Hegseth Focuses on Fitness, Even as Pentagon Goes High Tech [View all]
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But harking back to his combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hegseth emphasized the importance of physical prowess and paid scant attention to the coders, data engineers, AI-literate operators, robotics specialists and Space Force officers whoon paper and increasingly in practiceare vital for the Pentagons future war capability.
Stronger people are harder to kill, reads a recent Pentagon recruiting slogan.
Some longstanding military experts say that primary focus on physical standards was striking for a Pentagon positioning itself for a new era of heightened competition with Beijing and Moscow.
Modern warfare, particularly against a peer competitor, will be much more about skillfully applying cutting-edge technology and managing complex weapon systems under stress than about physical strength, said former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. We need the nations best brains as much if not far more than we need people who can do push-ups.
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