Overview
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited Lockheed Martin’s F-35 factory in Fort Worth and spoke at SpaceX’s Starbase in Brownsville, where Elon Musk introduced him.
- Hegseth unveiled an AI acceleration strategy to build an AI-first warfighting force, rejecting what he called ideological constraints and outlining seven pace‑setting projects with aggressive timelines.
- He signaled deeper ties with commercial tech, including a planned integration of X’s Grok AI platform, and vowed to cut Pentagon bureaucracy “Elon‑style.”
- He pressed primes to “step up,” tying faster delivery and efficiency to a Jan. 7 White House order that restricts buybacks and could curb executive pay, and said a compliance list will be produced within 30 days.
- At the Fort Worth stop he praised F‑35 workers while stressing speed and competition, and earlier in the day he stopped in San Antonio, where local reports said he visited wounded troops at Brooke Army Medical Center.