WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday kicked off a multi-state tour in support of the nation's defense industrial base by paying a visit to a large group of shipyard workers in Newport News, Virginia.
Dubbed the 'Arsenal of Freedom Tour,' the month-long campaign aims to promote one of the Defense Department's top priorities of rebuilding the military by engaging with the DIB at various stops throughout the country.
'On this tour, we'll be traveling from the shipyards of the coast to the factories of the heartland to see the work being done by the military and our partners in American manufacturing, to usher in a new golden age of peace through strength - a revival of our industrial base - all-American, made by the best Americans,' Hegseth told the crowd.
He added that he believes the nation's treasured freedoms are only as secure as the defense arsenal is strong, and that nothing is more important than securing those freedoms.
'So, I'm here to thank you - the men and women assembled here today, and those you represent - who are designing and constructing our weapons of war that my children and yours, my grandchildren and yours, will rely upon to ensure the peace, stability and security of the United States,' Hegseth said.
During his speech, the secretary cautioned against what he called decades of a bipartisan consensus that the U.S. no longer needed to focus on defense industrial might because those bipartisan politicians believed 'history was over,' and therefore viewed peer competitors like China as 'a relic of the past.'
'Not anymore,' Hegseth said, adding, 'We recognize that we are in a new era of great power competition; a generational struggle to maintain peace through strength, and we will rise to meet that challenge.'
To do so, the Pentagon is working to institute a department wide 'revival' that focuses not on speeches, policy papers, think tanks, etc., but rather on action across the entire Department, he said.
'We're deploying cutting-edge technologies at a speed that's not been seen in generations, and we're making historic, multigenerational investments in the capabilities that we will need to dominate the future fight at a level of urgency that must match the urgency of the moment,' Hegseth explained, adding that those capabilities are getting into the hands of war-fighters faster than any period since World War II.
Hegseth spent the earlier part of his day administering the oath of enlistment to 30 brand new military recruits at a nearby Newport News recruiting station.
'What we care about at the War Department are the real men and women who do the real work in uniform for the American people,' Hegseth told the recruits and their families, adding that less than 1 percent of Americans actually step up to serve in the military.
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