War Secretary Pete Hegseth told defense and technology leaders and military command officers at the National War College in Washington, D.C., that he considered the Pentagon itself an "adversary" of America.
At the same time, he is ordering a transformation of how that adversary becomes a war-fighting command center.
Hegseth said the department's own bureaucracy had grown into a "last bastion of central planning," functioning like a self-sustaining system that dictates five-year plans and imposes decisions from Washington across continents.
He said the structure had lost sight of the mission it was created to serve, entangling national defense in risk-averse procedures and paperwork that cripple U.S. readiness.
"The adversary I'm talking about is much closer to home," Hegseth told the audience. "It's the Pentagon bureaucracy."
He said the department's core functions, requirements, acquisition, and foreign military sales were being overhauled to eliminate waste and move procurement to a wartime pace.
"For too long," he said, "our department has been hampered by a bureaucracy bogged down by burdensome and inefficient processes — paralyzed by impossible risk thresholds and distracted by agendas that have nothing to do with warfighting."
Hegseth said the goal is to "transform the entire acquisition system to operate on a wartime footing," emphasizing faster fielding of new capabilities and measurable results over process.
"Our objective is to rebuild the arsenal of freedom," he said, adding that the shift must prioritize the rapid delivery of weapons, technologies, and logistics that keep U.S. forces dominant on the battlefield.
He described the new direction as a break from the "slow, contractor-dominated system" that fostered vendor lock, limited competition, and chronic cost overruns.
In its place, he said, would rise an industrial base built for speed, innovation, and investment, "powered by America's unmatched ability to scale quickly."
Hegseth framed the transformation as a cultural fight inside the Pentagon as much as a structural one.
He said the Department of War had too often rewarded compliance instead of results and warned that risk aversion and bureaucratic caution had become greater threats than foreign adversaries.
"We cannot win tomorrow's wars using the habits and mindsets that built yesterday's bureaucracy," he said.
In recent months, Hegseth has ordered a series of reforms targeting what he calls deep inefficiencies within the department.
He eliminated more than $580 million in programs, contracts, and grants labeled as wasteful, redirected those funds toward combat priorities, and launched a civilian workforce realignment to create what he described as a "lean, mean, and prepared to win" organization.
He also restricted the use of outside information-technology consultants, arguing that excessive layers of oversight had slowed even routine operations.
Each of these measures, he said, is aimed at dismantling "bureaucratic inertia" and restoring the War Department's focus on fighting and winning wars.
Jim Mishler ✉
Jim Mishler, a seasoned reporter, anchor and news director, has decades of experience covering crime, politics and environmental issues.
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