The Pentagon is getting a new four-star command, and its weapons don't need pilots. Speaking to around 600 junior officers and senior NCOs at Marine Corps Base Quantico on 30 September, Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the Autonomous Warfare Command, or AutoWarCom: a combatant command built around drones, artificial intelligence and the networks that tie them together.

The target date is 1 October 2027. Between now and then, a fast-moving pathfinder effort called Project Agincourt is supposed to work out how such a command should fight. The catch: a new combatant command needs Congress, and Congress has not finished voting on it yet.

A Combatant Command for Robots

US combatant commands are normally organised either by region, such as CENTCOM and INDOPACOM, or by function, such as Space Command and Cyber Command. AutoWarCom would be the first organised around a type of technology that spans every domain at once. Hegseth said it would carry service-like authorities, meaning it could shape how autonomous systems are bought and trained for, not just how they are used.

The thinking behind it is familiar to anyone who has followed the war in Ukraine. Cheap drones have changed how armies fight on land, at sea and in the air, and both sides now adapt their drone designs in weeks rather than years. The Pentagon's argument is that a traditional acquisition system cannot keep up with that pace, and that someone needs clear ownership of the problem.

Agincourt and Meridian

Two projects come with the announcement. Project Agincourt is the bridge to the new command. It will pair military operators with entrepreneurs in rapid adaptation cycles and is led by Defense Innovation Unit Director Owen West together with Navy SEAL Senior Chief Max Strasiser.

Project Meridian is a separate 120-day study on accelerating advanced technology, overseen by Emil Michael, the Pentagon's chief technology officer. Its co-directors are an unusual trio: Elon Musk, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Hegseth used the same speech to order a 20 percent cut in general and flag officers across the services and to announce a base energy programme called Fortress America.

What It Means for Air Power

For the Air Force, autonomy is already on the flight line. The service is testing its first two Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the YFQ-42A Dark Merlin from General Atomics and the YFQ-44A Fury from Anduril, at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. It is also running the Massed Modular Aircraft programme to field a low-cost successor to the MQ-9 Reaper.

How AutoWarCom would share authority with the Air Force, Navy and Army over those programmes is not yet clear. That will be one of the first fights Project Agincourt has to settle.

Congress Still Has a Vote

The command does not exist yet. Senate lawmakers proposed a similar combatant command during work on the 2027 defense policy bill, and the measure cleared committee, but the bill is still pending and the House would also have to approve it. Hegseth's own memo acknowledges that the Pentagon needs legislation from Congress to set the command up.

Until then, AutoWarCom is a plan with a name, a four-star billet and a deadline. If Congress signs off, October 2027 could be the month the US military formally made robots a branch of its own in all but name.

Sources: Air & Space Forces Magazine, DefenseScoop, Stars and Stripes, Al Jazeera English