WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on June 12 regarding the Pentagon's revision of autonomous weapons policy. The communication came after the Trump administration issued a 90-day mandate for the Pentagon to rewrite its policy on deploying and safeguarding autonomous weapon systems.

President Donald Trump signed National Security Presidential Memorandum 11 on June 5. The memorandum directs the military and intelligence community to accelerate artificial intelligence adoption and reverses multiple Biden-era oversight requirements. National Security Presidential Memorandum 11 also requires the Pentagon to update Directive 3000.09 within 90 days and institute annual reviews for artificial intelligence capabilities.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Ash Carter issued the first U.S. policy to regulate autonomy in weapons systems under Directive 3000.09 in 2012. The directive assigns senior defense officials to oversee the development, procurement, testing, fielding, and use of autonomous weapons. This directive was revised in 2023 during the Biden administration. Lethal autonomous weapons systems use sensors and algorithms to independently search for, identify, and destroy targets without manual human control. The Department of Defense has not publicly detailed the applications of Directive 3000.09 in the context of the review process.

Gallego's letter, dated June 12, requested a response by June 26 to over six questions. The senator asked if the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group has dedicated personnel for civilian harm mitigation and response analysis during the development, testing, and fielding of weapon systems. He also requested information on how an updated version of Directive 3000.09 will ensure protections against risks accompanying the adoption of autonomous weapons or artificial intelligence targeting recommendations.

Gallego stated, "Since January 2023, Directive 3000.09 has served as the core Pentagon policy document guiding rigorous procedures that ensure autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon systems function as expected and intended, are geographically delimited in use, allow for termination, and are suitably robust to adversarial manipulation. Any update that significantly reduces safeguards and disrupts rigorous reviews risks friendly fire and civilian harm incidents affecting U.S. servicemembers, partner or allied militaries, or host nation civilians. That any such incident could result in U.S. access, basing, or overflight rights being restricted or revoked heightens the risk incidents are deliberately triggered by foreign adversarial manipulation of hastily fielded systems." DOD Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael and DAWG Director Lt. Gen. Stephen Marks were copied on the letter.