Hegseth’s Plan To Build Hardened Warriors

PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEF (PDB) – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants the military services to return to ‘old-school’ discipline at basic training. But first, the services will have to rewrite the policies governing training instructors, which disallowed such practices over the past few decades.

Hegseth’s drive to “restore warrior ethos” across the U.S. military includes rewinding the clock on the ‘kindler, gentler’ approaches that began in the 1990s and dialed back hardcore discipline in the years that followed.

On Sept. 30, Hegseth told hundreds of senior military leaders that the cultural changes he envisions must begin at Basic Military Training.

“We’re empowering drill sergeants to instill healthy fear in new recruits, ensuring that future warfighters are forged,” he said. “They can toss bunks, they can swear, and yes, they can put their hands on recruits.

This does not mean they can be reckless or violate the law, but they can use tried and true methods to motivate new recruits, to make them the warriors they need to be.”

Hegseth told the generals he has two basic tests for whether policies should be reviewed: “The 1990 test and the E-6 test.” The first is simple, he said.

“What were the military standards in 1990? And if they have changed, tell me why: Was it a necessary change based on the evolving landscape of combat, or was the change due to a softening, weakening, or gender-based pursuit of other priorities?”

Hegseth, who was 10 years old in 1990, said “1990 seems to be as good a place to start as any.”

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here’s a roundup of today’s other top defense news from conservative national security expert PAUL CRESPO.

Not the President’s Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL’S DEFENSE BRIEFING – the PDB:    

NATIONAL SECURITY

The next conflict likely won’t start with bullets or missiles at a distant overseas location but instead could be a cyber strike on the homeland.

HOMELAND SECURITY

A senior adviser at the State Department is accused by DOJ of printing out classified documents and storing more than 1,000 pages of highly sensitive government records in filing cabinets and trash bags at home.

US POWER OVERSEAS

U.S. military struck another small boat off the coast of Venezuela, killing six narco-terrorists.

New program aims to put small nuclear power generation reactors on Army bases around the world.

Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend remote air bases against enemy drone attacks.

It took 45 days to procure and rush drone defenses to CENTCOM. That’s no longer good enough: Army vice chief.

U.S. Army General in Europe admits ‘we’re behind’ on drones and continues to lag behind global trends when it comes to fielding drones and systems to counter their use by hostile forces.

Equipping drones with guided munitions offers precise target engagement and reduces the required sortie rate. However, it requires further refinement due to its high cost.

Army’s I Corps is at a moment of strategic transition, shouldering the responsibility of shaping the service’s readiness across the vast, complex Indo-Pacific theater.

These are the approximate positions of the Navy’s deployed carrier strike groups and amphibious ready groups throughout the world as of October 14, 2025.

DEFENSE POLITICS

Troops are starting to see money deposited into their accounts a few days after the Pentagon said that it was moving $8 billion out of research and development funds amid the ongoing government shutdown.

Coast Guard will still get paid amid government shutdown, DHS Secretary Noem says.

Secretary of the Army teased a much-anticipated shakeup in the way the service buys its weapons and platforms, saying that he wants to adopt more of a private sector-like model that “speeds up the cycle of innovation for us.”

CHINA THREAT

Chinese cutters rammed and water cannoned two Philippine fishery vessels near Sandy Cay in Spratly Islands over the weekend in the latest attack by an increasingly belligerent China in the South China Sea.

China is the “pacing threat,” Army Secretary says, but homeland security and southern border operations are just as important as countering that threat. (RELATED: Beware: China Hacking Everyone And Everything In America)

Australia, the U.S. and defense contractor Lockheed Martin have advanced a plan to build guided missiles in Australia to expand their weapons stockpiles and counter China’s rapidly growing military.

UK Royal Air Force RC-135W Rivet Joint electronic surveillance aircraft has conducted a patrol circling the Russian fortress territory of Kaliningrad.

RUSSIA THREAT

Russian forces struck a hospital and a UN convoy in Ukraine, in attacks likely to bolster Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s pitch for long-range Tomahawk missiles when he meets Trump.

NATO defense ministers will meet to try to drum up more military support for Ukraine amid a sharp drop in deliveries of weapons and ammunition to the besieged country in recent months.

MIDDLE EAST THREATS

Israel has imposed new restrictions on aid entering the Gaza Strip and will not open the Rafah crossing as planned. This, as Israeli forces killed several militants in the Palestinian territory and Hamas executed opponents in broad daylight.

Armed Hamas security forces have returned to the streets, clashed with armed groups and killed opponents in areas where Israeli troops have withdrawn. (RELATED: As Trump’s Gaza Ceasefire Moves Ahead, Challenges Remain)

Fury grows in Israel over delayed release of deceased hostages held by Hamas.

South Africa’s president says the Gaza ceasefire will not affect his country’s ‘genocide’ case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

NORTH KOREA THREAT

U.S. and South Korea are deepening their “future-oriented” strategic alliance, even as Seoul works to reclaim wartime control of its military from Washington.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

Madagascar military says it has seized power as president moves to ‘safe place.’

Turkish defense-electronics company calls its integrated air-defense suite “Steel Dome,” a multi-layered, multi-domain system that combines kinetic and non-kinetic effectors with advanced decision-support algorithms.

The battle lines in southern Sudan. Recent battlefield gains by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) may turn the tide in Kordofan.

US ARMY SPECIAL REPORT

Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon continues to field to units and get upgrades, including a carbine version that’s currently under development.

Army’s long-awaited watercraft strategy charts a course that prioritizes sustaining an aging fleet, leveraging commercial solutions and accelerating experimentation with autonomous vessels.

It looks like the Army could reverse course and back the development of a next-generation interceptor for the Patriot missile system, known as the Lower-Tier Future Interceptor (LTFI).

Army is looking to develop a new next-gen “fog of war,” but in order to keep up with ever-evolving technological advances, it is turning to a technology from the Civil War — smokescreens.

Army’s elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), the Night Stalkers, has been exploring ways to ensure it can operate in more heavily defended airspace in the future.

Army’s new infantry squad vehicle can haul troops through pretty much any terrain in any condition, but it can’t protect soldiers from an ambush or allow someone to provide cover in the event of one.

Starting next year, the Army will be able to domestically mass-produce upwards of 10,000 small unmanned aerial systems each month.

Leonardo DRS and KNDS have shaken hands on a strategic teaming agreement to offer the CAESAR Self-Propelled Howitzer to the U.S. Army as a possible Mobile Tactical Cannon.

MARINES

New ultra high-speed Catamaran set to revolutionize Army and Marine expeditionary operations. The AIRCAT Bobcat, a 57-foot landing craft designed to move men and materiel rapidly into littoral zones, up rivers, and through estuaries where ports and infrastructure are limited or denied.

END of PDB

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