Overview
- On Jan. 9 in Long Beach, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used a stop at Rocket Lab to highlight his monthlong “Arsenal of Freedom” tour to bolster the U.S. defense industrial base.
- Hegseth held up Rocket Lab as a model for speed and scale, pledging larger, longer, more predictable Pentagon contracts for firms that expand capacity and invest in their workforce.
- He pointed to a Jan. 7 White House executive order that directs tighter scrutiny of contractor performance and uses contracting to discourage buybacks and dividends by underperforming firms.
- The secretary emphasized space as a strategic priority, calling for modern U.S.-built satellite constellations launched by American rockets and produced by American workers.
- Hegseth reiterated the administration’s push for a proposed $1.5 trillion defense topline for fiscal 2027 and alluded to the Jan. 3 Venezuela operation as an example of capability needs, attributing details to U.S. officials.