Secretary of War Pete Hegseth SpSecretary of War Pete Hegseth Speech on the Arsenal of Freedom in Austin, TX (As Delivered)

SECRETARY OF WAR PETE HEGSETH: Thank you, Dino. Thank you for that incredible introduction. I remember that speech. In fact, it was about a year ago, and we pledged to wage a war of attrition against the Pentagon bureaucracy to open our building up to companies just like this one, to fast runners that are ready to run hard, build at scale, take risks, invest, are doing it for the right reasons. We can't just have the big companies at the top doing all the work and not doing it fast enough. We need the best companies in this country, American manufacturing, American made, and that's what you're doing right here at Saronic, right here in Texas for the Arsenal of Freedom tour. It's great to be here with you.

Just since we are here in Texas, I want to thank a couple of, they become dear friends and great advocates for your company or your state, but also for what we're doing in our department. Congressman August Pfluger and Morgan Luttrell. I see Morgan right there. Congressman Pfluger and Congressman Luttrell have been not just with me from day one, but with our cause from day one. Backing us up when things were difficult, when things were easy, when they were good, when they were bad, when we were having to tell hard truths. They've had our back. So, gentlemen, thank you very much for everything you do for us. Appreciate it.

So we've traveled the country, meeting with great companies and innovators. And one thing is for certain: thanks to President Trump, thanks to the efforts of the Department of War, but more importantly to great Americans like you, American manufacturing is back. American-made is back, and not a minute too soon. And not for show, not for peacetime, but for victory, a lasting victory, one that will secure our freedoms for generations to come. Now, having had a chance to tour this facility firsthand just a few moments ago, the scale, investment, and precision of your projects is truly impressive. You are on the front lines of American industry. And that's the entire purpose of the Arsenal of Freedom tour. I had a chance to shake some hands along the assembly line there, the production line, but the point, as Dino said, of this tour is to look patriots in the eye and thank you for the work that you've done and for the work that you're doing. Every helmet out there slinging lead on our behalf is doing it because of a hard hat enabling them that stands behind them. That's you. That's your mission inside this company with what you're building with these beautiful boats, ships, whatever the navy calls them…vessels, thank you very much, on behalf of our warfighters. But I know, and you especially know more than I do, that the greatness of Saronic was not simply wished into existence. It didn't appear in thin air. What exists between these walls was forged. It was forged by the investment and the labor and the expertise and the sheer willpower of each of you standing here today. In some ways, I would say this a call this a field of dreams company. Remember the phrase: If you build it, they will come. In some ways, that's what Saronic has done. You built it knowing we need it, and we are here because we're going to use it, and we appreciate everything you put into it.

You know this here in Texas, but the political swamp creatures in Washington D.C. They see they just don't necessarily understand that mission. They're experts in the art of sitting back, lobbying, collecting a government paycheck, and coasting off the labor of what was built by others. They produce nothing, build nothing, or worse, they outsource it and then block out competitors in our own country. But you are the innovators, the builders of the Arsenal of Freedom. It is precisely the strength of our domestic manufacturing and arsenal and industry that keeps us free. American manufacturing, American made, American jobs, American power. And as Morgan reminded me, nobody does it bigger than Texas. It's a fact.

The future of warfare will be built on the backs of AI and autonomy, which is a top priority of this War Department to ensure our warfighters, whether they see less direct conflict or not, and they probably will see less direct conflict because of autonomy, but they'll be more lethal, which is what's even more important. Saronic is the gold standard of what a company should be doing to achieve this. Take, for example, in the past, recovery missions required manned ships to conduct search and rescue in the direct line of adversary fire, like say the Strait of Hormuz. Well, just this last June, 2 U.S. Army AH-64 Apache pilots went down in contested waters near Oman. Saronic's rapidly fielded, and I can attest it was rapidly fielded. Twenty four-foot autonomous vessel built right here in Austin, the Corsair USV, navigated forward and safely pulled the two pilots out of harm's way, marking the first known combat search and rescue mission executed by an autonomous vessel in American history.

You did that. Those pilots are alive today because of the incredible innovation under this very roof. You should be, and rightfully are, incredibly proud of that feat. I just would…I remember that day thinking, "What the faces of those pilots must have looked like? What is this thing? Where are the sailors? Do I trust it? Does it speak to me?

I remember thinking the options were the Omani Coast Guard. There were other things, and then an hour later, the report came to me…no, no, no, it was the unmanned surface vessel. I just thought only America. Only our companies, only our innovators, only our workers, and you raced it to the battlefield, and it has had great effect. The Corsair is also proving itself on offense in combat strike operations. In July, CENTCOM, you've seen the video. I've seen it. The world's seen it. Employed the Corsair to strike a submarine and ship maintenance facility at the Bandar Abbas Naval Base in the Persian Gulf. The operation degraded Iran's ability to continue attacking commercial shipping and marked the first operational employment of sea drones in U.S. military combat operations. Now, those are the kind of firsts that we like.

What Saronic demonstrates is the future of American naval power, delivering over 300 combat-proven Corsairs, rapidly fielding the 52-foot Mirage, and scaling blue water reach with the 180-foot Marauder, all built in under a year. In our building, we're used to timelines of seven, eight years, one year is not a thing. It's like you're a mirage. But I came to see that it's real. That's the kind of scale and speed that our department needs, the kind of competition our building needs, the bureaucracy needs to realize that it can be done. Because if we go at the pace we've done in the past, we won't have what the warfighters of today and the future actually need. You are no longer testing concepts; you are deploying lethal autonomous mass to ensure our fleet commands the sea. You are the front lines of American power. You see, part of what makes Saronic exceptional is not just the technology; it's the warfighter DNA driven into every line of code and every weld, founded and operated by Veterans like the man who introduced me, Navy SEAL veteran Dino Mavrookas, eight combat tours. Marine veteran Rob Lehman. This team builds with the urgency of those who know firsthand what is at stake. And then partnering directly with our SkillBridge program and our service academies, Serana creates a premier pipeline for military and Veteran talent. Just as critically, you are transitioning skilled civilian American welders and machinists and fabricators from automotive and aerospace industries into cutting-edge naval shipbuilding. All I can say to that is more, please. We, thousands of miles away, are deeply and profoundly grateful for the work that you do, day in and day out. And I'm here on behalf of a president who demands the urgency, innovation, and combat power that this place delivers every single day. A president who has, from his very first day in office, operated on core principles of pure and unadulterated common sense. We put America, American citizens, and America first. The only real path to American security and strength is peace through strength. And a nation that cannot build for itself, a nation that cannot create its own tools, its own defenses, or its own future, is a nation that is in managed decline.

And for too long, elites, especially on one side, but in both parties, sat idly by and accepted a backward status quo, but not President Trump. He recognized that decline is indeed a choice, a choice that must be fundamentally rejected in real time. And in doing so, he has unleashed a great American revival, a reawakening of the American industrial spirit and national confidence, as he calls it, rightfully so, a golden age for America that you are all a part of in this building. As his Secretary of War, my mission is to ignite this revival within our armed forces. And since day one, that mission has had three pillars upon which we stand.

First, we're reviving the warrior ethos within our fighting force, reminding our warriors that their sole purpose is to be the most lethal fighting force on the planet. Full stop. We're not here to do social engineering, or social justice, or gender bending, or DEI, or dudes and dresses. We're just back to basics. That's what we do at the War Department. Second, we're rebuilding our military. We've seen a historic trillion-dollar investment thus far in the last budget, and you will see even more. And not just in platforms but in people. We're asking for $1.5 trillion in the current budget to make generational investments to keep our country strong and sustain good, high-paying jobs for American manufacturers like Saronic. We will deliver on this generational investment, we will fund this department. The president is committed to it, as are we, as are our partners in Congress, as are these congressmen and their colleagues in the Senate. We will deliver this generational funding and investment, come hell or high water.

It just got me thinking. Speaking of hell or high water, those are two things the Iranian Navy are very familiar with at this point. Third, we are reestablishing deterrence. Under the previous administration, the world questioned American strength, and that is no more. The era of doubt and decline is over. Deterrence is back, and the world has taken notice. See, the department we're prudent, but we don't make weapons to store them in piggy banks. We use them to achieve American objectives. Hard power. When narco-terrorists, the Al Qaeda of our hemisphere, when they send drugs to our shores to poison Americans, we no longer catch and release those narco-terrorists. We sink their boats. Deterrence in action. When our southern border was overwhelmed by an illegal invasion, we secured it. Zero crossings, absolute sovereignty, deterrence in action. When American justice was required in Venezuela, hundreds of our best went downtown Caracas, grabbed a dictator, and returned without a single U.S. casualty. Deterrence in action. And when President Trump says that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, he means it. Iran has tried and is trying to blackmail the world with conventional weapons. It's the North Korea approach. So many conventional weapons that they can at their choosing race for a nuclear bomb. Well, under this president, that will never work. The devastation of our military against Iran has been historic. Even if the sheer lies of our so-called media act in service of Iranian state TV. You see, the only media that does fake propaganda better than Iran is our Trump deranged media. I'm serious. It's sad because we've got warriors in harm's way doing incredible things-a difficult, dangerous mission-and we have a deranged media that hate our president more than they love our country. We'll do our job no matter what. We will complete the mission. Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. President Trump holds the cards, deterrence in action.

But to win the future as we will, we must build. The Department of War, as Dino mentioned, has been kicking the door wide open for commercial disruptors, non-traditional innovators, and venture-backed builders. We're actively creating the next generation of defense primes, firms like Saronic. Our Arsenal of Freedom tour showcases how modern deterrence requires commercial speed. Our chief technology officer, Emil Michael, who's with us here today, he helped unite our innovation ecosystem under one roof to expedite decisions instead of holding on to legacy bureaucratic delays. When I talk about a war of attrition against the Pentagon bureaucracy, Emil and I and our colleagues stand back to back, machine guns out every single day. And this brings me to my promise and my challenge to every industry leader in this country: the days of rewarding the comfortable old guard for stagnation and failure are over. We are a different department than we were two years ago, night and day. You see, I don't care what name is on the side of a vessel, or a missile, or a ship. I just want the best. And for too long, it was an oligarchy of a few companies that held everybody out. And our job is to rip that building open and allow the competition to be level, so that any great company in America can compete to build that vessel, that missile, or that ship. And the fastest runner will win. And if it's not Saronic, fine. But if it's Saronic, great. Whoever it is, whoever's the best, will win at today's War Department. We're moving from bureaucracy to business. The acquisitions reforms we've made, the emphasis on a modern technology stack, the way we're working with industry, all centered around the capabilities and speed needed for a modern military. We will provide larger, longer, and more predictable contracts to companies like Serrano, companies that can actually deliver at pace and at scale. We will reward leaders who choose to invest in their workers, who expand their capacity, who share in our sense of urgency. That's been one of the biggest things we've had to infuse into the defense industrial base: a sense of urgency. We reward those who choose to deploy their resources toward bolstering production, as you have in multiple facilities, instead of stock buyback programs. The message is simple: If you deliver for America, this Pentagon, this War Department, will have your back. If you do not, we will show you the door.

And look at what Saronic is doing for Texas and for Louisiana. In Texas, under the governor's leadership, we are witnessing the rebirth of American maritime power. Since 2022, Saronic has scaled up to over 1,200 Texas employees, operating 540,000 square feet across Austin and conducting cutting-edge maritime trials in Galveston. Saronic's partnership with the department is projected to generate over 260 billion dollars in economic impact for the Lone Star State alone. At the port of Brownsville, Port Alpha, pretty impressive, I must say, delivers a $3 billion investment, up to 10,000 high-paying jobs, over 160 billion in regional impact for Cameron County, and 150,000…this is what I love to hear, gross tons of new shipbuilding capacity. The industrial muscle here will double domestic shipbuilding and ensure absolute dominance. This momentum. It'll also transform Louisiana, and the governor there is restoring working waterfronts. We need to revive and bring back our waterfronts. Through modernizing the historic Gulf craft shipyard in Franklin and establishing a new engineering hub in New Orleans, Saronic is executing a 300 million, 300 plus million investment to build autonomous surface vessels. This effort creates over 1,500 high-paying maritime careers. So together, Franklin and New Orleans prove that combining historic craft with robotics creates an unbeatable industrial edge.

You see, in complex theaters like the Pacific, deterrence demands capability, capacity, but also, and most importantly, credibility-a credible capability, a credible threat. Innovation like what is happening at Saronic will allow us to deliver the kind of magazine depth, operational unpredictability, and create targeting dilemmas for adversaries. We are fielding, each and every day, that arsenal of freedom that will be required on that edge. Saronic embodies this sovereign standard on the shop floor. Again, from the edge to the shop floor. That's how I need you, I want you to think about it every single day. That's the essence of the arsenal of freedom. What you do is not just build a widget; you build a sword, a tool, a vessel for a warfighter halfway around the globe who utterly depends on your precision, on your lethality, on what you put in their hands. And the Corsair is manufactured in an important way entirely with American materials and hands sourced through a network of 94 American suppliers across 27-not 27 countries, 27 American states. American-made, American manufacturing, American jobs, American power. Because as you know, our American warriors-they are second to none, the best in the world and the best of our country, the real 1%. You know, in places like Washington D.C., New York City, Austin, they like to talk about the elite, the 1%, the privileged. No, no, no. The real 1% are the ones you serve, are the ones I serve, the men and women who raise the right hand to defend our republic, who put their life on the line in dark, dangerous, difficult places and sign up to defend us, to defend me and defend you. They are the absolute real 1%, the real elite of our nation. But while our warriors are that 1% and the tip of the spear, you are what sharpens them. All the strategies from the Pentagon are meaningless without the people on this floor, the technicians, the machinists, the fabricators, and the engineers. Every platform you weld, wire, and assemble gives our warfighters the decisive edge to win and return home. Never forget that direct line from your hands to the success of our warfighters.

So today I say to you, build faster, scale larger, and deliver more. We need you like never before, because when America is unleashed, we win. But I hear that when Texas is unleashed, we dominate. It's incredible to work through a president who has reminded me time and time again to remind the war fighters time and time again that he has their back. It's all-it's the one thing I always wanted to hear when I was a lieutenant, a platoon leader leading men in combat. I needed to know that my commander had my back if I had to make a difficult decision. And so everywhere I go, talking to troops that will have a chance to do that today, and to the corps of cadets at A&M tomorrow, reminding them that we will have their back, that the president has their back that they are unleashed to fight with violence and decisiveness against our enemies, which is what which is what is required in a combat scenario. Just know that while we have their back, you have theirs, and I think there's been no better…and it's good for the media to capture this…there's been no better and clearer direct line from corporate innovation, defense corporate innovation to the front lines than what's happened here at Ceramic. I've just seen it at CENTCOM. You've seen the way they've adapted in a dynamic environment and then put to use new technologies that, under a different Pentagon with a different mindset, may have taken years and years to develop and test and manufacture and QC (quality control). Instead, the idea is let's get this technology rapidly fielded to the front, where, A, we can use it and B, we can test it and then we can iterate on it because we've got members of the company forward with those fighting to get that feedback in real time to improve that product and use it more effectively next time. That is the feedback loop. That is the dynamic at all domains in which America will fight and fight successfully in the future. Whether it's in the Middle East, whether it's in our hemisphere, or whether it's in the Pacific, it will be real-time innovation with our best innovators and our best war fighters, out-innovating, out-scaling, out-competing our adversaries who just can't do what you do. They may try to copy it, or steal it, or replicate it in some way, but they can't do precisely what you do, and that is a decisive advantage for us.

So, as I said, keep going. We see it, and we appreciate it every single day. God bless this great country, and God bless the Republic of Texas as well. Thank you.