Hegseth Unveils Pentagon Overhaul: Bases Go Off-Grid, Musk and Gingrich Tapped to Plan Future Wars

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth laid out a sweeping plan Wednesday to change how the U.S. military powers its bases, buys its drones, and plans for the wars of the future. He announced it during a nearly hour-long "State of the Force" address at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, one year after he summoned 800 flag officers to the same base for a speech on fitness and culture, according to Business Insider.

Bases Go Off the Grid

The centerpiece is FORTRESS America, described by Hegseth as "a national insurance policy for the American homeland." Every major U.S. military installation will be required to generate its own power, independent of the civilian electrical grid.

A 2021 Department of Commerce report published in the Federal Register found that U.S. military bases rely on commercial power grids for 99% of their electricity, according to the Daily Wire. That includes Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, home to the nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bomber fleet, which currently depends on local commercial power.

"If an adversary takes down the grid, by cyberattack, by sabotage, by any means, our bases stay lit," Hegseth told troops. "Our aircraft keep flying. Our command centers never go dark."

The plan also calls for mining and refining rare earths, specialty metals, semiconductors, and propellants domestically, plus building strategic reserves of munitions, fuel, medicine, and blood deep enough to "fight through disruption," Hegseth said, adding bluntly that in a real war, global supply lines "will break."

A New Command for Drone Warfare

Hegseth also announced the Autonomous Warfare Command, or AUTOWARCOM, a planned four-star command with what he called "service-like authorities" over robotic and autonomous systems, according to Defense Scoop. He said it would represent the fastest peacetime shift in modern military history.

"Ukraine's lesson is not that one type of drone wins wars, but rather the need for a purpose-built system that maximizes the ability to adapt," Hegseth said.

An interim effort called Project Agincourt will build toward the new command over the next year, led by Defense Innovation Unit Director Owen West and Navy SEAL Senior Chief Max Strasiser, Defense Scoop reported. West will handle "strategic risk, resources, and scale," while Strasiser focuses on frontline combat realities, per Hegseth's own description.

Musk, Luckey, and Gingrich Get 120 Days

The most contested piece of Wednesday's rollout is Project Meridian, a 120-day study on the future of warfare that Hegseth says will be led by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, working under Pentagon technology chief Emil Michael, a former Uber vice president, according to CNBC.

Hegseth called the trio "the best forecasters of future conflict" and said the group will report back in 120 days with a full public rollout, looking at battlefields ranging "from under the Earth to beyond the moon."

None of the three has served in the U.S. military, CNBC reported, noting that Musk moved to Canada as a teenager, a decision he has said was partly to avoid compulsory military service in apartheid-era South Africa. Gingrich, while having no direct tech-industry background, has worked on projects adjacent to the military and received an honorary doctorate from Air University last year, according to Engadget.

The arrangement raises an obvious conflict-of-interest question that several outlets flagged. Musk's SpaceX holds a $4.16 billion Space Force contract awarded in May 2026 to build satellites for tracking airborne threats, plus a separate $2.29 billion contract for a military satellite communications network, CNBC reported. Luckey's Anduril won a Marine Corps contract worth up to $642 million in 2025 for counter-drone systems, per the same report. Both companies build exactly the kind of technology Project Meridian is likely to recommend the Pentagon buy more of.

No investigation, recusal requirement, or ethics review has been announced regarding Musk's or Luckey's dual roles as Pentagon contractors and Pentagon advisers. Anduril, SpaceX, Tesla, and Gingrich did not respond to CNBC's requests for comment.

The fact that the people best positioned to identify what the military needs next are also the people best positioned to sell it raises questions about potential conflicts. However, Musk and Luckey do run two of the only American companies actually building cutting-edge autonomous defense systems at scale, which is the expertise Hegseth says the Pentagon lacks internally. Engadget's framing, that this "sounds less like a source of guidance and more like a way to give yet more power and money to friends of the current administration," represents one outlet's interpretation rather than a documented finding.

The New Republic's coverage leaned harder into mockery, calling the address a "bizarre, TED Talk-style speech" and questioning whether Musk, Luckey, and Gingrich bring any edge other countries lack. That's an editorial judgment, not a factual claim, and the piece stops short of identifying any rule Hegseth's picks would violate.

Project Meridian's report is due in 120 days, meaning the public won't see concrete recommendations until early 2027. Whether the study proposes buying more from the companies its own co-leads run, and whether the Pentagon builds in any safeguard against that outcome, will become clear in due course.