The two leaders of “Project Agincourt,” the DoD initiative to establish AUTOWARCOM by next year, outlined their plans to the force in a letter published Wednesday.

The Department of Defense has announced a new roadmap for establishing the upcoming Autonomous Warfare Command (AUTOWARCOM)—intended to accelerate the development and fielding of drones, robotics, and other autonomous military systems.

The effort falls under “Project Agincourt,” an initiative established by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The announcement signals the Pentagon’s intent to move away from slow procurement cycles and toward rapid battlefield experimentation. Indeed, the US military appears to be reorganizing the way it approaches autonomous warfare. The goal now is to have a new four-star command up and running by the start of Fiscal Year 2027 on October 1, 2027.

How “Project Agincourt” Will Lead to AUTOWARCOM

Project Agincourt, led by Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) director Owen West and Navy SEAL Senior Chief Max Strasiser, is an initiative with two principal missions. The first is to establish AUTOWARCOM by the start of FY27, with what West and Strasiser described as “the authority its commander needs to drive the largest institutional change since the interwar years.” The second is to continue the work of the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Unmanned Systems (DRPM-UxS) while developing a new acquisition model.

The proposed command would be headed by a four-star commander; its purpose would not simply be to purchase additional drones, but to establish a new institutional system capable of adapting autonomous capabilities in real time as battlefield conditions change. In the future, robotics companies would hopefully work directly with operational military units, making development more coherent and uptempo—a battlefield synergy that has played out in Ukraine, where tight-knit partnerships between drone developers and frontline infantry have compressed the innovation cycle from months to days.

“Urgency does not excuse imprecision,” West and Strasiser wrote. “We will work analytically with the Joint Staff, the Services and, above all, the operational units that will serve as our incubators. Evidence will decide outcomes. Competitions, exercises and combat performance will determine which systems scale and which are cut.”

The announcement reflects the growing importance of inexpensive drones in modern warfare. Project Agincourt’s leaders argue that low-cost unmanned systems have fundamentally changed the economics and tempo of combat. Since the Cold War, US military power has relied heavily on relatively small inventories of extremely sophisticated, expensive systems—ranging from Tomahawk missiles to F-22 Raptor fighter jets to Ford-class aircraft carriers. But now the Pentagon is recognizing a need to supplement the concentrated approach with cheaper systems that can be developed, replaced, and modified rapidly.

Project Agincourt proposes giving frontline military units a larger role in determining which technologies receive funding. That would make sense, connecting autonomous-systems manufacturers directly with operational forces, where systems could be evaluated through military exercises, competitive testing, operational experimentation, and, when possible, actual combat performance. Technologies that were deemed successful would receive resources for expanded production and deployment, while underperforming systems would be discontinued rather than procured.

Different Theaters of War Might Need Different Drone Systems

Project Agincourt also emphasizes that different theaters will require different autonomous systems. What is ideal in the Pacific likely won’t be ideal in Europe, for example. In the Pacific, the main constraints on American forces will be vast distances, maritime operations, and protecting (and attacking) dispersed military installations. Europe, on the other hand, will feature relatively compact distances and overland fighting. AUTOWARCOM is built to give local and regional commanders the flexibility to develop autonomous systems tailored specifically to their mission requirements, wherever that mission may be.

The project’s ambitions extend beyond just creating another military headquarters. Its leaders want to institutionalize the continuous battlefield adaptation that Ukraine and Iran have shown is necessary for staying competitive in modern warfare. The October 2027 deadline establishes a concrete timetable for a very real reorganization of the way the US military develops and procures drone technology. The announcement suggests that the Pentagon’s upper echelon—or at least some of it—is taking autonomous warfare seriously.

About the Author: Harrison Kass

Harrison Kass is a writer and attorney focused on national security, technology, and political culture. His work has appeared in Tablet, City Journal, The Hill, The Spectator, and The Cipher Brief. He holds a JD from the University of Oregon and a master’s in Global & Joint Program Studies from NYU. More at harrisonkass.com.

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