Pete Hegseth’s speech and three accompanying memorandums released Monday reveal the Trump administration’s latest, fast-moving and multifaceted vision to overhaul the Pentagon's technology enterprise.
A passenger plane flies above the Pentagon, as seen from the top of the Washington Monument on January 5, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images)
A poster at the Pentagon, Dec. 12, 2025, lets employees know that a new artificial intelligence tool is available to use at the War Department, and that employees are highly encouraged to use it. (Credit: C. Todd Lopez, DOW)
Dr. Douglas Matty, then-Army Artificial Intelligence Task Force Director, spoke to Association of the United States Army annual meeting attendees during the October 13, 2021 Army Advanced Technologies (Cloud and Data) Warriors Corner event at Washington, D.C.’s Walter E. Washington Convention Center. (Photo by Edward Loomis)
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael tour multi-domain autonomous displays in the courtyard of the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., July 16, 2025. (DoD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander Kubitza)
Undersecretary of Defense Emil Michael shared details about the DOD's forthcoming pursuits to accelerate AI for in-office functions and modern warfare.
A person holds a telephone displaying the logo of Elon Musk s artificial intelligence grok in front of a background lit by a blue light in Kerlouan in Brittany in France on February 18 2025. (Photo by Vincent Feuray/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)
Stephen Feinberg, U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee to be Deputy Secretary of Defense, testifies during his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on February 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Also called foundation models, frontier AI refers to sophisticated, constantly evolving, cutting-edge systems that are becoming increasingly intelligent at completing tasks like natural language processing, computer vision…
