US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has outlined his vision for the US armed forces and the department, saying he is focusing on a culture of accountability, high standards, performance, readiness, rapid innovation and merit even as he announced the US plans to counter an aggressive China.
During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Hegseth, an experienced infantryman who had led troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and guarded detainees at Guantanamo Bay, said his focus is on building a " ready, lethal military," and a strong and secure America.
He said President Donald Trump too wants a Pentagon laser-focused on lethality, meritocracy, warfighting, accountability and readiness and listed restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding the military and reestablishing deterrence as the ingredients needed to bring back warfighting.
He backed Trump's mission of achieving 'Peace through Strength' and said this will be done by restoring warrior ethos, rebuilding the US military, and reestablishing deterrence.
Vowing to make the military standards high, uncompromising, and clear, he said the strength of the US military is its unity and the shared purpose.
"We will rebuild our military by matching threats to capabilities. This means reviving our defence industrial base, reforming our acquisition process, passing a financial audit, and rapidly fielding emerging technologies. We will remain the strongest and most lethal force in the world."
Taking an aggressive stance against China, he said the US will work with its allies to deter aggression in the Indo-Pacific by China. "We will reestablish deterrence by defending our homeland — on the ground and in the sky," he added.
Further, Hegseth, who called himself "a change agent", announced his intention to trim bureaucracy and reallocate resources to the warfighters.
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Pointing out that the US won World War with seven four-star generals, he said, "Today we have 44. … There is an inverse relationship between the size of staffs and victory on the battlefield. We do not need more bureaucracy at the top. We need more warfighters empowered at the bottom. So, it is going to be my job … to identify those places where fat can be cut, so it can go toward lethality," according to a relese from the Department of Defence.
Hegseth, a recipient of two Bronze Star Medals, the Joint Commendation Medal, two Army Commendation Medals, the Combat Infantryman Badge and the Expert Infantryman Badge, called his appointment as the secretary of defence "the most important deployment" of his life.
