FEBRUARY 19, 2026 – Secretary of War Pete Hegseth continued the War Department’s Arsenal of Freedom tour today with a visit to the Boeing Company in St. Louis.
The visit to St. Louis — which is often referred to as “Fighterland, U.S.A.” in aviation circles, due to the high number of military aircraft produced in the area — came on the same day that Boeing announced it would be relocating its Defense, Space and Security division back to the Midwest city from Arlington, Virginia.
During remarks to a crowd of roughly 500 employees in Boeing’s Building 75, Hegseth said he viewed the timing of the tour’s visit as “perfect,” and then pointed out that some 2,500 veterans are included among the facility’s workforce of 18,000.
“I’m here on behalf of the Department of War to thank you; that’s what the Arsenal of Freedom tour is all about — to ensure that our warfighters never fight in a fair fight, and they can’t do that without you,” Hegseth told the crowd.
The nationwide Arsenal of Freedom tour, which Hegseth launched just over a month ago, shows the War Department’s support for the defense industrial base by delivering a call to action to revitalize America’s manufacturing might and re-energize the nation’s workforce.
Though Hegseth said he was certainly visiting Boeing’s workers to thank them for their hard work, he also made clear during a speech that focused heavily on speed and competition within the nation’s DIB that it’s essential those who supply the nation’s warfighters get up to speed and operate on a wartime footing.
“Boeing, like everybody else, needs to compete; and that means tough truths to your leaders, to [War Department] leaders, and to all defense firms,” Hegseth told the Boeing audience.
He then referenced the “Prioritizing the Warfighter in Defense Contracting” executive order signed by President Donald J. Trump on Jan. 7 of this year.
The EO effectively prioritizes production speed and on-time delivery over investor returns in federal procurement, while also allowing the secretary of war to penalize underperforming contractors by prohibiting stock buybacks and dividends, as well as linking executive pay to performance.
“These themes are simple: no more excuses, no more barriers to entry for big guys or small guys, no more monopolies, no more egregious executive bonuses, no more stock buybacks, no more ridiculous CEO salaries [and] no more making lots of money while falling behind on product lines,” Hegseth said, adding that the companies the War Department invests in must put the warfighters and the workers who contribute to the DIB first.
When later asked during a brief meeting with the media how confident he was that corporate leaders within the DIB would comply with all that was being asked of them under the aforementioned executive order, Hegseth said he was confident DIB leadership would comply.
“If you read [the EO] from January, we have extraordinary powers … And so, we’re really going company by company saying, ‘Hey, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,’ [and] a lot of them have taken the ball and ran with it, saying, ‘Hey, we want to work with you, we want to partner with you,'” Hegseth told reporters.
Toward the final portion of his remarks, Hegseth circled back to the vital work that the men and women in the Boeing workforce — and the DIB as a whole — do in support of the warfighter.
“You’re the workers who pour their lives and careers into these planes; planes that fly … 1,900 miles per hour, ready to go to battle and then give our pilots safe passage home,” Hegseth said.
“You’re the ones that give them the advantage,” he added.
Hegseth then illustrated the direct contributions that the Boeing workforce is making to reestablishing deterrence by mentioning the Boeing EA-18 Growler, a specialized, carrier-based electronic warfare aircraft developed for the U.S. Navy and Royal Australian Air Force.
Hegseth noted that the EA-18 played an important part in contributing to the success of Operation Absolute Resolve — the U.S. military’s Jan. 3 mission that led to the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
The secretary noted that the Growler is produced by the workers in Building 75.
“[The EA-18] protected our warfighters [and] it was built in America, built by Americans, built by you,” he told the crowd.
Following the Boeing visit — and before returning to Washington — Hegseth stopped off at the St. Louis Military Entrance Processing Station, where he administered the oath of enlistment to 32 future service members — 24 of them active duty and eight Missouri National Guardsmen.
Hegseth’s swearing in of new service members all across the country has been standard practice since the tour first kicked off Jan. 5.
Prior to swearing the young men and women into service, Hegseth mentioned his earlier visit to Boeing, noting that there’s a lot more than materiel when it comes to building a strong military.
“Even the most exquisite submarine [or] the most exquisite fighter [jet] … none of those things are the decisive factor. The decisive factor [is] these Americans,” Hegseth said of the enlistees, adding that he views them as “the real [top] 1%” of what the U.S. has to offer.
“I’m honored to swear you into the greatest fighting force in human history, and it’s [the War Department’s] job to make sure you keep it that way,” he told the recruits just before swearing them in.
By Matthew Olay, Pentagon News