Project Meridian<\/strong> and warfare\u2019s future
Hegseth revealed that SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk, Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey and former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) will lead a new Pentagon effort to study the future of warfare, dubbed Project Meridian.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Pentagon chief said the project is meant to harness America\u2019s innovators, senior leaders and technologists to look decades into the future and \u201cforecast the creative solution for tomorrow\u2019s conflicts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is futuristic on purpose,\u201d he said of the project, which he clarified was not meant to develop new strategies or policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe should have the humility to recognize that the best forecasters of future conflict do not solely reside inside the Pentagon,\u201d Hegseth said. \u201cThere are obvious biases and risks to asking ourselves to both ask the questions and answer them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hegseth said Musk, Luckey and Gingrich, under the leadership of Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael, \u201cwill be focused on discovering, developing, and fielding the weapons and systems that our children and our grandchildren will need in their lifetimes, without any creative limitations or restrictions, on any future battlefield, from under the Earth to beyond the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All three men were in attendance at the Pentagon as Hegseth made his announcement, and the Pentagon chief said their first meeting on Project Meridian would happen immediately following the event in a sensitive compartmented information facility in the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
States invited to bid for \u2018next great American\u2019 base
Hegseth invited governors to bid for their state to be the home of the \u201cnext great American\u201d base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re calling on every governor in the country and adjutant general, every tag across this great republic, to step up to the plate and bring us their best sales pitch,\u201d the Defense secretary said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf your state wants the honor of hosting 15,000 to 25,000 of America\u2019s great troops, show us why and how you\u2019re going to do it, cutting through the red tape, offering up the land and rolling out the red carpet for our military families,\u201d he said during the speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Naval Station Everett in Washington state was the most recent base built inside the U.S., opening in the 1990s. The base is home to several guided-missile destroyers and Coast Guard ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hegseth said the new base will not be a \u201csoulless government installation,\u201d arguing the Pentagon will \u201cplan out and chart out a dynamic, self-sustaining power projection platform.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pentagon said the base will be off the commercial grid, featuring independent power generation, autonomous systems and advanced air defenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re talking hundreds of thousands of acres with organic power generation, modern air defenses, and cutting-edge technology, think a fortress,\u201d the secretary said. Service members will have \u201cfirst-class barracks, world-class training facilities, and thriving communities with top-tier housing, school, childcare and healthcare for families.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hegseth directed Dale R. Marks, who is assistant secretary of Defense for energy, installations and environment, to lead the Pentagon\u2019s effort to identify, evaluate, select and prepare an optimal site for the base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRapid advancements in disruptive technologies, growing strategic alignment among peer adversaries, and persistent, sophisticated cyber intrusions against critical defense and homeland infrastructure necessitate a modernized, resilient posture,\u201d the Defense secretary said in a Wednesday memo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Fortress America\u2019 takes bases off civilian grid
Another new initiative revealed Wednesday is \u201cFortress America,\u201d which Hegseth claimed will be \u201ca national insurance policy for the American homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under Fortress, which stands for \u201cFederal Operations for Resilience, Troop Resources, Energy Supply and Survivability,\u201d every major military installation in America would generate its own power independent of the civilian grid, according to Hegseth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf an adversary takes down the grid by cyberattack, by sabotage, or by any means, our bases stay lit. Our aircraft keep flying. Our command centers never go dark,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The effort also is meant to bring critical supply chains home, including rare earth minerals, specialty metals, semiconductors and propellants \u201cmined in America, refined in America, built in America by American workers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition, the Pentagon would build up strategic reserves of such critical needs as munitions, fuel, medicine and blood \u201cdeep enough that if the world\u2019s supply lines break \u2014 and in a real war, they\u2019re going to break \u2014 America keeps fighting anyway,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To accomplish this, Hegseth said the U.S. military is \u201chardening every installation on American soil against cyber intrusion, sabotage and drones, and we\u2019re securing the high ground and the airwaves, our satellites, our spectrum,\u201d claiming that the DOD \u201cwill be the insurance policy for the entire nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New non-Ivy League partnerships for cadets
The Defense secretary also said the Pentagon will partner with five more colleges to broaden the corps of cadets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The military training program, called \u201cAmerica\u2019s Corps of Cadets,\u201d will include Louisiana State University, Liberty University, Tuskegee University, Mississippi State University and Hillsdale College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need more officers from academic institutions like our military academies and senior military colleges, and today we\u2019re going to make that happen,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each school will be a \u201cdistinguished military college\u201d and will be expected to \u201cmaintain exceptionally high standards of cadet discipline, tactical instruction and military organization,\u201d the Pentagon chief said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Military academies like West Point, Naval Academy and Air Force Academy commission most of the officers into the U.S. armed forces, followed by senior military colleges like Texas A&M and the Citadel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hegseth\u2019s office will begin implementation within 30 days, and within four months, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata will transition to become the primary office responsible for the program, according to a Wednesday Pentagon memo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFrom the Ivy Leagues to the most liberal arts colleges, our colleges and universities have become anti-American DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] worshipping woke factories. Qualities like grit and courage replaced with political correctness and social justice,\u201d Hegseth said. \u201cGod and country traded for Che Guevara and critical theory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Creates Office of Religious Affairs
In his last proclamation, Hegseth declared he will establish the Office of Religious Affairs at the Pentagon that \u201cwill report straight to the top.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCutting-edge technology \u2026 new basing and bases \u2026 and a better educational pipeline are still incomplete without the most essential component of our republic: faith,\u201d he told the assembled service members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said the Defense Department has \u201ca sacred duty\u201d to provide troops with \u201cfirst-class religious support\u201d wherever they\u2019re sent, bashing past administrations for treating the topic as an afterthought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPolitical correctness and secular humanism got a vote. Chaplains did not. Budgets were cut. Resourcing and manpower needs were ignored. Base chapels fell apart,\u201d Hegseth claimed. \u201cDecisions about faith and religion were made by secular careerists in cubicles and lawyers running around with red tape.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Starting Wednesday, the Office of Religious Affairs will have \u201ca direct line to the secretary\u201d and will \u201cprotect budgets, demand infrastructure, and strengthen religious support,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hegseth frequently invokes his faith and has declared service members\u2019 spiritual health as \u201cequally important\u201d as their physical and mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this year he revamped the U.S. military\u2019s Chaplain Corps, announcing that the officers will no longer wear their rank insignia, instead displaying insignia that reflects their religious affiliation \u2014 part of two major changes to the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hegseth defends officer cuts
At the start of his speech, Hegseth defended his plan to cut 20 percent of generals and admirals at the Pentagon, arguing the major shake-up was long overdue at the department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNow the media calls that a purge. I call it accountability and long overdue, and frankly, the bare minimum. As usual, what the media levels as an accusation, I wear as an accomplishment,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou see, you can\u2019t change a culture with the same people who enabled it,\u201d he said. \u201cPersonnel is policy at every single level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The move will impact senior leadership positions across the Army, Navy and the Air Force, coming a year after Hegseth oversaw a 10 percent reduction of general officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The move comes as he has already fired or pushed out more than two dozen senior military officers across the service branches, personnel changes that have unnerved congressional lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou see, last year\u2019s speech was not for those generals,\u201d Hegseth said during the speech. \u201cIt was for you, the backbone of our force, the current and future leaders on the front lines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bron: https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/defense\/6121765-pete-hegseth-takeaways-command-warfare-base\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday announced that SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk, Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey and former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) will lead a new Pentagon effort to study the future of warfare, dubbed \u201cProject Meridian.\u201d The Pentagon chief said the project is meant to harness America\u2019s innovators, senior leaders and technologists to look […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[17,10,4,9],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-project-meridian","tag-ai","tag-dread","tag-link","tag-terrible"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monoduststart.nl\/km3x2i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monoduststart.nl\/km3x2i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monoduststart.nl\/km3x2i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monoduststart.nl\/km3x2i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monoduststart.nl\/km3x2i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/monoduststart.nl\/km3x2i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86,"href":"https:\/\/monoduststart.nl\/km3x2i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions\/86"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monoduststart.nl\/km3x2i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monoduststart.nl\/km3x2i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monoduststart.nl\/km3x2i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}