Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Speech on the Arsenal of Freedom in Oshkosh, WI

SECRETARY OF WAR PETE HEGSETH: How are we doing, Oshkosh?

[Cheering]

John, thank you very much for that gracious introduction and for everything that you do. And thank you all for being here. We're trying to be ahead of schedule for you here, not keep you waiting too long. I just had to go one extra lap on your training course on one of these beauties. They let me drive; it was nice. So, forgive me for being a little late. But I also want to thank our good friend here, a true ally of our warriors in Congress, Congressman Glenn Grothman. Glenn, where are you at? Glenn, thank you. Thank you.

[Applause]

President Trump talks a lot about 3 a.m. members of Congress, they call at 3 a.m. with extra demands before a key vote. Glenn is not a 3 a.m. guy; he's a reliable vote no matter what. Meaning when you need his vote, he's there to do the right thing on behalf of America First. Congressman, thank you very much.

[Applause]

Wisconsin's got a great delegation. I also want to thank a true warrior and a true patriot of the highest order, a friend of mine, Congressman Derrick Van Orden. He couldn't be here today, but he's a great advocate for what we stand for, as well as our good friend, Senator Ron Johnson, who runs the Senate Budget Committee; and I know is dedicated to ensuring in the coming weeks and months that the $350 billion reconciliation bill that's going to help fund our $1.5 trillion budget passes.

So, Ron Johnson is a great ally, and we appreciate his support. I also want to thank a proud Wisconsinite, Undersecretary of War for Acquisitions and Sustainment, Mike Duffy. Mike, raise your hand.

[Applause]

Acquisitions and sustainment is like a mouthful of a title, but think of it this way, he is the War Department's official weapons buyer. He's the world's largest arms dealer and his name is Mike Duffy, Department of War.

It is a great - great to be here with my team at Oshkosh in the great state of Wisconsin, home to 30,000 defense industrial base workers and 14,000 US service members. And I'm here on behalf of the commander-in-chief, Donald Trump, to say thank you for building faster and faster each day, the Arsenal of Freedom that our warriors need.

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.

The vehicles you make here, as you know, are used by our warriors all around the world. Every single one of you, every welder, every receptionist to the CEO is supporting American warriors every single day. This is not just another manufacturing job; this is patriotism in the form of steel, past and present.

It's incredible what you've accomplished here in Oshkosh. This company has played a role in every major conflict of the last 80 years since World War II. And I've seen your incredible work firsthand downrange, and I know that it saves American lives, the lives of American warriors.

Many moons ago, I was a platoon leader in Iraq, fighting an enemy, a cowardly enemy that fought amongst women and children and hid IEDs with stand-off because they knew they couldn't fight American warriors toe to toe. And then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, after my time in Iraq, but I went back a couple of times as an embedded reporter to see what the troops were up against during the Iraq surge. Robert Gates saw that they needed stronger, safer vehicles to protect our warriors. He cut the usual Pentagon red tape to get Oshkosh MRAPs to our warriors in theater. 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. Their kids, someday their grandkids and their families, thank God, literally, for your work. It's a great American story that we are iterating on and replicating across our Department right now, and I'll explain more about that in a moment.

But first, I think what's really special about Oshkosh is that 90 percent of your work is for commercial civilian use. It's great to see integrated production lines of both commercial and defense capabilities. At President Trump's Pentagon, unlike previous Pentagons, unlike what Joe Biden did at Obama did, commercial products and offerings are the default policy.

We need more commercial companies in the Department of War space. We are open for business for the best American manufacturers, for all manufacturers. And you no longer have to sue your way into the Department in order to compete. Our job is to make it easier for the big guys and the little guys to get in to compete and ensure that American warriors have the best.

You see, we came to Oshkosh because Oshkosh is a model for other commercial manufacturers to step up when your country needs you. From building the beautiful fire trucks I had a chance to see to the family of medium tactical vehicles; you are a model of delivering commercial and military capabilities to the warfighter.

Most companies have been in the past too afraid, and rightfully so, of the maze of Pentagon bureaucracy. But I'm here to say we're a different kind of Department, moving at the speed of business, moving at the speed of markets, and we are open for business. We need more Oshkosh across America.

During President Trump's first term in office, he rebuilt our military. Now, in his second term, he is rebuilding it yet again. A key piece of legislation passed by this Administration and championed by your representatives, the One Big, Beautiful Bill, specifically secured $190 million in defense contracts executed right here in Wisconsin. And we intend to do more as we move forward, modernizing our forces.

This year's defense budget request includes $16.8 billion to modernize Army and Marine Corps combat equipment, which will include the procurement of new futuristic vehicles like the incredible Oshkosh Rogue Fires System. Just two months ago, the United States Marine Corps awarded Oshkosh a well-deserved $92 million contract for the rogue fires system.

President Trump has promised a Golden Age of America, and he is delivering all across the country with American manufacturing and rebuilding our Defense Industrial Base. It's a part of the Trump economy that is booming, and that equates to jobs right here in your state and all across America. But I should note, selfishly, since at the War Department, we look at the metrics of our own people as well, that that also includes our military.

Under the last Administration, military recruiting was at record lows. You see, they would miss a recruiting number so they would lower the goals and then they would miss that goal. And they would lower it so low that they could barely make it and then say they met their goal. But since November 2024, and something particular happened in November 2024, the U.S. military has seen its highest recruiting records in 30 years. Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, Space Force, you name it - and they're not just meeting goals, but we're exceeding them months and months in advance.

And now with this $1.5 trillion bill, we're going to grow the size of each of those Services, and we're confident we'll meet those new goals as well. So, for the men and women looking to put on camouflage, the Department of War is open for business as well. And what a reflection of confidence from the American people, fathers and mothers to send their sons and daughters in record numbers to go serve. We're humbled by it and honored by it, and we'll continue to do right by them.

And part of doing right by them is being right here with you. It's why building our Defense Industrial Base is part of our national defense strategy. It's why burden sharing is so fundamental to who we are and what we do. Every part of what we've focused on has been unleashing American business because we need the best weapons in the hands of warfighters.

Right now, there are at least hundreds of thousands of jobs open in America's Defense Industrial Base, including jobs right here in Oshkosh. It was mentioned to me that there's a disproportionate number of vets that work here at this location and across Oshkosh. If you would, please raise your hand if you've served our country in uniform as well. God bless you.

[Applause]

Thank you. You guys and gals are serving again; it's an extension of service, just like everyone else next to you. You see, this administration knows that Midwest manufacturing doesn't just build our trucks or tanks or airplanes. American manufacturing built the middle class of the Midwest.

American made, American manufacturing, American muscle, American money - funding it and in your pockets American jobs. Companies like Oshkosh combine American ingenuity with American work ethic, sheer American work ethic in support of our American warriors. It's an unbeatable combination that none of our adversaries can conceivably match.

Well, that speed - I mentioned, Secretary Bob Gates, that was used for the MRAP program, is now what we are demanding for absolutely everything across the War Department. It is the norm, not the exception. We are cutting the red tape to get weapons to warriors in record time.

You see, we're not just fighting adversaries. One of my jobs every single day is to go to war with the Pentagon bureaucracy. It is a war of attrition that we intend - our office intends to win. All four years we're going to cut red tape and requirements and ridiculous layers that have been added time and time again, year after year, mostly by lawyers of big companies that want to prevent competition.

And we have to tear those barriers down to allow the best companies, America defense or commercial, large or small, to run as fast as possible. That's why we want all of our defense contractors to pivot and that's why we're doing this Arsenal of Freedom, to pivot to a wartime footing and build for victory.

As I mentioned, 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 war fighting. It was mostly our fault; the world's largest bureaucracy, the Pentagon, sent contractors unstable demand signals.

That's part of what we talked about on the factory floor today. Uncertain projections that made the defense industrial base risk averse, slow, lethargic, just like government. The companies that served government started looking like government, falling behind on budget, everything costing more.

Ever changing an insane requirement, scheduling overruns became the norm, fat, lazy and complacent companies. Well, those days are over. Speed to delivery is now our organizing principle. We have slashed the culture of bureaucracy, ended the culture of risk aversion, and accelerating a culture of agility, innovation and sheer results.

Process is not a result; all that matters is end state and results. No excuses; speed, scale, volume, efficiency, maximum urgency. Every dollar squandered on redundancy or bureaucracy or waste, it's an insult to you, the taxpayer and it's a theft from warfighters. This is a new Department with a new focus on our core mission, where we're restoring the warrior ethos.

And that means a focus - an unrelenting, uncompromising focus on lethality. It means no more DEI. It means no more trannies, just training. It means colorblind, gender neutral, merit-based, back to basics across the board no matter if you're carrying a rifle or you're working on the plant floor. President Trump, in fact, he said when he gave me this job - moments afterwards, he said, Pete, I want you to bring the warriors back.

[Laughter]

Bring them back, and that's what we've done. That's been our focus - uncompromising, without apology from day one. And that's what the Arsenal of Freedom's been all about, bring American manufacturing and jobs and agility back. And that focus on lethality is reestablishing deterrence. We want a military so strong and powerful that our enemies never think about testing us.

But as you know, our adversaries are not sitting idly by, they're moving fast. They're developing and delivering new capabilities at a rate that should be sobering for every single American. Which is why President Trump is asking our friends in Congress to pass a $1.5 trillion budget for our warriors. It is a bold, generational investment, the largest military budget in history but it's absolutely necessary.

When you look under the hood and you understand the nature of the threat, you understand the negligence of previous Administrations, the deferred maintenance, it is what we must provide for the necessity of today's warriors and in order to make an investment in the future of warfare.

Think autonomy and drones, AI, compute space, subsea, hyper sonics, cyber, you name it, we are laying the foundation for continued American dominance here at home, in our hemisphere and around the globe for decades to come, 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, and working with members of Congress who are willing to give us all the authorities. 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.

I'll say it once and I'll say it again - no more offshoring, outsourcing - American made, American manufacturing, American muscle, American jobs. So, keep doing your part right here on the factory floor. We'll do our part at the Pentagon to keep cutting red tape, allowing you to run as fast as possible and speeding up the procurement process.

And, you know, we all know, all of our warriors do their part every single day and every single night all around the world to keep us safe and they remain in our prayers constantly. So, thank you for delivering when it counted and continuing to deliver when it counts. Each one of you ought be proud, and your families, of what you do. Companies like this one are the backbone of the Arsenal of Freedom.

Together we're going to guarantee peace through strength for generations to come, which is the point. So, God bless all of your families; God bless our warriors and our great republic. Thank you very much.

[Applause]