Pete Hegseth spoke at SpaceX’s Starbase in Texas, unveiling a detailed plan to upgrade the US military. Hegseth announced Emil Michael as the Chief Technology Officer for the department. He spoke on AI dominance and harnessing innovation. Hegseth remarked that the US military needs to have technological supremacy for the 21st century.
Elon Musk invited Hegseth to the stage to speak saying, “We want to make Star Trek real. ” Taking up the stage, Hegseth agreed with Musk. He even did the Vulcan hand gesture. He aims to move to better tech, including hypersonics, long range drones, and autonomous swarms. He called upon the research scientists of the US to cater to the stress of the present war.
He emphasized the importance of supercharged innovation for national security and technologies that can work for future emissions. Besides, he wants to move ahead from the archaic and inconsistent weapons. He also warned against the current slow approach, calling it a dangerous game with fatal consequences.
🚨JUST IN: Hegseth, Musk vow to unleash tech innovation at Pentagon — and make ‘Star Trek real’
Pete Hegseth flashed a Vulcan salute Monday as he joined Elon Musk at SpaceX headquarters, where the war secretary touted the Pentagon’s wartime approach to unleashing technological… pic.twitter.com/RUxQQlZ81Y
— SANTINO (@MichaelSCollura) January 13, 2026
The Secretary of War also announced that the military will use Grok AI to ensure military and civilian data integration. This will enhance the workflow with secure controls of unclassified information. They will also have Google Gemini AI for classified as well as unclassified department networks.
Moreover, military personnel will get global insights on X so they can make better decisions with more information. This change will go live later this month. He thanks Elon and his team for making this possible.
Hegseth boasted about the US’s advantage that the culture and distributed research can’t be replicated. He said, “America’s open scientific community is an advantage authoritarian regimes cannot replicate. They can read our scientific papers and copy our invention or distill our AI models, but they cannot replicate a culture like this one of open and distributed research.”
HEGSETH AND MUSK AIM TO MAKE STAR TREK REAL AT THE PENTAGON
War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Elon Musk pledged to slash Pentagon bureaucracy and accelerate high-tech innovation.pic.twitter.com/qejH9FIhhN
The pair met at SpaceX’s Texas headquarters, with Musk stating their goal is… https://t.co/17E5ZX12AF
— Hold My Beer News (@holdmybeernews) January 13, 2026
Furthermore, Hegseth said the US cannot wait ten years for the “next perfect system.” He told the audience that the US has the backs of innovators and President Donald Trump’s support to achieve the innovative goals. He assured the American taxpayers of arming the warfighters with “lethal technology right now, not a decade from now,” and having an “America first” approach in every domain.
Apart from applause at the venue, online viewers were in support of Hegseth’s new plan. One Youtube user commented, “The departmental and team structure he mentioned is basic 101 company hierarchy in the private sector. It’s about time the public sector caught up.” Another one wrote, “Absolutely, Making America Great.”
