Pete Hegseth appeared before defense subcommittees of both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees alongside Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Jules W. Hurst III, performing the duties of the Department of War comptroller. The officials testified regarding the administration’s proposed fiscal year 2027 defense budget.
Hegseth told lawmakers that the administration’s proposed defense budget would continue expanding military capabilities amid evolving global security challenges. According to the secretary, the department’s revised acquisition and contracting approach is intended to improve support for the armed forces while strengthening the industrial base.
“The $1.5 trillion budget request put forward by [President Donald J.] Trump will build upon the historic $1 trillion FY26 top line,” Hegseth said. “The $1.5 trillion budget will ensure the United States continues to maintain the world’s most powerful and capable military, as we grapple with a complex threat environment across multiple theaters.”
The Department of War stated that uncertainty in government procurement had previously limited private sector investment in defense manufacturing and modernization. Officials said many companies had been reluctant to expand production capacity because of inconsistent long-term purchasing commitments from the U.S. government.
According to Hegseth, the department has sought to address those concerns through revised acquisition policies and longer-term procurement arrangements. The secretary said the administration has shifted defense acquisition toward a more commercially focused and outcome-driven approach.
“By supercharging our industrial capacity and transforming how the department does business, we are restoring American commercial dominance at a pace unseen in generations, transforming the defense industrial base from the broken, slow-moving systems of the past,” Hegseth said.
“We have flipped the Pentagon acquisition process from a bureaucratic model to a business model, decisively moving from an acquisition environment paralyzed by bureaucratic red tape into an outcomes-driven organization focused on delivering the most for taxpayer dollars,” he added.
Hegseth stated that the department’s policies have already contributed to substantial private sector investment across the United States. According to the secretary, companies have committed their own capital toward new facilities, manufacturing expansion and workforce growth in response to increased confidence in future demand.
“The department has helped stimulate more than 250 private investment deals in 39 states, in 180 cities, in 150 different companies, worth more than $50 billion,” Hegseth said. “This has resulted in 280 new and expanded facilities, more than 18 million new square feet of American manufacturing and more than 70,000 new American jobs.”
The secretary said the investments were financed directly by private industry rather than through additional government spending. According to Hegseth, the department’s revised business approach has encouraged companies to modernise production and expand manufacturing capabilities using their own resources.
“By completely transforming our department’s business model, American companies are investing in America with their own capital — a historic demonstration of American manufacturing and defense revitalization; all with their money, not Uncle Sam’s,” Hegseth said.
The Department of War also stated that the strategy is intended to strengthen domestic manufacturing and secure critical supply chains linked to national defense. Hegseth said the department has acted to support industrial resilience and reduce vulnerabilities within key production sectors.
“President Trump’s War Department has begun to turn the lights back on in manufacturing towns across this country to forge a lethal Arsenal of Freedom,” Hegseth said. “Where our critical supply chains are threatened, the Department of War has acted decisively to inject capital, stimulate production and prevent adversarial exploitation. We are firing up the American economic engine at every level of the defense industrial base.”
Source: U.S. Department of War.
