Hegseth Puts Warfighting Skills at the Center of Military Promotions.

Pete Hegseth makes it clear that he wants a “Department of War”…not merely a new name, but a military led by warriors who can command effectively in combat.

The U.S. Secretary of War recently announced that colonels and Navy captains seeking promotion to one-star rank will face a new Joint Warfighter Evaluation to assess their ability to wage war across services.

The initiative puts battlefield leadership at the center of his promotion agenda.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Tuesday the military this year will start evaluating colonels and Navy captains for one-star positions as part of a new process.

“While the backbone of our military is our NCOs (noncommissioned officers) and our petty officers, victory depends on the commanders who lead them. America needs warfighters who can master a chaotic battle space,” Hegseth said in a video posted on X.

The Joint Warfighter Evaluation (JWE) follows Hegseth’s May memo to begin assessing service members’ ability to wage joint warfare as part of promotion and advancement considerations for officers and senior noncommissioned officers.

Hegseth in the video acknowledged tasking Stuart Scheller, who currently serves as the secretary’s senior adviser of personnel and readiness, and his team a year ago to challenge “generations of promotion assumptions.”

 

Hegseth said he envisioned something like the Louisiana Maneuvers. The U.S. Army held these large-scale war games in 1940–1941, culminating in massive mock battles in Louisiana in September 1941 to prepare the rapidly expanding Army for World War II.

The exercises tested commanders, battlefield tactics, tanks, communications, and logistics while giving inexperienced officers practical experience directing large formations. They helped shape the Army’s wartime approach to mechanized and combined-arms warfare and showcased leaders such as Dwight D. Eisenhower and George S. Patton.

Many experienced military service members and veterans are excited by this development.

 

In the updated version, Stu Scheller (the senior Pentagon adviser leading the effort) says the assessment will vary by service and use the new technologies available to our military, including artificial intelligence (AI).

The Pentagon has developed six versions—one for each of the five military services and another for the Joint Staff.

In some versions, officers will be presented with a military problem and forced to make decisions as an AI-powered adversary reacts to their moves. Another will bring officers into a war college for an in-person wargame, where evaluators will watch how they respond as an enemy counters their decisions in real time.

“You make a move, enemy makes a move, how I react based on a time environment,” Scheller said.

The service plans obtained by Fox News Digital show just how different the evaluations will be. The Army plans to put roughly 900 eligible colonels through a remote written assessment followed by a digital wargame, while roughly 1,330 Air Force colonels will take a two-hour online analysis test followed by a one-hour interactive simulation. The Space Force will use the same basic format for roughly 125 officers.

The Navy’s version is considerably more intensive. Roughly 308 captains in the unrestricted line and information warfare communities will travel to the Naval War College for a three-hour written assessment followed by a two- to three-hour wargame. The Marine Corps plans an eight-hour remote evaluation for up to 175 colonels using an AI-enabled platform that combines written assessments with situational judgment tests.

Frankly, this sounds like an excellent idea. Air Force Airmen, Space Force Guardians, and the rest of our military service members seeking command should demonstrate that they can think clearly, adapt quickly, and make sound decisions under pressure, rather the go-along-to-get-along, look good on paper, and check various diversity-equity-inclusion requirements. Important lessons can be learned, which can be essential to mission success.

 

Like the Louisiana Maneuvers, these evaluations will reveal weaknesses, sharpen leadership, and teach valuable lessons before the next war begins.

If we get the New Millennium version of Eisenhower and Patton, so much the better.

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