The Pentagon’s Arsenal of Freedom initiative would pair those demand signals with wider access to defense contracts. Hegseth said the department also wants to expand its supplier base beyond the largest prime contractors.
“Our arsenal of freedom needs to expand,” Hegseth said. “We’ve got to open the bureaucracies so that more companies, great American companies, can compete.”
Hegseth cited seven-year fixed-price orders as one way to give manufacturers the stability needed to invest. He said private spending on new plants and production capacity would save taxpayers money while giving warfighters faster deliveries and deeper stocks for modern conflicts.
At U.S. Strategic Command in Nebraska, Hegseth said the budget request would fund nuclear command and control, Columbia-class submarines, B-21 Raider bombers and the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program. The investments are part of the department’s effort to rebuild military capacity and strengthen deterrence.
Hegseth later traveled to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to meet workers at Oshkosh Corporation. The company manufactures the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck and M-ATV family of protected vehicles.
He pointed to the rapid delivery of mine-resistant vehicles during the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq as a model for faster military procurement. “It’s a great American story that we are iterating on and replicating across our department right now,” he said.
“Uncertain projections … made the defense industrial base risk-averse, slow, lethargic, just like government,” Hegseth said. “The companies that served government started looking like government, falling behind on budget, everything costing more, ever-changing and insane requirements; scheduling overruns became the norm.”
“We need to give companies like Oshkosh stable, clear and consistent demand signals so that you can plan ahead, make more investments and create more American jobs,” Hegseth said. “No more offshoring, outsourcing — [only] American-made, American manufacturing, American muscle, American jobs.”
