Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the creation of an Autonomous Warfare Command, a new military command to lead the joint force in autonomous operations, at the 2026 Association of the United States Army annual meeting and exposition. The Pentagon is pursuing Project Agincourt, a short-term initiative signed into effect last month, as the pathway to the new command.
Hegseth said the administration secured $1 billion in funding for drone dominance efforts and distributed the resources directly to field operators. The Defense Department plans to field hundreds of thousands of one-way attack systems this year, with millions to follow in coming years, he said.
The military services are already deploying autonomous systems. U.S. Central Command's autonomous surface systems rescued two downed Apache helicopter pilots off the coast of Oman in June. The Navy's Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, which deployed on Oct. 8, is the first carrier strike group to deploy with a medium-sized unmanned surface vessel, according to Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao.
The Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Space Force are all advancing autonomous warfare capabilities, according to Hegseth. The Air Force is integrating autonomous fighters into experimental operations at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink said autonomous systems could be five to 10 times cheaper than manned alternatives.
Hegseth emphasized the importance of operational integration across military domains. "This Autowarcom is what's going to create that multidomain, that domain synthesis that you need so that, from space to what we're doing sub-sea in autonomy, is able to work together in a contested environment," he said.