The Pentagon announced plans to form a federal advisory committee focused on troop performance and health after creating a new directorate for warfighter optimization within the Department of War. The committee will provide guidance on issues affecting how service members function physically, mentally and emotionally.

According to a Federal Register notice published Tuesday, the committee will cost $1.4 million and focus “exclusively on human performance.” Its work will include improving function, preventing physical injuries and operational stress, and confronting the effects of military service known collectively as “operator syndrome.”

“The Council will serve as a high-impact, low-cost mechanism for the [DoW] to secure the expertise of the nation’s foremost leaders at the nexus of warrior health and performance,” the announcement stated.

The Pentagon established a Warfighter Performance Optimization division earlier this year inside the office of Under Secretary of War for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata. The division is intended to oversee and coordinate efforts by the individual military services to improve troop readiness and performance.

In May, War Secretary Pete Hegseth directed Tata to report on existing optimization initiatives throughout the services. That review was intended to support the creation of a performance optimization plan spanning the department.

Hegseth called for accelerating the fielding of technologies that could improve performance, including wearable devices and other analytics tools. He also directed attention toward elevating “cognitive performance as a key to readiness.”

“By building on and modernizing the principles of Total Force Fitness (TFF), WPO will deliver a unified operational approach to accelerate readiness, dominance, and peak performance across the Force. We will treat the Warfighter as a readiness capability, held to the same disciplined evaluation, maintenance, and optimization we demand of every asset that preserves combat power,” Hegseth wrote.

The individual services have developed their own health, fitness and human performance programs during the past several years. The Army introduced its Holistic Health and Fitness initiative in 2020 to improve force health and reduce the number of soldiers unable to deploy because of chronic medical conditions.

The Navy launched its Human Performance Optimization program as a pilot in San Diego in February. That program provides training and education covering nutrition, sleep, injury prevention and stress management.

The Marine Corps has maintained a total fitness strategy since 2023 that combines wellness, fitness, mental health and data to improve the health of Marines. Meanwhile, the Air Force is building a human performance optimization facility at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona to support Air Force Special Warfare airmen.

The new advisory committee will have up to 20 members drawn from a broad range of scientific and medical fields. Areas of expertise may include urology, endocrinology, nutrition, neurology, combat stress, orthopedics, preventive medicine, wearable technology, sleep medicine and human factors engineering.

The council also may include members specializing in spiritual, psychiatric or psychological health. The range of specialties reflects the committee’s exclusive focus on human performance and the physical, mental and emotional demands facing troops.

As with other federal advisory committees, members will serve as unpaid volunteers. They will receive only travel pay and per diem reimbursement while conducting business related to the council.

The announcement called the council “an exceptionally cost-effective resource.” Its stated mission is to give the services information that can guide the development of troops prepared for demanding combat operations against peer adversaries.

The group will help the services create “lethal, operationally ready warriors prepared physically, psychologically, for successful large-scale, high kinetic, combat operations against peer adversaries who are imbued with the essential Warrior Ethos to win decisively,” the announcement stated.

Shortly after taking office last year, Hegseth dismissed members of roughly 40 War Department advisory boards and launched reviews of whether those panels supported his objective to “revive the warrior ethos” across the armed forces.

The Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services and the Defense Advisory Committee for the Prevention of Sexual Misconduct were among the panels terminated. Hegseth has since created several new advisory boards.

The most recent was the Homeland Defense Board, announced Sept. 11, which Hegseth plans to chair. That board will provide guidance concerning military support for homeland security missions, while the new human performance council will concentrate on warrior health, readiness and performance.

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