Welcome back to the Rundown! President-elect Donald Trump will take the oath of office for the second time on Jan. 20. Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, received a warm reception from Senate Republicans at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday. Even Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who initially indicated that she needed to know more about Hegseth before deciding whether to vote for his nomination, has now said she supports him.
Perhaps best known for his work as a Fox News personality, at his confirmation hearing — and in the lead-up to it — Hegseth made a point of leveraging his status as a political outsider and military veteran. He served from 2001 to 2024, deploying twice as an Army infantry officer, first to Iraq and then to Afghanistan.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Hegseth argued that his experiences in combat have prepared him to become defense secretary. “Like many of my generation, I’ve been there,” Hegseth told lawmakers. “I’ve led troops in combat. I’ve been on patrol for days. I’ve pulled the trigger downrange, heard bullets whiz by, flex-cuffed insurgents, called in close air support, led MEDEVACs, dodged IEDs, pulled out dead bodies, and knelt before a battlefield cross. This is not academic for me. This is my life. I led then, and I will lead now.”
Despite Hegseth’s time in uniform, some lawmakers questioned his managerial experience, arguing that he had never led an organization anywhere close to the size of the Defense Department, and the two veterans service organizations that he did run had serious financial difficulties during his tenure.
Democratic senators pressed Hegseth on whether he would allow women to continue to serve in ground combat roles. While speaking on the Shawn Ryan Show podcast in November, Hegseth argued that women should not serve in jobs that rely on physical strength, such as special operations, infantry, armor, and artillery career fields.
On Tuesday, Hegseth said that women are “some of the best soldiers I worked with,” and that Trump has not talked with him about barring women from combat roles. “However, I would point out: Ensuring that standards are equal and high is of importance to him and great importance to me,” Hegseth said.
As usual, it was a busy week for military news. Here is your weekly rundown:
- Cash rules everything around me. A new report found that troops with less than 10 years’ experience earn more money than the “90th percentile of earnings for civilians” with a high school diploma. Task & Purpose’s Patty Nieberg dug into the 14th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation so you don’t have to. (By the time you finish reading this story, you will have a PhD on pay and benefits.)
- Houthi war SPENDEX. The Navy has fired nearly 400 munitions in the past 15 months as part of the undeclared war against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, including 120 SM-2 missiles, 80 SM-6 missiles, 160 rounds from ships’ five-inch main guns, and 20 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles (ESSM) and SM-3 missiles. The per unit cost for these missiles is about $4.3 million per SM-6, up to $2.5 million per SM-2, and nearly $1.5 million per Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile, according to The War Zone. In addition to the cost, the war in the Red Sea is burning through munitions that would be badly needed for a war against China.
- Time to rethink moving Marines to Guam? Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith told reporters on Wednesday that it might be time for the United States and Japan to reconsider a 2012 agreement that calls for relocating about 9,000 Marines from Okinawa, of which about 4,000 are expected to be stationed on Guam. Smith cautioned that would put those Marines farther away from where they might be needed most. “So, I’m not sure that is in the best strategic interests of America, to be honest with you,” Smith said. “But it is a treaty obligation we have with Japan, which we’re going to comply with unless, and until, it changes.”
- Plan for a Marine laser truck blows a fuse. A Marine Corps’ effort to mount lasers on tactical vehicles has fizzled. Laser Wars first reported that the Corps had returned the five Compact Laser Weapons Systems, or CLaWS, that it had procured in 2018 to Boeing and isn’t planning on buying any more. Instead, the Marines will “invest in more deliberate programs of record,” a Corps spokesperson said. Each CLaWS consisted of a high-energy laser array mounted on tactical vehicles, such as the Polaris MRZR.
- Good luck, Pat! Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, had his retirement ceremony on Wednesday. The famously unflappable two-star has always responded to this reporter’s questions – even the non-traditional ones – with professionalism and grace. I wish him all the best in his new adventure, but I do have just one more query for Maj. Gen. Ryder: Why hasn’t any of the alien technology that the U.S. military has recovered helped fix the nonstop issues with the F-35?
That’s all for now. Next week marks the start of the second Trump administration, and the news could start to come thick and fast. Buckle your chin strap.
Jeff Schogol