Speaker 1: Latest interview of Elon Musk. If you like this episode,
Speaker 1: just like Sharreon, follow this podcast.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Back to the show. All right, welcome to Starbase, Texas.
Speaker 2: This is a city.
Speaker 3: It's actually legally a city that, thanks to the hard
Speaker 3: work of the SpaceX team, we built out of nothing
Speaker 3: and is now a gigantic rocket manufacturing system.
Speaker 4: And for people out.
Speaker 2: There who are curious to see it, we're actually in
Speaker 2: a public highway so you can come and visit and
Speaker 2: drive down the road and see the epic hardware. So
Speaker 2: I think this is the first time that a rocket
Speaker 2: development program has actually been on a public highway, so
Speaker 2: you can come and see the epic stuff.
Speaker 4: We're on it today.
Speaker 2: To have a sectary of Pete Hexa and much of
Speaker 2: the senior leadership of the Pentagon here, it's an honor
Speaker 2: to have them visit. We just did a tour of
Speaker 2: the factory, and I think this it really helps illustrate
Speaker 2: how manufacturing and manufacturing at scale is critical to the
Speaker 2: strength of America.
Speaker 3: And I'll tell you a little bit just about the
Speaker 3: purpose of SpaceX.
Speaker 2: It's like, we want to make star Trek real, Okay,
Speaker 2: we want to make Starfleet Academy real so that it's
Speaker 2: not always science fiction, but one day the science fiction
Speaker 2: turns to science fact, and we have spaceships going through space,
Speaker 2: big spaceships with people going to other planets, going to
Speaker 2: the Moon, and ultimately going beyond our star system to
Speaker 2: other star systems where we may meet aliens or discover
Speaker 2: long dad alien civilizations. I don't know, but we want
Speaker 2: to go and we want to see what's happening, and
Speaker 2: we want to have epic futuristic spaceships with lots of
Speaker 2: people in them, traveling to places we've never been to before.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that's.
Speaker 2: The goal, and that's what I think the public thinks
Speaker 2: of when they think of Space Force. So on that note,
Speaker 2: I'd like to introduce the Secretary of Ward he Hexap.
Speaker 1: Thank you, you know, I'm spreciate, thank you very much.
Speaker 4: How about this Star Trek real star trucks. Yes, appreciate it.
Speaker 4: I love it.
Speaker 1: Well, what a tour, What an opportunity to be here
Speaker 1: at Star Base, Texas with Elon and the SpaceX team.
Speaker 1: There's nothing like this in America. There's nothing like this
Speaker 1: in the world. And what you have built and what
Speaker 1: you will build here is a testament to the strength
Speaker 1: of American ingenuity and American invention. So I want to
Speaker 1: thank all of you, all the folks out here for
Speaker 1: having us today. Elon, thank you so much for hosting us,
Speaker 1: for what you've built, for the vision you have for
Speaker 1: this company, the vision you have for our country, the
Speaker 1: vision you have for American innovation.
Speaker 4: I could not think of a.
Speaker 1: More fitting venue to continue our arsenal a freedom tour
Speaker 1: and to outline today the future of technological innovation at.
Speaker 4: The War Department. Those of you here at SpaceX will
Speaker 4: appreciate this.
Speaker 1: Knowing that as World War II was ending, the Secretary
Speaker 1: of War and Secretary of the Navy wrote to the
Speaker 1: National Academy of Sciences and declared that scientific research was
Speaker 1: essential to our national security to ensure continued preparedness.
Speaker 4: They wrote, the research.
Speaker 1: Scientists of the United States must be called upon to
Speaker 1: continue in peacetime some substantial portion that of which they
Speaker 1: have made so effectively during the stress of the present war.
Speaker 1: The competitive time element in developing those weapons and tactics
Speaker 1: may be decisive in future conflicts. You see, those Secretaries
Speaker 1: of War and Navy many decades ago recognize the importance
Speaker 1: that innovation and readiness holds for our national security.
Speaker 4: They knew what was at stake, the very freedoms of
Speaker 4: the country we hold dear all across the United States.
Speaker 1: Today, extraordinary innovation is unlocking news abilities for freedom, prosperity,
Speaker 1: and security. Now, the question before us is not whether
Speaker 1: or not the most powerful technologies of the century will
Speaker 1: reinforce free societies. Is it going to reinforce our free societies?
Speaker 1: Or will that technology be shaped and twisted by malign
Speaker 1: regimes that seek to use those technologies for control and coercion.
Speaker 1: You see, over the past several months, I've talked at
Speaker 1: length about the challenges we face.
Speaker 4: In transforming the War Department to.
Speaker 1: Address current and future missions, all in service of meeting
Speaker 1: the deeds of the twenty first century warfire. I'd like
Speaker 1: to think we've already made dramatic progress in the Pentagon's
Speaker 1: culture by reviving the warrior ethos, and we're moving out
Speaker 1: quickly and transforming our acquisition ecosystem as well.
Speaker 4: But today is.
Speaker 1: About how we supercharge innovation at the word of Department
Speaker 1: for the era ahead.
Speaker 4: Innovation is happening at a pace.
Speaker 1: We can't even foresee, and we need the entire enterprise
Speaker 1: our enterprise to embrace the urgency required for this moment.
Speaker 1: Since the end of the Cold War, the defense industrial
Speaker 1: base in our country has consolidated. This makes it difficult,
Speaker 1: if not impossible, for new creators of technical innovations to
Speaker 1: win business at our department. The result is a risk
Speaker 1: averse culture that prevents us from providing our warfighters with
Speaker 1: the best resources that America has to offer.
Speaker 4: That ends today. Simply put, the United.
Speaker 1: States must win the strategic competition for twenty first century
Speaker 1: technological supremacy, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, quantum hypersonics, and long
Speaker 1: range drones.
Speaker 4: If you talk to Elon Musk long enough, he will
Speaker 4: tell you.
Speaker 1: How important hypersonics and long range drones are.
Speaker 4: Needs one hundred percent correct.
Speaker 1: Space capabilities, directed energy, and biotechnology.
Speaker 4: Are the new areas of global competition.
Speaker 1: The challenge is that our legacy approach to technological development
Speaker 1: assumes that technology moves in a predictable linear conveyor belt
Speaker 1: from lab to design to development to prototype to test
Speaker 1: and qualify a program of record, and can only be
Speaker 1: provided by a handful of companies that have consolidated dramatically.
Speaker 4: Now, while this system provided us with the weapons.
Speaker 1: That won the Cold War. It is archaic and inconsistent
Speaker 1: with the novel threat environment that we face today.
Speaker 4: At its core, this old approach has.
Speaker 1: The hubrist to assume that you can easily predict the future,
Speaker 1: that you can foresee how an invention becomes a weapon
Speaker 1: in eight easy steps, three decades from first discovery. Our
Speaker 1: system can not keep treating innovation as a decades long
Speaker 1: one way march that dramatically reduces who and what is
Speaker 1: able to run the gauntlet at our department to get.
Speaker 4: The capability to the warfire.
Speaker 1: Until this administration, the Trump administration, the department's process for
Speaker 1: fielding new capabilities had become just one more post Cold
Speaker 1: War peace dividend relic that has not kept up with
Speaker 1: the times. Worse than that, we've done nothing but add
Speaker 1: layer upon layer of committees and councils that coordinated but
Speaker 1: never decided. We created endless projects with no accountable owners.
Speaker 4: We have high churn with.
Speaker 1: Little progress and few outputs. That sounds about like the
Speaker 1: exact opposite of SpaceX. We treated innovation as a box
Speaker 1: to check, not an outcome to deliver. In short, when
Speaker 1: it comes to our current threat environment, we are playing
Speaker 1: a danger escape with potentially fatal consequences. We need innovation
Speaker 1: to come from anywhere and evolve with speed and purpose.
Speaker 1: You see, America's open scientific community is an advantage authoritarian
Speaker 1: regimes cannot replicate. They can read our scientific papers and
Speaker 1: copy our invention or distill.
Speaker 4: Our al Ai.
Speaker 1: Models, but they cannot replicate a culture like this, one
Speaker 1: of opened and distributed research.
Speaker 4: We need to be blunt here.
Speaker 1: We can no longer afford to wait a decade for
Speaker 1: our legacy prime contractors to deliver the next perfect system,
Speaker 1: only to find that it's delivered years behind schedule and cost.
Speaker 4: Ten times what it should. Winning requires a new playbook.
Speaker 1: Elon wrote it with his algorithm question every requirement, Delete
Speaker 1: the dumb ones, and accelerate like hell. That's why I
Speaker 1: want to make clear across the War Department and for
Speaker 1: our partners in the private sector, that our Undersecretary of
Speaker 1: War for Research and Engineering, Emil Michael, right here in
Speaker 1: the front row is the War Department's single Chief Technology
Speaker 1: Officer one CTO for the entire enterprise.
Speaker 4: Novel concept.
Speaker 1: As the sole CTO, E Meal will set the technical direction,
Speaker 1: lead the innovation ecosystem that will welcome progress from anywhere
Speaker 1: it resides, and he'll tell me face to face every
Speaker 1: day and frankly, whether we are gaining or losing the
Speaker 1: technology and innovation competition.
Speaker 4: He'll have the decision authority and will lead through.
Speaker 1: Rigorous evaluation with a focus on real, measurable outcomes.
Speaker 4: Now, Congress, and we have a member many members of
Speaker 4: Congress with us here today, will be our partner in this.
Speaker 1: By affirming the under Secretary's role as the department's CTO,
Speaker 1: we're carrying out the core mission for that Congress assigned
Speaker 1: in statute.
Speaker 4: The last Defense Bill.
Speaker 1: Expanded the CTO's authorities, including the power to direct military
Speaker 1: departments and other components to align around clear innovative outcomes.
Speaker 1: We will use them to deliver those outcomes.
Speaker 4: With speed and urgency.
Speaker 1: An empowered CTO will inject a disruptive mindset directly into
Speaker 1: our systems, directing the power of America's world leading scientists
Speaker 1: and entrepreneurs, our cutting edge labs, the tech ecosystem, and
Speaker 1: our capital markets to build what the warfighter needs, but
Speaker 1: to do so better, faster and cheaper.
Speaker 4: And Emil is the right man to do it. You see,
Speaker 4: this isn't about military structure. This is about building an
Speaker 4: innovation pipeline that.
Speaker 1: Cuts through the overgrown bureaucratic underbrush and clears away the
Speaker 1: debris elon.
Speaker 4: Style, preferably with a chainsaw, and to do so at
Speaker 4: speed and urgency that meets the moment.
Speaker 1: As I've said repeatedly to every audience, the President of
Speaker 1: the United States and I have the backs of our
Speaker 1: warfighters who have to make split second life and death
Speaker 1: decisions on the battlefield. And I want this audience to
Speaker 1: know that we also have the backs of innovators who
Speaker 1: share that very same urgency. American taxpayers, especially those parents
Speaker 1: whose sons and daughters have answered the call to serve
Speaker 1: I swore in ten more today demand, and I demand,
Speaker 1: and we demand that we arm our warfighters with overwhelming
Speaker 1: and lethal technology right now, not a decade from now.
Speaker 4: In modern warfare, the fastest.
Speaker 1: Innovator and iterator will be the winner, and no one
Speaker 1: can out innovate an American entrepreneur who has been liberated
Speaker 1: from the constrains of stifling bureaucracy.
Speaker 4: That old era ends today.
Speaker 1: We are done running a peacetime science fair while our
Speaker 1: potential adversaries are running a wartime arms race.
Speaker 4: Right now.
Speaker 1: From garage startups to factory floors to boardrooms across our nation.
Speaker 1: The question of how to harness innovation coming out of America's.
Speaker 4: AI ecosystem is front and center, and rightfully.
Speaker 1: So, because it has the potential to disrupt and transform
Speaker 1: every area of human endeavor. The same is true in
Speaker 1: the Department of War. President Trump's AI Executive Order spells
Speaker 1: out our approach succinctly. It is the policy of the
Speaker 1: United States to sustain and enhance America's global AI dominance
Speaker 1: in defense of human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security. That,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, is the War Department's mission.
Speaker 4: We must ensure that America's.
Speaker 1: Military AI dominance so that no adversary can exploit that
Speaker 1: same technology to hold our national security interests for our
Speaker 1: citizens at risk. America first in every domain. Last month,
Speaker 1: I took.
Speaker 4: The first step toward changing how the.
Speaker 1: Department does business with frontier AI technologies when we announce
Speaker 1: the rollout of Genai with our partners from Google, and
Speaker 1: I want to thank the Google team for leaning forward
Speaker 1: and making the investment to get their Gemini app to
Speaker 1: about three million.
Speaker 4: Users in the War Department.
Speaker 1: But today we're excited to announce the next frontier AI
Speaker 1: model company to join genai dot MIL and that is
Speaker 1: GROC from Xai, which will go live later this month.
Speaker 1: So I want to thank you Elon and your incredible
Speaker 1: team for leaning forward with us on as well.
Speaker 4: Very soon we will have the world's leading.
Speaker 1: AI models on every unclassified and classified network throughout our department.
Speaker 1: Long overdue to further that, Today, at my direction, we're
Speaker 1: executing an AI acceleration strategy that will extend our lead
Speaker 1: in military AI established.
Speaker 4: During President Trump's first term.
Speaker 1: This strategy will unleash experimentation, eliminate bureaucratic barriers, focus on investments,
Speaker 1: and demonstrate the execution approach needed to ensure we lead
Speaker 1: in military AI and that it grows more dominant.
Speaker 4: Into the future. In short, we will win this race
Speaker 4: by becoming an.
Speaker 1: AI first war fighting force across all domains, from the
Speaker 1: back offices of the Pentagon to the tactical edge on
Speaker 1: the front line. The catalyst for this acceleration will be
Speaker 1: seven pace setting projects focused on mission.
Speaker 4: Threads across war fighting, intelligence.
Speaker 1: And enterprise missions, each with a single accountable leader, aggressive timelines,
Speaker 1: and measurable outcomes that answer a familiar question, Elon, what
Speaker 1: have you accomplished this week. This is the execution standard
Speaker 1: for AI first transformation. Each of the seven pace setting
Speaker 1: projects will use the following model, one owner who reports
Speaker 1: monthly on their progress.
Speaker 4: These projects will not be run.
Speaker 1: In a vacuum, but will work directly with warfighters and
Speaker 1: transition partners to ensure we incorporate real time operational feedback.
Speaker 1: We expect rapid iterations with failure accelerating the learning curve.
Speaker 1: These are not science projects, They are not governance boards.
Speaker 4: They are the execution standard for the entire department.
Speaker 1: We will not win the future by sprinkling AI onto
Speaker 1: old tactics.
Speaker 4: Like digital pixie dust. We will win by discovering entirely
Speaker 4: new ways of fighting.
Speaker 1: That's why we will run continuous experimentation campaigns, quarterly force
Speaker 1: unforced combat labs with AI coordinated swarms, agent based cyber defense,
Speaker 1: and distributed command and control, pushing the envelope learning from
Speaker 1: failure at every stop, which is exactly what this place does.
Speaker 1: You see, our department doesn't accept failure in the past,
Speaker 1: and so we never fail, which means we never learn.
Speaker 1: We're flipping that dynamic. Before talking about the new rules
Speaker 1: of the game, let me talk about a little bit
Speaker 1: more about our new team, because no game can be won.
Speaker 4: Without the right team, and we're proud to announce that
Speaker 4: mister Cameron Stanley has been.
Speaker 1: Appointed the new Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer CEAO
Speaker 1: of our War Department. CAM will be leading a new team,
Speaker 1: many of whom have forgone, thank you, or left lucrative
Speaker 1: careers at pioneer companies such as AWS, Data, Bricks, Palenteered
Speaker 1: Meta to join the fight.
Speaker 4: This team will not only.
Speaker 1: Provide a catalyst for change in this department, but will
Speaker 1: also act, we believe, as a.
Speaker 4: Magnet for other talented members of the.
Speaker 1: Tech community who want to join us in doing the
Speaker 1: mission focused work to protect our great Republic.
Speaker 4: So let's talk about the new rules.
Speaker 1: First, Speed, speed wins, speed dominates.
Speaker 4: Our enterprise currently.
Speaker 1: Operates on staffing and committee cycles measured in months and years,
Speaker 1: and that's unacceptable.
Speaker 4: Military AI is going to be a race for the
Speaker 4: foreseeable future where the risks.
Speaker 1: To US national security of moving too slowly outweigh the
Speaker 1: impacts of imperfect alignment. To do this, Cam and his
Speaker 1: team at CDAO will define AI deployment velocity metrics for
Speaker 1: all the pace setting projects in the next thirty days
Speaker 1: and report at least monthly after that. These will become
Speaker 1: the new benchmarks for programs across the department.
Speaker 4: Second, bureaucratic blockers. If you work with Elon, you know
Speaker 4: he finds the blockers and you remove them.
Speaker 1: We will take a wartime approach to people and policies
Speaker 1: that block this progress.
Speaker 4: You want to block to work somewhere else.
Speaker 1: Barriers to data sharing, authority to operate or ato's test
Speaker 1: and evaluation, and contracting are now treated as operational risks,
Speaker 1: not simply bureaucratic inconveniences.
Speaker 4: We are blowing up these barriers. That's why today, at
Speaker 4: my direction, I'm.
Speaker 1: Establishing a barrier removal SWAT team under RNE with the
Speaker 1: authority to waive non statutory requirements and escalate to our
Speaker 1: great Deputy Secretary Steve Feinberg, anything that slows down the
Speaker 1: acceleration of AI capabilities.
Speaker 4: Third compute resource.
Speaker 1: We will invest heavily in expanding our access to AI
Speaker 1: compute from data centers to the tactical edge, and will
Speaker 1: tap into hundreds of billions of dollars in private.
Speaker 4: Capital flowing into American AI.
Speaker 1: President Trump's executive order has directed us to build data
Speaker 1: centers on military land and to work with the Department
Speaker 1: of Energy to ensure that we dramatically increase the number
Speaker 1: and breadth of resources needed to power this computing infrastructure.
Speaker 1: We will work together with our partners at Google and
Speaker 1: AWS and Oracle and SpaceX, Microsoft and others on these initiatives.
Speaker 4: Fourth pillar, especially in this room, you'll understand it is talent.
Speaker 1: We will use every hiring and pay authority available to
Speaker 1: us to bring the best American technical talent and reward
Speaker 1: effective AI train informations by our workforce.
Speaker 4: We're going to.
Speaker 1: Heavily leverage President Trump's Tech Force initiative to bring in
Speaker 1: the best and brightest from industry and academia, with people
Speaker 1: like Elon David Sachs, Emil Mike and others from the
Speaker 1: entrepreneurial and business world already in government, we have shown
Speaker 1: that we can and that we must enlist the world's
Speaker 1: leading talent in this cause. Fifth Responsible AI. Today, I
Speaker 1: want to clarify what responsible AI means at the Department
Speaker 1: of War. Gone are the days of equitable AI and
Speaker 1: other DEI and social justice infusions that constrain and confuse
Speaker 1: our employment.
Speaker 4: Of this technology.
Speaker 1: Effective immediately responsible AI at the War Department means objectively
Speaker 1: truthful AI capabilities employed securely and within the laws governing
Speaker 1: the activities of the Department.
Speaker 4: We will not employ AI models that won't allow you
Speaker 4: to fight wars.
Speaker 1: We will judge AI models on this standard alone, factually accurate,
Speaker 1: mission relevant, without ideological constraints that limit lawful military applications.
Speaker 1: Department of War AI will not be woke. It will
Speaker 1: work for US. We're building war ready weapons and systems,
Speaker 1: not chatbots for an Ivy League faculty Lounge six. And finally,
Speaker 1: data AI is only as good as the data that
Speaker 1: feeds it, and the US military has an asymmetric data
Speaker 1: advantage from two decades of military and intelligence operations that
Speaker 1: no other military in the world can replicate. But right
Speaker 1: now we are under utilizing this advantage. Too much of
Speaker 1: our data is stranded. It's stuck in bespoke program databases,
Speaker 1: locked behind Title ten or two, Title fifty stove pipes,
Speaker 1: invisible to operators, engineers, and industry who could help us
Speaker 1: exploit it with winning speed and scale. And that's why today,
Speaker 1: at my direction, CDO will exercise its full authority to
Speaker 1: enforce the DOW Data Decrees and make all appropriate data
Speaker 1: available across federated IT systems for AI exploitation, including mission
Speaker 1: systems across every service and component. Each service secretary and
Speaker 1: component head will submit catalogs of their current data assets.
Speaker 4: To the CDO within thirty days.
Speaker 1: Denials of data access request will be reported to the
Speaker 1: CTO within seven.
Speaker 4: Days, and they better have a good justification today.
Speaker 1: I'm also directing the Undersecretary for Intelligence and Security, Brad Hansel,
Speaker 1: to ensure appropriate data from across our intelligence enterprise receives
Speaker 1: the same treatment and can be fully levered to war
Speaker 1: fighting capability, development and operational advantage. AI is only as
Speaker 1: good as the data that it receives, and we're going
Speaker 1: to make sure that it's there. Persistent barriers to data
Speaker 1: access will be escalated to the Deputy Secretary of War
Speaker 1: for resolution with authority to reassign or terminate personnel or
Speaker 1: withhold funding from non compliant activities within the statutory limits.
Speaker 4: We'll be clear here.
Speaker 1: As I said, data hoarding is now a national security risk,
Speaker 1: and we will treat it that way.
Speaker 4: AI is an important part of the future.
Speaker 1: But here's another truth that we've ignored for too long.
Speaker 1: Beyond AI, we've treated every other kind of innovation as if.
Speaker 4: They're the same as you know they're not.
Speaker 1: We need to break down unnecessary barriers to rapid technological development, adoption,
Speaker 1: and transition. Some of you will remember this a generation
Speaker 1: to Goo. One of my predecessors, in a dinner speech
Speaker 1: to industry, now infamously known as the Last Supper, advocated
Speaker 1: for the consolidation of our defense industrial base. This consolidation
Speaker 1: created a closed innovation ecosystem dominated by just a handful
Speaker 1: of prime contractors. The results have been characterized by soaring costs,
Speaker 1: sluggish delivery, and stagnant innovation. That's what President Trump's recent
Speaker 1: Executive Order on the Defense Industrial Base and Defense Companies
Speaker 1: seeks to address.
Speaker 4: It makes crystal clear.
Speaker 1: That the priority of the legacy prime contractors must be
Speaker 1: our nation's national security, not the next earnings call. That
Speaker 1: means less focus on stock buybacks and more investment on
Speaker 1: the men and women on the factory floor.
Speaker 4: It means less stockholder.
Speaker 1: Dividends and more investment in infrastructure, plant and equipment. Today,
Speaker 1: that old era comes to an end.
Speaker 4: The Department of.
Speaker 1: War is reopening to the disruptive energy and agile creativity
Speaker 1: of our nation's tech startups. Funded by our world's leading
Speaker 1: capital markets. I'm directing my chief Technology officer to leave
Speaker 1: this charge and his wingman, as always in this effort
Speaker 1: under Secretary for Acquisitions and Sustatement Mike Duffie. For too
Speaker 1: long we organized our ecosystem around stages and silos, labs
Speaker 1: over here, so called rapid units over there, commercial outreach
Speaker 1: in a different building or on another coast altogether, and
Speaker 1: warfare fighters somewhere.
Speaker 4: At the end, almost an afterthought.
Speaker 1: The result is duplication, drift, and confusion. And like the
Speaker 1: acquisition process, we are already fixing the creation of organizations
Speaker 1: to work around the problems in the innovation ecosystem. Rather
Speaker 1: than taking the buld steps needed to transform it, we
Speaker 1: created an old ecosystem to get around the actual system.
Speaker 1: No more, every dollar of innovation, whether it may be
Speaker 1: in a lab or a startup or a classified shop,
Speaker 1: must exist to deliver one of three things game changing technology,
Speaker 1: scalable products.
Speaker 4: Or new ways of fighting. If it's not doing one.
Speaker 1: Of those three things at speed, it will be realigned or.
Speaker 4: It will go away. And that's why I'm entrusting Emil
Speaker 4: as the.
Speaker 1: CTO to ensure that this directive across the department is
Speaker 1: rapidly carried out.
Speaker 4: Amelia are going to be busy again.
Speaker 1: What we're talking about today is a transformation and the
Speaker 1: way we think about innovation. In Requirements Reform, led by
Speaker 1: Mike Duffy, we killed an old, a sclerotic model and
Speaker 1: rewire the departments that problems, money and experimentation live in
Speaker 1: one system. In Acquisitions Reform, we killed the defense acquisition
Speaker 1: system and created accountable portfolio acquisition executives, making speed to delivery.
Speaker 1: Speed to delivery our organizing principle. We're going to do
Speaker 1: the same for technological innovation. That's why today, at my direction,
Speaker 1: we are ending the alphabet soup of councils that meet
Speaker 1: and brief and write memos and schedule meetings, but never
Speaker 1: decide and rarely, if ever accelerate outcomes. Effective Immediately, the
Speaker 1: Defense Innovation Steering Group, the Defense Innovation Working Group, and
Speaker 1: the CTO Council are.
Speaker 4: Disestablished and abolished.
Speaker 1: In their place, the CTO will convene a CTO Action
Speaker 1: Group to assist him in making decisions, clearing bureaucratic blockers,
Speaker 1: holding leaders accountable, and most importantly, quickly delivering new.
Speaker 4: Technologies to our war fires.
Speaker 1: Every organization in this ecosystem must earn its place by
Speaker 1: delivering war fighting advantages faster than our adversaries can adapt.
Speaker 1: No sacred cows, no exceptions.
Speaker 4: To back up the CTO.
Speaker 1: Today, in my direction, we are realigning two pillars of
Speaker 1: the War Department's innovation ecosystem.
Speaker 4: First, the Defense.
Speaker 1: Innovation Unit ORDIU. Since its establishment ten years ago, DIIU
Speaker 1: has lived through shifting reporting structures and uneven administrative support, doing.
Speaker 4: Great things, but at times it's the.
Speaker 1: Portfolio overlap with other parts of the department. Effective today,
Speaker 1: DIIU is designated a Department of War Field Activity, providing
Speaker 1: exceptional tech scouting RAP. I've been contracting in other common
Speaker 1: services to the department, executed at commercial tempo.
Speaker 4: The CTO will provide support to DIIU.
Speaker 1: For administrative and resource matters and ensure that the unit's
Speaker 1: efforts fit into the Department's innovation priorities. The Director of
Speaker 1: DIIU will also continue to report directly to me as
Speaker 1: a principal staff assistant and carry out its statutory duties.
Speaker 1: And I'm appointing mister Owen West, executor of my Drone
Speaker 1: Dominance Initiative, as the Director of DIIU starting in March
Speaker 1: when the Fight twenty seven budget cycle firms up. As
Speaker 1: a marine with lots of combat experience, Owen will bring
Speaker 1: a warfighter's mentality to diiu's core mission of transitioning technology
Speaker 1: to our troops.
Speaker 4: Owen also has the private capital.
Speaker 1: Experience needed to ensure DIIU remains working hand in glove
Speaker 1: with the venture and investor community and continues to OnRamp
Speaker 1: new entrants into the war Department. Owen led doge at
Speaker 1: DOW the most effective Doze effort across the administration, saving
Speaker 1: tens of billions of dollars for our department, and now
Speaker 1: he will lead DIIU. Our world leading defense tech startups
Speaker 1: have attracted billions of dollars in capital that are reshaping
Speaker 1: warfare through the proliferation of high tech, low cost technologies.
Speaker 1: Diiu's mission is to accelerate the adoption of this commercial
Speaker 1: technology to help convert entrepreneurial products into tangible combat power. Second,
Speaker 1: the Strategic Capabilities Officer SCO is also being designated a
Speaker 1: Department of war Field Activity aligned under the CTO. Skull
Speaker 1: will maintain focus on its core mission of identifying and
Speaker 1: prototyping disruptive applications of.
Speaker 4: New systems, the.
Speaker 1: Unconventional uses of existing systems and near term technologies to
Speaker 1: create strategic effects. SCOLL will continue to maintain its statutory
Speaker 1: direct reporting relationship to the Deputy Secretary, but will be
Speaker 1: operationally re aligned under the CTO to eliminate duplication and
Speaker 1: ensure the relentless daily focus on delivering near and medium
Speaker 1: term capabilities.
Speaker 4: To our warfighters.
Speaker 1: Relentless urgency and focus is our focus. Today's defense innovation
Speaker 1: ecosystem is too fragmented, resulted in insufficient technology transition to
Speaker 1: the warfighter. We address some of this in the transformation we.
Speaker 4: Are making in the acquisition's.
Speaker 1: Ecosystem, but it also needs to enter the innovation ecosystem
Speaker 1: for too long, and I know a lot of you
Speaker 1: have experienced this and others we met with in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles recently. The experience of founders and entrepreneurs has been
Speaker 1: running endless laps around the Pentagon looking.
Speaker 4: For the right office, the right program, and the right
Speaker 4: motivated sponsor.
Speaker 1: And too often new entrants are ultimately stymied by the bureaucracy.
Speaker 4: We hear at time.
Speaker 1: And time again they don't know where to go, and
Speaker 1: then when they go to that place, it's not the
Speaker 1: right place to go.
Speaker 4: Then they go somewhere else it didn't want them in
Speaker 4: the first place, and the lap continues.
Speaker 1: For example, SpaceX and Pallenteer had to sue the Department
Speaker 1: of War just to get a shot at competing for
Speaker 1: Department contracts. The bottom line is that new entrants need
Speaker 1: both a shot on goal, but also faster yeses and
Speaker 1: faster knows from the Department, rather than being strung along
Speaker 1: with a never ending stream of rudderless maidens. At the
Speaker 1: Secretary of War level, we will replace the existing maze
Speaker 1: into two clear channels. The Mission Engineering and Integration Activity
Speaker 1: MIA will tell enddustry what problems we're trying to solve,
Speaker 1: and DIIU will help program offices adopt what industry has
Speaker 1: already built. This will help get the faster yeses or
Speaker 1: faster nos.
Speaker 4: Clear guidance, clear guide rails, clear.
Speaker 1: Demand signal, which is what industry and capital expects. Now,
Speaker 1: this isn't just an Office of the Secretary reform.
Speaker 4: The services need to transform.
Speaker 1: Their innovation ecosystems as well. The Army, the Navy, the
Speaker 1: Space Force, the Marine Corps, and the Air Force. That's
Speaker 1: why today at my direction, our military services will take
Speaker 1: the following actions within ninety days. The Secretaries of the
Speaker 1: Military departments will brief the CTO on service innovation plans,
Speaker 1: how they will consolidate, streamline, and refocus their labs, research expertise,
Speaker 1: experimental units and rapid capability offices around three innovation outcomes.
Speaker 1: Our sixty plus lab are a national asset, but it's
Speaker 1: pastime they were organized to deliver and not just to discover.
Speaker 1: And beginning with the fiscal year twenty twenty eight budget,
Speaker 1: every portfolio acquisition executive will fund an Innovation Insertion Increment
Speaker 1: Triple I dedicated money for the last mile integration test
Speaker 1: and rapid insertion of validation solutions into fielded systems. Innovation
Speaker 1: cannot be centralized, and it should not be.
Speaker 4: In fact, I hope it's okay I name him.
Speaker 1: But just this pack weekend I received an email a
Speaker 1: proposal from an Army captain named Drennan Green who I've
Speaker 1: known him for a while. He had a detailed plan
Speaker 1: about how he and his unit wants to deploy AI innovation.
Speaker 1: Candid should come from anywhere and anyone wherever.
Speaker 4: Those best ideas reside.
Speaker 1: We're going to bring that good captain in and hear
Speaker 1: from them, how can we apply those tools in his
Speaker 1: unit and other units bottom up, not just top down.
Speaker 1: The military services and program officers own the last mile,
Speaker 1: and to that end, I'm directing the services to establish
Speaker 1: that Triple I Innovation insertion increment within the budgets of.
Speaker 4: All program portfolios. This will ensure that.
Speaker 1: They have funds set aside to quickly integrate innovations during
Speaker 1: weapons system development and so be a tool to free
Speaker 1: new innovative, cutting edge weapons and improvements from the constraints
Speaker 1: of yearly budget cycles. Here you iterate in terms of
Speaker 1: hours and days, maybe weeks.
Speaker 4: In Washington we.
Speaker 1: Talk in terms of months, years, and oftentimes multi years.
Speaker 4: It's too slow. The CTO ecosystem will give them.
Speaker 1: The supply services are contributors to this ecosystem.
Speaker 4: Not bystanders.
Speaker 1: They must deliver outcome, and they must deliver overmatch. And
Speaker 1: speaking of budgets and budget cycles, you may have seen
Speaker 1: President Trump's truth posts of a few days ago. He's
Speaker 1: proposing a one point five trillion dollar budget for.
Speaker 4: The War Department in fiscal year twenty seven. This is
Speaker 4: by far the most ever in our history, a historic.
Speaker 1: And generational investment in American security.
Speaker 4: We will not squander this once in a lifetime opportunity.
Speaker 1: To rebuild our military. Think of what this means as
Speaker 1: our efforts to transform the department come fully online.
Speaker 4: You add resources, and you streamline.
Speaker 1: Process speed to deliver those capabilities to the warfighter.
Speaker 4: And invitation to new entrants.
Speaker 1: Into the defense industry, which we need so badly, and
Speaker 1: an embrace.
Speaker 4: Of AI and other cutting edge defense tech.
Speaker 1: All of this will make our forces more agile, more lethal,
Speaker 1: and more ready to deter and if necessary, win a
Speaker 1: future fight. This is what President Trump demands, and this
Speaker 1: is what we will deliver. This feeds into a next
Speaker 1: area we need to fix. You see, reorganizing and a
Speaker 1: new attitude are not enough to truly unlock innovation for
Speaker 1: the warfighter.
Speaker 4: Our department needs to.
Speaker 1: Capitalize on a key advantage.
Speaker 4: America has over her adversaries.
Speaker 1: The broadest and deepest capital markets and the best entrepreneurial
Speaker 1: talent in the world. You know this capital is the
Speaker 1: lifeblood of American innovation, and therefore, to be successful, we
Speaker 1: need to embrace the role in our department of private capital,
Speaker 1: which we have not done for far too long. We
Speaker 1: need to be a better partner for private capital so
Speaker 1: we can help accelerate capital formation in key areas and
Speaker 1: lower the risk for the Department. Private capital is already
Speaker 1: helping solve a major problem that President Trump has directed
Speaker 1: us to confront and solve across this administration, ending our
Speaker 1: reliance on competitors for access to rare earth and critical minerals.
Speaker 1: The Office of Strategic Capital or OSC, under the leadership
Speaker 1: of David Lorich, is spearheading those efforts and delivering as
Speaker 1: we speak. In the past five months alone, the OSC
Speaker 1: team has deployed over four point five billion dollars in
Speaker 1: capital commitments as part of closing six critical mineral deals,
Speaker 1: all of which will help free the United States from
Speaker 1: market manipulation. Crucially, OSC's strategy relies on crowding in private
Speaker 1: sector investors from this VC community to our country's largest
Speaker 1: financial institutions. The six OSC deals to date include nearly
Speaker 1: five billion from our private capital partners. OSC has closed
Speaker 1: most of those deals in less than thirty days, which
Speaker 1: is Trump time for complex transactions that may seem maybe
Speaker 1: slow for SpaceX in Washington, that's as fast as it gets.
Speaker 4: I mean, that is warp speed in Washington.
Speaker 1: All of our investments serve one purpose, deliver.
Speaker 4: Faster for the warfighter.
Speaker 1: Now, some will want to cynically posit is this just
Speaker 1: another innovation reorganization, another set of strategies that brief well
Speaker 1: but don't actualize. No, this is the third leg of
Speaker 1: a single war plan. In fundamentally transforming our acquisition ecosystem,
Speaker 1: we killed jasids that focused only on process and turned
Speaker 1: the j ROCK into a body that ranks real world
Speaker 1: joint operational problems, not paper requirements. We created the MEA
Speaker 1: to run experimental experimentation.
Speaker 4: Campaigns to solve these problems. We killed the.
Speaker 1: Old defense equi position system and created the war fighting
Speaker 1: acquisition system to focus on speed, risk and accountability. With
Speaker 1: the AI strategy and innovation ecosystem transformation that we have
Speaker 1: just outlined, we are welding that third piece into place.
Speaker 4: The CTO, DIU, SCO.
Speaker 1: DARPA, CDO, and OSC are no longer a loose federation.
Speaker 1: They are the Office of the Secretary of War's Innovation
Speaker 1: Operating System. DARPA delivers game change in technology, innovation and
Speaker 1: strategic surprise. DIU delivers scalable products, SCO delivers new ways
Speaker 1: of fighting, and CDO and osc provide the data, test,
Speaker 1: and capital.
Speaker 4: To move at wartime speed.
Speaker 1: As of today, they are an ecosystem, an arsenal of
Speaker 1: ideas and action for the arsenal of freedom, wired directly
Speaker 1: into requirements, portfolio and production, game changing technology, scalable products,
Speaker 1: new ways of fighting, all three moving at wartime speed.
Speaker 1: Problems drive experimentation. Experimentation flows to prototypes. Prototypes flow to
Speaker 1: our program executives. Program executive flow, these to production, production
Speaker 1: flows to the warfighter, and the cycle never stops, always
Speaker 1: iterating one system, one purpose.
Speaker 4: Speed to the fight.
Speaker 1: We are preparing to win the future because we know,
Speaker 1: and you know, for the.
Speaker 4: Free world, for the West, the stakes could not be higher.
Speaker 1: Before this administration, our adversaries may have thought they've finally
Speaker 1: broke American power.
Speaker 4: They're wrong.
Speaker 1: They do not have our entrepreneurs. They do not have
Speaker 1: our capital markets. They do not have our combat proven
Speaker 1: operational data from two decades of military and intelligence operations.
Speaker 1: They do not have our hard won classified technologies. They
Speaker 1: do not have the ingenuity and tenacity of American war
Speaker 1: fighters who refuse to lose. They don't have a military
Speaker 1: that can go thirty seven hours to downtown Tehran or
Speaker 1: downtown Caracas without being seen in the process.
Speaker 4: You see, but none of that.
Speaker 1: Matters, however, if we suffocate those advantages under a stifling bureaucracy.
Speaker 1: That's why we're unifying the innovation ecosystem, making this an
Speaker 1: AI first department, and holding every lab, every program accountable,
Speaker 1: all while pushing every officer to liver war fighting advantages
Speaker 1: faster than others can adapt. We will not stop, We
Speaker 1: will not back down. We will george the new arsenal
Speaker 1: of freedom with our partners in industry, in the private sector.
Speaker 1: We believe the future will be shaped by those who
Speaker 1: lead in technology and innovation.
Speaker 4: We don't believe.
Speaker 1: We know, those who fervently believe in freedom and the
Speaker 1: Western tradition like we do, must be those leaders. If
Speaker 1: not us, if not America, if not the West, then who,
Speaker 1: And if not now, it will be too late to
Speaker 1: maintain that advantage. This is not reform for the sake
Speaker 1: of reform.
Speaker 4: It never has been.
Speaker 1: This is about whether our warriors fight with yesterday's tools
Speaker 1: or they fight overmatching our adversaries using tomorrow's technologies.
Speaker 4: We know the threat, we know the opportunity, We know
Speaker 4: what must be done. We share the urgency.
Speaker 1: Now, we will do it, and we must do it
Speaker 1: at wartime speed. Thank you, God bless you, God bless
Speaker 1: this company that you've built, and may God bless our
Speaker 1: great Republic.
Speaker 4: Thank you very much, appreciate it. Thank you, thank you,
Speaker 4: thank you, you guys, thank you, sir, thank you,