2026 AUSA Project Agincourt: Autonomous Warfare Panel

Watch: 2026 AUSA Project Agincourt: Autonomous Warfare Panel (Army Multimedia and Visual Information Division via DVIDS, 1 hour 4 minutes, recorded 14 October 2026, public domain). A full official transcript is also available.

This week’s video is a full hour from the final day of the Association of the United States Army annual meeting. It brings together the Pentagon’s civilian leadership on one stage to explain how it plans to build an Autonomous Warfare Command. Owen West, chief executive of Project Agincourt and the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Unmanned Offensive and Defensive Systems, moderated. The panelists were Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle, Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, and Derrick Anderson, Assistant Secretary of War for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (DVIDS).

From Drone Dominance to a Four-Star Command

Hegseth described Project Agincourt as “the end state of something we focused on since day one.” In his account, Drone Dominance, the portfolio manager’s office, the Army’s JIATF 401 and the Defense Autonomous War Group are being merged into Agincourt. That effort is meant to lead to AUTOWARCOM, a four-star combatant command “with service like authorities.” West noted the one-year deadline of 1 October 2027, and Hegseth said, “I think we’ll get it done sooner” (official transcript). He also said about $50 billion for autonomous and robotic systems in the reconciliation bill would go to these efforts, and that the department would field “hundreds of thousands of one-way attack systems this year and into the millions in years to come” (official transcript).

What Each Service Brought

Air Force: Meink said “the only way we’re going to meet the threat is with autonomous systems,” at five to ten times lower cost for some combat power, depending on the comparison. He said autonomous fighters are being integrated into experimental operations units at Creech, a year after first flight. He also said contracts just awarded with DIU for autonomous strike platforms, including an autonomous bomber, aim for operational prototypes by 2028 and large-scale production from 2029, subject to congressional funding (official transcript).

Army: Telle announced a new Army command, the Futures and Autonomous Systems Command, to centralise autonomy work while “pushing autonomy down into our units” and feeding into AUTOWARCOM. He said the Army’s digital drone marketplace had already handled $800 million in purchases, and described a “booking.com”-style tool that opens Army test ranges to industry (official transcript).

Navy: Cao said a Corsair uncrewed vessel recovered two Apache pilots and uncrewed underwater vehicles cleared mines, and that the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group deployed on 8 October with an uncrewed surface vessel (official transcript).

Special Operations: Anderson described SOCOM’s three Defense Autonomous War Group task forces, Able, Baker and Charlie, working on counter-UAS and surface and undersea vehicles, and Theater Edge Innovation Labs where deployed operators can keep refining systems. He said one industry-accelerator cycle cut an 18-to-24-month process to two months, and that the group will become SOCOM’s Task Force Autonomous Warfare in support of AUTOWARCOM (official transcript).

What the Panel Left Open

Defense One noted that the discussion offered few details on what AUTOWARCOM will look like or how it will accomplish its mission. Hegseth did not say whether a search for a commander was under way, and no official named specific advances the department hopes to achieve. Asked why a four-star command was the right vehicle, Hegseth answered, “Let’s put rank where we need it to ensure we can drive change quickly” (Defense One).

Why It Matters

It is rare to see the Secretary and all three military department heads on one stage agreeing that autonomy is a whole-force priority, not a niche programme. That is the reason to watch the full hour. The most telling parts are not the budget numbers. They are the practical mechanisms: an operator-facing marketplace, test ranges open to industry, theatre labs where systems are refined in the field, and a two-month contract cycle. That is where the acquisition culture actually changes, because they move both decisions and money closer to the people who use the systems.

The open question is integration. A combatant command with service-like authorities sits on top of four services, each building its own autonomy organisation, while the real operational need is a joint command-and-control layer. Telle called that the “magic in the middle.” Whether AUTOWARCOM becomes the place where crewed and uncrewed forces are woven into a kill web across domains, or another headquarters layered on top of them, depends on decisions about command and control, data and authorities that the panel did not yet spell out.

Notes on the Record

The Army command’s name varies across sources. The War Department and the transcript call it the Futures and Autonomous Systems Command (written “Fascom” and “FASTCOM”). Defense One describes a renaming of Futures and Concepts Command as “Futures and Autonomy Command.” In the transcript, Cao described the Roosevelt group’s vessel first as medium-sized and then as large. The War Department places the Apache recovery off Oman in June, while Cao placed it in the Strait of Hormuz. Budget figures are the speakers’ statements and proposals, not enacted appropriations.

Sources

DVIDS video page: https://www.dvidshub.net/video/1026336/2026-ausa-project-agincourt-autonomous-warfare-panel

War Department transcript: https://www.war.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/4626390/secretary-of-war-pete-hegseth-and-service-secretaries-speak-on-autonomous-warfa/

War Department news story: https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4625816/hegseth-autonomous-warfare-command-has-always-been-end-state/

Defense One, 14 October 2026: https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2026/10/hegseth-service-secretaries-discuss-generational-change-autonomous-warfare-command/416586/