Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth directed Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby to begin developing the 2025 National Defense Strategy.

The NDS serves as a road map for the Department of Defense, providing broad guidance for military planning, strategy, force posturing, modernization, and more.

Recommended Stories

• Reaction to Waltz’s White House exit: Promotion? Demotion? Just deserts?
• Pentagon problems: It's been a rough road for many defense secretaries
• Pete Hegseth's hard choices: Today's decisions and tomorrow's military

“It will provide clear direction for the Department to implement President [Donald] Trump’s America First and Peace Through Strength agenda,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement. “Consistent with the President’s intent, the NDS will prioritize defense of the U.S. homeland, including America’s skies and borders, and deterring China in the Indo-Pacific.”

A final draft of the strategy is due to the secretary no later than Aug. 31.

“This is a time of great danger,” Hegseth said in his memo, “but we will meet it.”

The secretary has already begun changing the department into a force for his and Trump’s vision. They have cut all diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, including positions in the building and programs offered to service members. The DEI purge also involved removing all mention of the initiatives from online.

Hegseth has deployed thousands of U.S. troops to the southern border to aid the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to stem illegal immigration. In that vein, the Department of the Interior has transferred land along the border to the DoD, a workaround temporarily allowing active military personnel to detain trespassers.

TRUMP MOVES EMBATTLED MIKE WALTZ FROM NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER TO UN

The military is also developing a plan for a layered aerial defense of the entire nation known as the Golden Dome.

The Trump administration is continuing its effort to reorient the DoD away from the Middle East and toward the Asia-Pacific region to counter the growing threat of China.