unites states" under trump’s signature ## Key takeaway U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled Autonomous Warfare Command, Project Meridian with Musk and Gingrich, and FORTRESS America to revive military culture and autonomy.