AI War Games Replace Generals’ Homework

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered 33 sweeping changes to how the military trains its future generals and admirals, cutting written theses in favor of AI-assisted war games.

Quick Take

Hegseth signed an eight-page memo on November 9, 2026, with 33 reforms taking effect immediately at senior war colleges.
New “Warfighter Chair” positions will put recently deployed commanders in classrooms instead of career academics.
Standardized wargames and exams will replace subjective grading and written capstone theses.
Civilian professors lose lifetime tenure, moving to three-year contracts tied to performance.
The announcement landed the same day an impeachment vote loomed over Hegseth’s tenure.

A Same-Day Memo Reshapes Officer Training

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth signed an eight-page memorandum on November 9, 2026, ordering 33 reforms across the military’s Senior Service Colleges and Intermediate Level Education programs. The changes took effect immediately. Hegseth delivered the announcement in person at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, framing it as a fix for what he called years of “academic drift” inside the schools that train senior officers.

The reforms target the Professional Military Education system, the network of colleges that prepares colonels, captains, and future generals for top command. Hegseth argued the system had “stagnated” and drifted away from combat readiness toward theory and what he described as ideological distractions. The memo places the Under Secretary of War for Personnel and Readiness in charge of tracking every directive to make sure the changes actually happen.

Combat Veterans Move Into the Classroom

One of the biggest changes creates “Warfighter Chair” positions at every senior college. These seats will go to high-performing colonels and lieutenant colonels who deployed to combat zones within the past two years. The goal is to put instructors with fresh battlefield experience in front of students, instead of relying only on longtime academic faculty who may not have recent operational time.

The plan also requires formal case studies built from real operational and ethical successes and failures. Schools must file a report within 90 days explaining how those case studies get worked into coursework. Supporters see this as a way to keep lessons from recent conflicts flowing directly into the classroom rather than sitting in after-action reports nobody reads.

AI War Games Replace the Written Thesis

Perhaps the most striking change scraps the traditional written thesis that senior students have produced for decades. In its place, the Department of War is introducing what it calls “super intelligence-assisted joint wargaming,” paired with high-stress decision-making scenarios, as the main way to evaluate senior officers. Hegseth said students will complete interconnected capstone war games testing both tactical skill and strategic judgment.

Standardized end-of-course exams and war games will also replace subjective seminar grading across the colleges, a method the Department of War says has allowed uneven standards to creep in over time. The announcement does not specify which artificial intelligence system will be used or how its scoring will be checked for bias or errors, leaving those technical details undisclosed in the public record so far.

Faculty Tenure Protections Disappear

Civilian professors newly hired at these colleges will lose lifetime tenure and emeritus status. Instead, they will work under three-year contracts renewed based on teaching results and national-security research output. The memo does not spell out exactly how that performance will be judged or whether professors can appeal a non-renewal, leaving key implementation questions open for now.

Hegseth has been blunt about his target, criticizing what he called civilian-led education that produced “relics of 19th century academia” inside colleges meant to prepare officers for modern war. Military education has swung between these two poles before — transmitting fresh combat experience versus building broader strategic judgment — and historically the strongest reforms blended both rather than picking one.

Timing Adds Political Weight

The rollout came on a day when an impeachment vote tied to Hegseth’s tenure was already hanging over Washington, adding political tension to what the Department of War presented as a purely professional reform. That overlap means public reaction to the changes may end up tracking views of Hegseth himself as much as the substance of the 33 directives themselves.

For now, the full 33-point memo, its funding details, and a directive-by-directive implementation schedule have not been made public in complete form. What is confirmed is that the order is signed, dated, and already in force, marking one of the most sweeping shake-ups of military officer education in recent memory.