Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on 30 September an Autonomous Warfare Command (AUTOWARCOM), which he described as "a new four-star combatant command with service-like authorities built to scale autonomous and robotic capabilities across the joint force"1. A combatant command is one of the Pentagon's top-level headquarters, each led by a four-star officer. Pentagon memos set a target date of 1 October 2027, subject to Congress.
Service-like authorities would give the command its own budget and its own power to buy equipment, as US Special Operations Command has for its kit. In a speech at Quantico, Hegseth called two existing efforts "a good start, but it's certainly not enough"2. They are Drone Dominance, the Pentagon's programme to buy drones by the hundred thousand, and the Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401), its counter-drone task force.
The fiscal 2027 request already moved the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group budget line to US$54.6bn. Lowdown reads the new command as the likely owner of that money; no published text seen by Lowdown says so. Before October 2027, Congress has to write the command, and any transfer of that budget line, into law.
