War Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the Pentagon to develop a military-wide strategy aimed at making U.S. troops more effective, lethal, and combat-ready, according to newly released War Department documents.

The initiative, known as "Warfighter Performance Optimization," seeks to unify how the military services improve physical and mental performance while expanding the use of data analytics and wearable technology to strengthen readiness across the force.

In a May 6 memo, obtained by the Military Times, Hegseth ordered Under Secretary of War for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata to review existing performance programs across the military and recommend ways "to equip our service members and leaders with the tools, data and resources necessary to meet and exceed readiness standards and to maximize their lethality and effectiveness."

The review will serve as the basis for a Pentagon-wide action plan establishing common performance goals and standards across the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and other War Department components.

A major focus of the effort is cognitive readiness. Hegseth's memo calls for treating mental performance with the same importance as physical fitness.

"The Department will establish cognitive performance as a core occupational readiness competency, measuring and managing it with the same attention and discipline we apply to our physical standards," the memo states. "We will mitigate brain health risks that erode cognitive performance and leverage tactics, techniques, and procedures to train and optimize Warfighter cognition," it added.

In a separate Pentagon memo, also obtained by the Military Times, the department outlined an implementation timeline.

Military departments and combatant commands have been directed to provide detailed information on existing human-performance programs, including budgets, research priorities, and use of technologies such as wearable devices and mobile sensors.

"Information will include overviews, definitions, resource data, best practices, collaborators, coordination with clinical care, utilization of digital health technologies (e.g., wearables, mobile sensors), research priorities, and data capabilities," the memo stated.

The Pentagon plans to release a department-wide strategic plan in September establishing performance goals and readiness metrics.

New "human performance program enhancement activities" are expected to begin in January, while at least three pilot programs featuring "innovative capabilities designed to address mission gaps" are slated to launch by next July.

The initiative comes as the services continue pursuing separate performance programs.

The Army has promoted its Holistic Health and Fitness program, while the Navy is rolling out a Human Performance Optimization program. The Air Force recently broke ground on a new performance facility at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, and the Marine Corps operates resiliency-focused performance centers across the force.

Supporters say the Pentagon effort could help identify which programs produce measurable results and deserve wider adoption.

"Hopefully this effort will find out what the best practices are, so those which stand out and can be done at scale while being compliant with different cyber security mandates," a former military human performance official told the Military Times.

"Wearables aren't the answer to everything," the former official said. "They're complementary to a lot of the other practices, but we'll see what the yield is."