Hegseth redirects SOF toward great power competition at SOF Week 2025
The U.S. special operations forces (SOF) community is undergoing a significant transformation. According to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, SOF will shift from a counterterrorism-centric mission to a broader role in great power competition.
Hegseth, who delivered a surprise keynote address at the opening ceremony of SOF Week 2025, outlined the challenges facing the SOF enterprise. He cited budget constraints, force structure adjustments, technology adoption, personnel development and the importance of international partnerships as key areas of focus.
The human in control and a different course
Organizers announced Hegseth’s appearance less than 24 hours before he took the stage to a standing-room-only crowd. He opened his remarks by emphasizing the human element of special operations.
“Humans are more important than hardware, more than any other military formation,” Hegseth said. “SOF is about people. It starts and ends with the troops down range. Each of you and your commitment to the mission is more important than any of the cutting-edge hardware and software we are going to see on the convention floor.”
Hegseth, the 29th secretary of defense, told the audience of Americans and allied SOF personnel that he aimed to restore what he described as a lost ethos under the previous administration.
“Everything starts and ends with warriors, from training to the battlefield,” he said. “We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind. No more pronouns, no more climate change obsession, no more emergency vaccine mandates, no more dudes in dresses.”
He also shared anecdotes from his early days in the role, including participating in early morning workouts with SOF units.
“The problem is it went from ‘Let’s do PT with the troops’ to every special operations group in the world trying to smoke the SecDef,” Hegseth joked. “I find myself almost blacking out by the end of the workout, and then having to hand out coins and try to stay upright.”
Future investments and allies
The former Fox News weekend anchor highlighted President Trump’s request for a $1 trillion defense budget, calling it a generational investment aimed at revitalizing the defense industrial base and reforming the Department of Defense’s acquisitions process.
“Our goal is to put the best systems in the hands of our warfighters,” Hegseth said. “Because you, our warfighters, should never be in a fair fight.”
Despite recent criticism of NATO allies, Hegseth emphasized the importance of international partnerships in SOF operations.
“SOF’s ability to work by, with and through international partners pays huge dividends on our border, in the Indo-Pacific and around the world,” he said. “Partners have to believe that America is strong, that peace through strength is real. Then they want to come into our orbit and be force multipliers.”
Here at home
Turning to domestic issues, Hegseth told attendees that “border security is national security,” and said he expected the United States to achieve full operational control of the southern border. He added that SOF units were making a “distinct contribution,” though he did not provide specific details.
SOF Week 2025 continues through the week of May 18, bringing together military leaders, industry partners and international allies to discuss the future of special operations.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
