Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

4. Department of Defense · Notable

Establish an Irregular Warfare Center of Excellence

Not started

122 4. Department of Defense

“Establish an Irregular Warfare Center of Excellence to help DOD train, equip, and organize to conduct irregular warfare as a core competency across the spectrum of competition, crisis, and conflict.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    Already true before the evidence window: the Department of Defense Irregular Warfare Center was created by section 1204(a)(5) of the FY2023 NDAA (P.L. 117-263, 2022-12-23), which added subsection (c) to what is now 10 U.S.C. 345, "Irregular Warfare Center and Regional Defense Fellowship Program". Inside the window Congress adjusted rather than established it: FY2026 NDAA sec. 1204 substitutes the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict for the Director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency in 10 U.S.C. 345(c)(4)(B), and the authorization funding table carries $6,000,000 for the Irregular Warfare Center. Sec. 1094 separately authorizes a new Irregular Warfare Exercise Laboratory to support training, experimentation and validation for full-spectrum irregular warfare activities.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

10 U.S.C. 345 was read at uscode.house.gov, whose source-credit and amendment notes give the provenance: subsection (c) added by P.L. 117-263 sec. 1204(a)(5) on 2022-12-23, amended by P.L. 119-60 sec. 1204 on 2025-12-18.

  • The item is marked Already true because the Center the Quote asks to be established already exists in statute and in fact. The in-window oversight change and the $6M authorization are recorded in the note and carried as Evidence, but they are not establishment, so the Status stays not started: a Status measures what this administration did, and a condition that predates the window is marked Already true instead.
  • Confirmed 2026-09-01, Already true kept. This asks for something to be created, not preserved or continued, so Already true is available; the Center existed in statute and in fact on 2025-01-20. The FY2026 NDAA’s change of reporting line and its $6,000,000 authorization are action inside the window and belong in the note; they adjust a Center rather than establish one, so they do not defeat Already true.
  • Checked 2026-09-06: Already true stands. Under the rule as amended 2026-09-06, Already true is withdrawn where the object is undone; the Department of Defense Irregular Warfare Center still exists in statute at 10 U.S.C. 345(c) and the FY2026 NDAA amends and funds it rather than abolishing it. Substituting the Assistant Secretary of Defense for SO/LIC for the DSCA Director in 345(c)(4)(B), authorizing $6,000,000 for the Center and creating an Irregular Warfare Exercise Laboratory alongside it all run with the ask, not against it. That is the pre-window truth reinforced - a change of degree - and it stays in the note.
Action
create
Object
Irregular Warfare Center of Excellence
ID
249