Hegseth uses AUSA spotlight to push autonomy, ‘generational’ defense investment – Breaking Defense

Hegseth uses AUSA spotlight to push autonomy, ‘generational’ defense investment  Breaking Defense

Senior officials also revealed that the Defense Autonomous Working Group has been absorbed into a new Task Force Autonomous Warfare, which sits inside the Special Operations Command. WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and service leaders took center stage at the Association of the US Army’s annual conference this morning discussing broad plans to scale autonomous weapons and stand up a new four-star command. “You have autonomy. You have robotics. You have SI [super intelligence]. You have space,” Hegseth told an audience full of servicemembers and industry figures. “It’s that the folks who acquire it [defense platforms] need to be right there, up with the warfighter at the same time, who understand how to iterate it and change on and innovate on it.” While Hegseth and service civilian leaders steered clear of many specifics about autonomy development and investment plans today, they used the event to discuss the need to stand up the recently announced Autonomous Warfare Command, or AUTOWARCOM, that is envisioned as having service-like authorities to scale autonomous and robotic capabilities across the joint force.

While Congress will have to sign off on the plan — a move that could take time — the Defense Department is moving out with several efforts to pave that path forward. For instance, the Pentagon has shifted the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager