"You have autonomy. You have robotics. You have SI [super intelligence]. You have space," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told an audience at the Association of the US Army’s annual conference, pressing a single thread through a wider pitch for rapid, large-scale investment in autonomous and robotic systems.
Hegseth frames a "one-time generational" defense investment
At the AUSA event, Hegseth used the platform to argue that large, immediate spending is required to reshape how the Defense Department acquires and fields emerging technologies. He characterized the request as "[it is] a one-time generational investment" that would "give us a chance to reflect the president’s priorities." Hegseth repeated that "investments now are going to matter, and they’re going to ripple not just for years but for decades across our joint force," while urging acquisition teams to work closely with warfighters to iterate and innovate defense platforms.
Hegseth and service civilian leaders largely avoided laying out technical specifics at the conference, instead emphasizing institutional and management changes intended to accelerate adoption and scale-up of autonomy and robotics across the force.
Project Agincourt and the DRPM shift
The Pentagon has begun reorganizing program management to match that strategic pitch. Officials moved the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager (DRPM) for autonomy into a broader unmanned-technology initiative called Project Agincourt. Owen West, who now leads Project Agincourt, moderated the autonomy panel at AUSA, offering a public glimpse into how the department is reorganizing authority and oversight for autonomous systems.
Those management shifts are designed to create an umbrella program with the ability to coordinate across portfolios rather than leave autonomy efforts dispersed among multiple managers and service stovepipes.
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End the scrambleDAWG, Replicator and the new Task Force Autonomous Warfare under SOCOM
The Defense Autonomous Working Group (DAWG) — established as a follow-on to the Biden-era Replicator initiative to boost drone and counter-drone production — has itself been reconfigured. The source reports that DAWG was placed under Special Operations Command (SOCOM) in 2025 with the aim of focusing on different capability portfolios.
Derrick Anderson, the assistant secretary of defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, told the audience that DAWG "is now being absorbed by a new Task Force Autonomous Warfare inside SOCOM to support Project Agincourt and, eventually, AUTOWARCOM, to 'keep iterating' inside the autonomy space and so that there isn't a 'stagnant pause.'" Anderson added, "We're smaller. We're able to iterate at the speed of relevancy," and asserted, "Our guys are going to keep pushing forward."
AUTOWARCOM, the joint ambition, and the congressional hurdle
Officials described the Autonomous Warfare Command, or AUTOWARCOM, as a prospective four-star command with service-like authorities intended to scale autonomous and robotic capabilities across the joint force. The plan remains an internal Pentagon pathway rather than an established organization; Congress must approve it and that approval "could take time," according to remarks at the conference.
The department has nonetheless been preparing for a scale-up: the Pentagon included funding plans tied to DAWG and associated autonomy efforts in its fiscal planning. While lawmakers had not approved a fiscal 2027 defense spending bill or moved ahead with the administration’s separate reconciliation request at the time of the event, the Pentagon had "laid out plans to spend nearly $55 billion on DAWG." Hegseth stressed that the full request is necessary to "drive change" inside the department.
What this means for SOCOM, Congress, and warfighters
- SOCOM and Special Operations leadership: SOCOM will house a new Task Force Autonomous Warfare to absorb DAWG functions and support Project Agincourt, signaling tighter operational control and faster iteration cycles for unmanned and autonomous capabilities.
- Congress and appropriators: Lawmakers hold the decision point on whether the envisioned AUTOWARCOM will receive the statutory and budgetary authorization the Pentagon seeks; officials warned that congressional approval could take time and that the department considers the full fiscal request necessary to achieve its objectives.
- Warfighters and acquisition managers: The secretary argued acquisition teams must be "right there, up with the warfighter" to iterate and innovate — a call for closer integration of end users and program managers as organizations pursue rapid fielding of autonomy and robotics.
The session at AUSA sketched an ambitious reordering of authorities and money to accelerate autonomy across the Defense Department: new umbrella programs, the realignment of DRPM into Project Agincourt, SOCOM’s Task Force Autonomous Warfare absorbing DAWG, and an aspiration to stand up AUTOWARCOM as a service-like command. The next concrete steps are procedural and political — the department moving budget proposals through the fiscal 2027 process and awaiting congressional action on both spending bills and the broader authorization for a new command.
Original story: https://breakingdefense.com/2026/10/hegseth-uses-ausa-spotlight-to-highlight-autonomy-generational-defense-investment/
