Hegseth Proposes Elevating Senior Special Operations Civilian to Service Secretary-Equivalent Post

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is seeking to expand the authority of the department’s top civilian special operations post to a level equivalent to a service secretary, a move that would significantly reshape the influence of the special forces community within the military.

“Despite [its] contribution to the Joint Force and our Nation, resourcing for SOF remains behind current operational and force posture,” Hegseth wrote in a new memo, released today but dated Nov. 2. “It is time for a bold, foundational change.”

The memo’s overarching goal is to elevate the assistant secretary of defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (ASD-SOLIC), a position currently held by Derrick Anderson, to a new role of undersecretary of strategic services (OSS). The question of whether special operations forces should have their own military department has circulated for years, but it has never gained much traction in Congress, where members have instead focused on strengthening the SOLIC office and granting special acquisition authorities to U.S. Special Operations Command.

The memo outlines numerous changes Hegseth would like to see, but they fall into two broad categories: changes that require congressional support and those that can be implemented internally now.

The most significant change is the one that needs legislative backing: elevating the office to an undersecretary level. Accordingly, the memo directs the legislative affairs team to “draft legislative proposals” for Congress to make that change.

Hegseth is also directing that the SOLIC role be given the secondary title of “Assistant Secretary of War for the Office of Strategic Services (ASW(OSS)).” Similar to how President Donald Trump authorized the Defense Department to use “Department of War” as a secondary title, this is an unofficial renaming — effectively a nickname the department can use, in hopes that Congress will make the actual name change through a future National Defense Authorization Act.

However, there are some bureaucratic changes Hegseth can make to empower the special operations office.

Internally, Hegseth is directing that the office be treated as “Code 2” under the department’s Order of Precedence, which elevates, at least on paper, the SOLIC role to the equivalent of service secretaries in terms of what meetings they should attend and where they rank by seniority.

Elsewhere, he states that the SOLIC role should be included in the highest levels of meetings, including the department’s “Senior Leaders Council, Joint Requirements Oversight Council, Secretary’s Weekly Priorities Review, Program Budget Review, Deputy’s Management Action Group, Sensitive Technical Activities Oversight Committee, and Special Access Program governance structures and all other fora that the Secretaries of the Military Departments are members.”

Additionally, within 60 days, 75 civilians will be transferred to the office, as well as 25 members of the joint staff. Hegseth has also directed the comptroller’s office to find $45 million annually from the department’s operations and maintenance (O&M) funds to support the office’s day-to-day operations.

There are also clear signs Hegseth wants special operations to receive a greater share of the budget. SOF advocates such as Chris Miller, the former ASW-SOLIC who became acting defense secretary at the end of the first Trump administration, have argued for increasing the budget. Miller wrote for Breaking Defense in May that SOF should have $24 billion annually.

Hegseth directs that SOF be “distinctly delineated in the Defense Planning Guidance and Guidance for the Employment of the Force, including providing guidance for increased investment in SOF modernization, major platform recapitalization, and increased readiness to support dynamic operational demands and national objectives.”

Another part of the memo further directs the military departments to “prioritize service support to SOF requirements wherever feasible, such as providing service common platforms and combat loss recoupment.”

Similarly, Hegseth directs budget planners to “identify and prioritize opportunities in FY 2027 execution and to consider the currently submitted USSOCOM resourcing and manpower requests in the FY2028-2032 budget development process as top tier priorities for the Department, consistent with the mission areas I have directed them to carry out.”

Kori Schake, a longtime expert who leads the American Enterprise Institute’s defense team, told Breaking Defense she is skeptical of the move.

“Secretary Hegseth does not have the authority to make that change or allocate that money; Congress would have to authorize the change and appropriate the money,” she said. “We’re over-investing in SOF. As the great Field Marshal Slim said, wars are not won by small bands of special soldiers.”

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