Overview
- At Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth facility, Hegseth toured the F-35 line and addressed employees, with the company highlighting 2025 deliveries of 191 jets and a 19,000-person local workforce.
- The Pentagon says he will speak to SpaceX workers at Starbase alongside Elon Musk and is expected to administer an enlistment oath during the visit.
- The department framed the “Arsenal of Freedom” tour as an effort to cut bureaucracy and accelerate acquisition under the administration’s Peace Through Strength agenda.
- Reporting from San Antonio indicates he spent the morning visiting wounded troops at Brooke Army Medical Center, though officials have not released details.
- Hegseth’s remarks in Fort Worth emphasized buying more advanced weapons quickly, included culture-war lines reported by local media, and referenced a White House goal to reach a $1.5 trillion defense budget in 2027.