Hegseth Greets Troops at Stratcom, Talks Arsenal of Freedom in Wisconsin

Reestablishing the warrior ethos, rebuilding America's military and reestablishing deterrence are the big three goals Secretary of War Pete Hegseth set upon taking the helm at the Pentagon in 2025.

Today at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, the secretary told military personnel assigned to U.S. Strategic Command that they are the center of America's deterrent capability. The command serves as home of the No. 1 tool that America and its War Department use to underwrite everything it does around the globe. That includes its nuclear bomber aircraft fleet, its ground deterrence capability and its nuclear submarine fleet.

"It's the absolute foundation of our deterrence," Hegseth said. "I talk a lot about reviving the warrior ethos and rebuilding the military and reestablishing deterrence. Deterrence never left this place, never has, and that's a 24/7/365 responsibility that the men and women at this location live every single day; it is the absolute bedrock."

The secretary said the department is seeking - and expects to get - the president's $1.5 trillion defense budget request this year. And some of that, he said, is for investments within the Stratcom community. That includes investments in nuclear command and control, the Columbia-class submarine, the B-21 Raider, and the Sentinel program, which aims to replace the legacy Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile system.

Hegseth added that he knows the warrior ethos is firmly in place among them, and that the Stratcom mission demands nothing less than an unwavering and fully formed commitment to and focus on meritocracy.

"We don't want commanders walking on eggshells when they enforce the basics, like accountability, like standards, like readiness," he said. "You want to talk about ... a place where meritocracy has to reign no matter what; where you have to be ready at all times, no matter what? It's United States Strategic Command - nothing else matters. We just need folks that are very good at their job and able to conduct that with minimal distraction up and down [the] echelon. ... That's this place right here."

The secretary explained rebuilding the military through the Arsenal of Freedom initiative, and that involves giving defense contractors stable, long-term demand signals as a way to give those businesses the confidence and stability needed to invest in themselves and build more capability stateside, to include hiring more American workers.

He added that the War Department is expanding the pool of companies.

"Our arsenal of freedom needs to expand," he said. "It can't just be five prime contract defense contractors. ... We've got to open the bureaucracies so that more companies, great American companies, can compete. They build it here. They employ Americans here. They manufacture here at scale and at speed."

There are a lot of winners in that plan beyond the companies, Hegseth said, noting the taxpayers, the American workers and the warfighters.

"[The] American taxpayers are saving money because these private companies are investing in new plants and new manufacturing capability," Hegseth said. "[The] taxpayer also wins when you get a seven-year order on a fixed price, and most importantly for this audience, who wins? The warfighter - who gets the capabilities that you deserve faster than you've ever gotten them before - and with a magazine depth that you need for a modern battlefield."

Builders of the Arsenal

Later in the day, Hegseth traveled north to meet with part of the arsenal of freedom -defense industry workers in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

The OshKosh Corporation makes the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck. It also builds the OshKosh M-ATV, a mine-resistant ambush-protected family of vehicles.

The secretary said he wanted to thank the men and women of OshKosh Corporation himself, and on behalf of the president, for being an integral and important part of the arsenal of freedom.

"I'm here on behalf of the commander in chief, [President] Donald J. Trump, to say thank you for building faster and faster each day, the arsenal of freedom that our warriors need," he said. "I'm also here because I want an opportunity to look all of you in the eye, my fellow patriots, and tell you how important your job is. We don't have the helmets without the hard hats, and we don't have the warriors without the workers. We are all shoulder to shoulder in this arsenal of freedom."

Hegseth reminded OshKosh workers that their product, the OshKosh M-ATV, was brought to market quickly during the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that the speed with which they brought that vehicle to the warfighter meant lives were saved.

He added that in Iraq, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates saw a need for something better to protect ground troops.

"He cut the usual Pentagon red tape to get OshKosh MRAPs to our warriors in theater," Hegseth said. "You and this company saved American lives. There are many American warriors - in fact, I have no doubt many veterans right here today - living because of the good work of Midwest manufacturers like you."

The arsenal of freedom concept, Hegseth said, aims to replicate the quick-to-market, efficient, focused work that OshKosh did with the MRAP.

"It's a great American story that we are iterating on and replicating across our department right now," he said, calling OshKosh "a model of delivering commercial and military capabilities to the warfighter."

Hegseth said the Pentagon is slashing bureaucracy and making it easier for American companies, big and small, to compete and produce for the American warfighter.

"For decades, the Pentagon was hampered by bureaucracy, bogged down by burdensome and inefficient processes, paralyzed by impossible risk thresholds and distracted by agendas that had nothing to do with warfighting," Hegseth said.

Without stable demand signals, industry partners are unsure of how to proceed, when to build and where to invest in their own capacity.

"Uncertain projections … made the defense industrial base risk-averse, slow, lethargic, just like government," Hegseth said. "The companies that served government started looking like government, falling behind on budget, everything costing more, ever-changing and insane requirements; scheduling overruns became the norm."

Now that will all change, Hegseth promised the men and women of OshKosh and the rest of the American industrial base.

He said the War Department plans to use funding within the fiscal 2027 presidential budget request to strengthen the U.S. military and strengthen the industrial base so that it can give American warfighters what they need.

"We will build the arsenal of freedom … and in the coming months, we will ensure that all of that $1.5 trillion is funded, so that our department, working with great companies like this one, can provide it," he said. "We need to give companies like OshKosh stable, clear and consistent demand signals so that you can plan ahead, make more investments and create more American jobs. … No more offshoring, outsourcing - [only] American-made, American manufacturing, American muscle, American jobs."