FACE geopolitical strategist and founder Velina Tchakarova joins ‘Making Money’ to discuss the escalating protests in Iran, the strategic importance of Greenland and winning the race for AI.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth announced a plan Monday aimed at making the U.S. a global leader in artificial intelligence, drones and space technology, arguing that a risk-averse culture has slowed innovation and prevented the Pentagon from providing the best resources to its service members.
Hegseth spoke alongside SpaceX CEO Elon Musk at the company’s facility in Brownsville, Texas, where he unveiled a strategy to advance the Pentagon’s technology.
“Today is about how we boost innovation at the War Department for the era ahead,” Hegseth said in his remarks. “Innovation is happening at a pace we can’t even anticipate, and we need the entire enterprise, our enterprise, to embrace the urgency required for this moment. Since the end of the Cold War, our nation’s defense industrial base has been consolidated. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, for new creators of tech innovations to bring business to our department.”
TRUMP signs order blocking defense companies from stock buybacks until weapons production improves
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth spoke alongside SpaceX CEO Elon Musk at the company’s facility in Brownsville, Texas. (Getty Images / Getty Images)
“The result is a risk-averse culture that prevents us from providing our warfighters with the best resources America has to offer,” he continued. “That ends today. Simply put, the United States must win the strategic competition for 21st century technological supremacy, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, quantum hypersonics and long-range drones. If you talk to Elon Musk long enough, he will tell you how important hypersonics and long-range drones are. And he is 100% right. Space capabilities, directed energy and biotechnology are the new areas of global competition.”
Hegseth announced an “AI Acceleration Strategy” that he says will expand the U.S. lead in military AI built during President Donald Trump’s first administration.
“This strategy will unleash experimentation, remove bureaucratic barriers, focus on investments and demonstrate the execution approach needed to ensure we are at the forefront of military AI and that it becomes more dominant in the future,” he said. “In short, we will win this race by becoming an AI-first warpower in all domains, from the back offices of the Pentagon to the tactical edge on the front lines.”
Pentagon chief Hegseth announced an “AI acceleration strategy” that he says will extend the US lead in military AI built up during the first Trump administration. (Getty Images / Getty Images)
The secretary added that the “catalyst for this acceleration will be seven pace-setting projects, focused on warfighting mission lines, intelligence and enterprise missions, each with a single, accountable leader, aggressive timelines and measurable results.”
He also said the consolidation of the U.S. defense industrial base, which he said has created “a closed innovation ecosystem dominated by just a handful of prime contractors,” will come to an end amid efforts to boost technology startups.
TRUMP’S CALL FOR A $1.5 TRILLION DEFENSE BUDGET WOULD ADD TRILLIONS TO THE DEBT: CRFB
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has announced a plan aimed at making the US a global leader in AI, drones and space technology. (Getty Images / Getty Images)
“Today that old era comes to an end,” he said. “The Department of War is reopening to the disruptive energy and agile creativity of our nation’s technology startups, funded by our world’s leading capital markets.”
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
“For too long we have organized our ecosystem around stages in silos, labs here, so-called rapid units there, commercial outreach in another building or on another coast, and warfighters somewhere at the end, almost an afterthought. The result is duplication, drift, and confusion,” Hegseth continued.
