WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of War (DOW) is moving to implement a sweeping overhaul of its artificial intelligence strategy, signaling a significant shift toward “wartime speed” for AI development and deployment. The move follows the issuance of three coordinated memoranda on January 9, 2026, and a subsequent speech by Secretary Pete Hegseth on January 12, 2026, outlining an “AI-first” agenda for the department.
The DOW’s actions frame AI as a critical proving ground for a new unified innovation and acquisition model, prioritizing rapid experimentation, competition among smaller teams, and broader access to data and computing resources. These initiatives build upon existing government-wide policies, including Executive Order 14179, focused on accelerating federal use of AI, and the White House’s AI Action Plan.
At the heart of the strategy are seven “Pace-Setting Projects” (PSPs) spanning warfighting, intelligence, and enterprise missions. These projects, each with a single accountable leader and aggressive timelines, will report monthly to the Deputy Secretary of War and the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). The warfighting projects include “Swarm Forge,” designed to pair military units with technology innovators to test AI-enabled capabilities; “Agent Network,” focused on AI agents for battle management; and “Ender’s Foundry,” aimed at accelerating AI-enabled simulations. Intelligence-focused PSPs include “Open Arsenal,” which seeks to rapidly translate intelligence into deployable weapons, and “Project Grant,” utilizing AI to enhance deterrence strategies. Enterprise projects include “GenAI.mil,” providing department-wide access to generative AI models, and “Enterprise Agents,” focused on automating workflows.
The DOW is directing its components to identify at least three “swift-follow” projects within 30 days, and the Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO) will make foundational AI “enablers” – infrastructure, data, models, policies, and talent – available across the department in real-time. A substantial expansion of AI compute infrastructure, extending from data centers to tactical environments, is also planned. The DOW will also strictly enforce existing “DOD Data Decrees,” including federated data catalogs, and grant the CDAO authority to release data to cleared users, requiring justifications for any denials to the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering (USW(R&E)).
The DOW’s AI strategy emphasizes several key “acceleration expectations,” including prioritizing “speed” as a decisive factor, achieving “AI model parity” with commercial vendors through rapid deployment of new models, and eliminating bureaucratic obstacles to data sharing, testing, and contracting. The department will also promote competition among smaller teams, encourage the incorporation of AI into military planning, and adopt modular open architectures to enable faster component replacement. The strategy also calls for clarifying “Responsible AI” principles by utilizing models free from restrictive usage policies and incorporating “any lawful use” language into contracts.
Alongside the AI Strategy Memo, the DOW is restructuring the Advana Program – its enterprise data and analytics platform – into three components: the WDP Program Team, focused on data integration; the Advana for Financial Management Program Team, supporting financial audits; and the WDP Application Services Program Team, rationalizing existing application environments. The restructuring aims to centralize the program with common interfaces and standardized data pipelines, favoring tools that integrate with the WDP and improve data traceability.
Finally, the Defense Innovation Memo seeks to unify the DOW’s innovation ecosystem under a single CTO, the USW(R&E). This involves disestablishing existing steering groups and councils and establishing a new CTO Action Group (CAG) to set technical direction and remove bureaucratic barriers. The memo reorients the DOW around three innovation “outputs”: technology innovation, product innovation, and operational capability innovation. The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) will focus on commercial product innovation, while a new organization, SCO, will concentrate on operational capability innovation. Military departments are required to brief the CTO within 90 days with Service Innovation Plans outlining how their laboratories and experimentation units align with these new innovation outcomes.
Beginning with the fiscal year 2028 budget, each Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE) must include an “Innovation Insertion Increment” in their portfolios, dedicated to rapid capability insertion and upgrades. The DOW intends to send “clear demand signals” through the Mission Engineering and Integration Activity (MEIA) and DIU, establishing these as primary engagement channels for innovation.
The DOW has not yet responded to requests for comment on potential impacts to existing contracts or timelines for implementation of these initiatives.