Pentagon Launches Four-Star Autonomous Warfare Command
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced the Autonomous Warfare Command, a new four-star combatant command targeting an October 2027 launch to scale drones and AI across the military, with an interim effort called Project Agincourt, led by Owen West and Navy SEAL Senior Chief Max Strasiser, laying the groundwork now.
The Pentagon just told its own bureaucracy it's too slow for the war it's actually preparing to fight. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the Autonomous Warfare Command, or AutoWarCom, during his State of the Force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico on September 30 — a new four-star combatant command with "service-like authorities" built specifically to scale drones, robotics and AI across every branch.
The command itself won't formally exist for another year, targeted for October 1, 2027. In the meantime, Hegseth is standing up Project Agincourt, an interim effort meant to build the path there. A few details define how the handoff is structured:
- Hegseth tapped Owen West, director of the Defense Innovation Unit, and Navy SEAL Senior Chief Max Strasiser to lead Project Agincourt, describing the pairing as a "CEO, COO partnership" — West on strategic risk and resources, Strasiser on operational realities in combat
- The project draws directly on lessons from Ukraine's drone war, with Hegseth arguing the lesson isn't that any one drone wins wars, but that the military needs a purpose-built system flexible enough to adapt as fast as the battlefield does
- The department plans to work with Congress to secure the legislative authority AutoWarCom will need once established
The reorganization builds on groundwork Hegseth laid back in June, when he named the existing drone program office DRPM-UxS the Pentagon's single joint integrator for unmanned systems — a role Owen West now also leads.
"The pace of war is changing faster than the process to support it," Hegseth told the room, framing the entire command less as a new capability and more as an acknowledgment that America's acquisition system can't currently buy, test or field autonomous weapons at the speed modern conflict demands.
Whether a brand-new four-star command actually closes that gap, or simply adds another layer atop an acquisition process Hegseth himself just called too slow, is the question Project Agincourt's first 30-day plan will have to start answering.
