Source: Global Times
[Global Times Correspondent Chen Yang, Global Times Reporter Liu Yang] Recently, U.S. President Trump proposed increasing the U.S. defense budget to a record 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars in 2027, while demanding that defense contractors stop paying dividends and repurchasing stocks until these companies accelerate weapons production. This move has caused significant shock in the U.S. defense industry. On local time on the 12th, U.S. Defense Secretary Hegseth visited the "Starship Base" (the main production and launch site of SpaceX's Starship heavy rocket), and toured the Starship production plant with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. As part of Hegseth's "Free Armory" national tour, he delivered a speech at the Starship Base, once again expressing his dissatisfaction with traditional U.S. military-industrial groups, calling for a complete reform of the Pentagon's technology system, and announcing the removal of obstacles hindering the efficient development of artificial intelligence within the U.S. military.
On local time on the 12th, the U.S. Defense Secretary visited the Starship Base with Elon Musk's accompaniment.
What was said in the 35-minute speech
A news article published by the Pentagon's official website stated that Hegseth's "Free Armory" national tour on the 12th was held at the headquarters of the American space exploration company SpaceX, known as the "Starship Base." The U.S. "Defense News" website reported that Hegseth announced a fundamental restructuring of the U.S. military's technology procurement during his public speech, and proposed an "artificial intelligence first" transformation plan aimed at operating at wartime speed, explicitly stating that "SpaceX's rapid prototyping and 'fast failure iteration' methods are the new blueprint for the Pentagon."
In his 35-minute public speech on the day, Hegseth stated that since the end of the Cold War, it has been difficult, even impossible, for emerging companies in the field of technological innovation to win bids from the Pentagon. "This situation must end today," he said. He criticized the traditional U.S. defense conglomerates, saying they "provided weapons that helped the United States win the Cold War," but those practices have become outdated and cannot adapt to the new threat environment facing the country today. The core problem with the old approach is arrogance, "a new invention takes 30 years to turn into a weapon."
The report stated that Hegseth said, "We can no longer wait ten years for traditional defense contractors to deliver next-generation weapon systems, only to find out that it is not only delayed by several years but also costs ten times more." He clearly proposed a solution: learn from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, "question every requirement, eliminate unreasonable ones, and then fully accelerate."
According to information released by Hegseth on the 12th, the fundamental restructuring of the U.S. military's technology procurement aims to build a "unified innovation ecosystem" centered around six executive agencies. These agencies will operate under the leadership of the U.S. Department of Defense's "only" Chief Technology Officer and Deputy Under Secretary for Research and Engineering, Emir Michael. These agencies include the Pentagon's Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). In the new framework, the Pentagon's Chief Technology Officer Committee, along with multiple organizations from the Biden era, including the Defense Innovation Advisory Board and the Defense Innovation Working Group, will be dissolved. Michael will form a new Chief Technology Officer Action Group (CAG) to replace these institutions.
Another news article published by the Pentagon on the 12th stated that during his speech at the Starship Base, Hegseth announced that Cameron Stanley would serve as the next Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer of the Pentagon. Stanley, a former U.S. Air Force officer who worked in the private sector, will lead a team composed of elite personnel from the private sector to assist the Pentagon in achieving the AI goals set by Trump.
Hegseth stated, "In modern warfare, the one who innovates and iterates the fastest will ultimately win... We need to establish an innovation channel, using Musk's way—preferably with a chainsaw—to clear obstacles in the bureaucratic jungle with the urgency of the times and push forward rapidly."
Why choose the Starship Base
It is worth noting that the place where the U.S. Defense Secretary announced the structural transformation of the U.S. military's combat procurement system was neither the Pentagon nor during an inspection of a traditionally recognized U.S. defense company, but rather the "Starship Base." The "Defense News" website reported that Hegseth praised Elon Musk and SpaceX employees on-site and used the commercial manufacturing scale demonstrated at the Starship Base to criticize traditional defense contractors for their "risk-averse culture," explicitly stating that this culture "is slowing down innovation in the U.S. defense sector."
Bloomberg's article introduced that the Starship Base is the main production and launch site of SpaceX's Starship super-heavy rocket. When Hegseth visited the Starship Base, he praised Musk, indicating that the billionaire has regained favor after the dramatic split with the White House last year.
Some analysts believe that the choice of the Starship Base by the U.S. Defense Secretary reflects the growing trend of the Pentagon becoming Silicon Valley-like. However, an unnamed Chinese expert holds reservations about this view. He believes that Hegseth's decision to express dissatisfaction with the traditional U.S. defense complex at the Starship Base has special considerations. From the recent appointment of the Pentagon's Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer, it can be seen that he hopes to use more personnel with backgrounds in private enterprises to improve the efficiency of the U.S. defense sector. However, this cannot be entirely viewed as the Pentagon accelerating its Silicon Valleyization. Instead, the U.S. military is highly dependent on SpaceX's space launch capabilities, as Trump's "Gold Dome" missile defense plan relies heavily on SpaceX. Additionally, the Pentagon hopes to bring more start-ups into the list of urgently needed capabilities for the U.S. military. However, experts also stated that whether the content of Hegseth's speech can be implemented remains to be seen, as his seniority and authority within the military are limited.
During the visit to the Starship Base, Musk stated that this is the world's only rocket manufacturing base, "Our goal is to make Star Trek a reality." According to the report, Hegseth's visit to the Starship Base further solidified the U.S. military's intention to use the Starship super-heavy rocket as the main heavy-lift platform for the 480-satellite MILNET constellation, aiming to ensure U.S. dominance in low Earth orbit.
At almost the same time, the U.S. Space Force also announced that it had awarded a $739 million launch contract to SpaceX to send 44 advanced satellites capable of missile warning, tracking, and targeting into orbit. SpaceX will also carry out a classified mission called "NTO-5," responsible for launching a spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. The launch of these satellites is scheduled between the first quarter of fiscal year 2027 and the second quarter of fiscal year 2028, with the exact number and function remaining undisclosed due to confidentiality.
Deploying Leading AI Models in the Pentagon
As one of the signs of the renewed relationship between the U.S. government and Elon Musk, Hegseth also publicly stated at the Starship Base that Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok will be connected to the Pentagon network. Previously, the Pentagon had already introduced Google's AI large model Gemini. It is reported that the Google AI system can help the U.S. military "quickly analyze videos and images." According to Hegseth, the Pentagon will open up "all appropriate data" from the U.S. military's information technology systems and intelligence databases to these AI systems, "soon we will deploy the world's leading AI models into all our non-classified and classified networks."
Hegseth's proposal to significantly advance the Pentagon's artificial intelligence development has drawn attention. In his speech, he claimed, "We will deal with people and policies that hinder the promotion of artificial intelligence in the Pentagon with wartime measures. We are removing these obstacles." He said, "The U.S. military has had a non-proportional data advantage over any other army in the world for the past 20 years of military and intelligence operations, but we have not fully utilized this advantage. A large amount of valuable data is locked away, trapped in custom programs and databases, restricted by legal barriers, and inaccessible to operators, engineers, and industry partners who could help us utilize this data at the fastest speed and largest scale."
According to Hegseth's statement, the U.S. military will rapidly develop emerging artificial intelligence assets that may have unpredictable dangers, which contrasts sharply with the policies of the Biden administration. During the Biden administration, the artificial intelligence policy prohibited defense and national security agencies from applying such capabilities in ways that "could cause unintended consequences" or "bring existing and unforeseen threats."
However, Hegseth clearly stated, "We will not adopt artificial intelligence models that are not suitable for war. We will only evaluate artificial intelligence models based on this standard—factually accurate, task-related, and free from ideological constraints of legally permissible military applications."
The aforementioned experts believe that the issue of human, ethical problems related to the militarization of artificial intelligence has always been a topic of concern, with both domestic and foreign experts criticizing the weaponization of artificial intelligence possibly causing greater destruction than nuclear weapons, and emphasizing the need for strict regulation. Now, Hegseth's strong promotion of the Pentagon's "artificial intelligence acceleration strategy" is a move that needs global vigilance, as well as the potential unpredictable consequences that may arise from it.
Original: toutiao.com/article/7595353133618840115/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.