The Pentagon is creating a new four-star military command dedicated to autonomous and robotic warfare, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seeks to accelerate the U.S. military’s adoption of drones, artificial intelligence, and other low-cost autonomous systems.
Hegseth announced the Autonomous Warfare Command, or AutoWarCom, on Wednesday during a “State of the Force” address at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. The command will have “service-like authorities” and is intended to scale autonomous and robotic capabilities across the joint force.
The initiative represents the first creation of a new U.S. combatant command since Space Command was established in 2019. The Pentagon currently has 11 combatant commands covering geographic regions and specific military missions; AutoWarCom would become the 12th.
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“The pace of war is changing faster than the process to support it,” Hegseth said.
He pointed to advances in computing, artificial intelligence, and commercial manufacturing as forces changing the economics of warfare.
“Cheap compute, superintelligence, and advanced commercial manufacturing have enabled the proliferation of low-cost, high-precision strike,” Hegseth said.
The command is intended to address that shift by giving autonomous systems their own institutional structure, acquisition authority, and personnel pathways rather than leaving development scattered across existing military organizations.
According to a Pentagon memo released alongside the announcement, the command is targeted for establishment by October 1, 2027. The process will require congressional action, while the Pentagon develops the organization through an interim effort known as Project Agincourt. The command is expected to have dedicated manpower, budget, and acquisition authorities.
The announcement reflects a growing recognition inside the Pentagon that the economics of warfare are changing.
For decades, the U.S. military has relied heavily on sophisticated and extremely expensive platforms, including fighter aircraft, ships, armored vehicles and precision weapons. Those systems provide capabilities that inexpensive drones cannot simply replace, but their cost can make them difficult to deploy at scale against an adversary able to produce large quantities of cheaper systems.
Hegseth framed the emerging model as a combination of high-end weapons and mass-produced autonomous systems.
“Today we need both quality and quantity,” he said.
The Pentagon’s challenge is not just about developing more capable weapons. It is developing systems quickly enough, cheaply enough, and in sufficient numbers to match the pace at which battlefield technology is evolving.
The new command is intended to bring those requirements together across the military. Its portfolio is expected to include drones, artificial intelligence, and command-and-control systems, with the goal of moving autonomous capabilities from experimentation into routine military operations.
That institutional shift could also alter the Pentagon’s procurement process. Traditional defense programs can take years to move from design to deployment, while commercial AI and drone technologies can evolve on much shorter cycles.
Hegseth’s criticism is that the military’s acquisition system is not moving at the same speed as the technology available to potential adversaries.
The Pentagon has already created a task force focused on countering drones, but AutoWarCom is designed to address the other side of the equation: developing and deploying the autonomous systems themselves.
Ukraine Has Become A Test Case For Drone Warfare
The war in Ukraine has provided one of the clearest demonstrations of how inexpensive unmanned systems can change battlefield operations.
Ukraine, facing disadvantages in conventional armor and aircraft, has made extensive use of relatively inexpensive drones for reconnaissance, targeting and attack. Russia has also deployed large numbers of drones, turning the battlefield into an environment in which inexpensive unmanned systems can threaten far more costly military equipment.
Reuters reported that drones are estimated to account for about 70% of Russian casualties, highlighting the extent to which unmanned systems have become integrated into modern combat.
The lesson for the Pentagon is not simply that drones are replacing traditional weapons. Instead, warfare is increasingly becoming a layered system in which expensive aircraft, missiles and ships operate alongside large numbers of cheaper autonomous platforms. A military that can produce and deploy thousands of relatively inexpensive systems may be able to impose costs on an adversary without exposing pilots and other personnel to the same level of risk.
Hegseth’s emphasis on both “quality and quantity” reflects that emerging model.
It also explains why the Pentagon is increasingly looking toward commercial technology companies. Advances in processors, AI models, sensors, communications, and manufacturing are coming from the private sector, where development cycles are generally faster than those of traditional defense programs.
AutoWarCom is meant to provide the military with an institutional mechanism for absorbing those technologies more quickly.
AI Introduces A New Security Problem
The move also carries risks that extend beyond procurement and battlefield efficiency.
AI-enabled military systems can process information and make decisions faster than humans, but increasing autonomy creates questions about reliability, accountability, and human control over the use of force.
Security experts have warned that an accelerating technology competition between the United States and China could increase those risks, particularly if autonomous systems become connected to sensitive military operations or nuclear command structures.
Both U.S. and Chinese experts have called for guardrails and greater consensus around the use of AI in military systems, including nuclear weapons. That tension is becoming more consequential as both countries invest heavily in advanced AI. The United States is trying to preserve its technological lead while China is rapidly expanding its own capabilities in AI, robotics and autonomous systems.
The creation of AutoWarCom signals that the Pentagon views autonomy not as an isolated technology program but as an organizational and operational capability.
The new command will also need to solve a practical problem: turning large numbers of autonomous systems into an effective military force. That requires more than buying drones. It involves software, communications networks, sensors, electronic warfare defenses, logistics, command structures, trained personnel, and systems capable of operating when communications are disrupted.
The Pentagon’s decision to create dedicated career pathways for personnel working with autonomous systems is an acknowledgment of that requirement.
However, experts note that, for the U.S. military, the shift could eventually alter the balance between exquisite but expensive platforms and cheaper systems designed to be produced and replaced at scale.