The U.S. Department of Defense website reported on January 29th, local time, that in a memo sent to U.S. military leaders today, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the establishment of a special working group to oversee the strengthening of a fully merit based military.

"The Department of Defense has an obligation to the American public to ensure that their children serve under the best leadership we can provide them," Hegseth said. "Doing so is a national security imperative. A fundamental principle of the Department of Defense must always be to place the most qualified individuals in responsible positions based on merit based color blindness policies.”

Hegseth said the Restore America's Fighting Force (RAFF) Task Force, which will be established by the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.

“To ensure that the Department of Defense remains focused on its core mission of providing the military power needed to deter war and ensure national security, the Department will ensure that all decisions related to hiring, promoting, and selecting personnel are based on merit, departmental needs, and ultimately the individual wish.”

As part of its mission, the task force will oversee the closure of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices across the Department of Defense and the Services, as well as the cessation of actions initiated by those offices. These offices initiate actions that include ideologies related to systemic racism or gender fluidity.

Hegseth has set a deadline of March 1st for the working group’s preliminary report on its activities, and June 1st for its final report.

As part of the memo, Hegseth articulated a series of ideas that the Department of Defense will pursue in the future, and the task force will, in part, help it realize those ideas.

These include that the Department of Defense will no longer consider an individual's gender, race or ethnicity when considering an individual for promotion, command or special duties. At the same time, the department will eliminate targeting based on gender, race or ethnicity in organizational composition, academic admissions and career areas.

When it comes to training for the troops, including within the service academies, Hegseth said the Department of Defense will no longer provide training on critical race theory (CRT), diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) or gender ideology Concept guidance.

Finally, advisory boards, committees, and working groups related to gender ideology, DEI, and CRT will be eliminated.

On Monday, Trump issued an executive order titled "Restore America's Fighting Force", which bans any preference or disadvantage for individuals or groups based on gender, race or ethnicity in the armed forces. This task force will ensure that the Department of Defense meets the goals set by the President.

"The mission of the Department of Defense is to win the nation's wars," Hegseth said. "To do that, we must have a lethal fighting force that rewards individual initiative, excellence and hard work based on merit."