Secretary of War Pete Hegseth tasked the Project Agincourt team with standing up the Autonomous Warfare Command, a new military command expected to be operational by Oct. 1, 2027, according to an announcement this week. The command will lead the joint force in unmanned autonomous warfare. Owen West and Max Strasiser, appointed by Hegseth as chief executive and chief operating officer respectively, will direct the effort.
The Autonomous Warfare Command will operate under a "combat-first model" that pushes procurement decisions and dollars directly to frontline warfighters, according to West and Strasiser. Success will be measured by how quickly an operational problem results in a fielded, scalable solution on the battlefield.
The military leadership cited rapid changes in military technology as a driver for the new approach. Low-cost drones have changed the character, speed and economics of warfare, according to West and Strasiser. Hegseth tasked them with ensuring the U.S. keeps pace with adversaries in developing, manufacturing and deploying low-cost autonomous systems.
West and Strasiser emphasized that rapid decision-making must not sacrifice rigor. "Urgency does not excuse imprecision," they wrote. "We will work analytically with the Joint Staff, the services and, above all, the operational units that will serve as our incubators. Evidence will decide outcomes. Competitions, exercises and combat performance will determine which systems scale, and which are cut."