Mr. Hegseth, an Army National Guard veteran who has led nonprofit veterans organizations and worked as a Fox News television host, has significantly less leadership experience than most recent defense secretaries. Some senators have expressed concerns that his relative lack of experience could be a liability should he lead a department with more than three million civilian and uniformed employees and a budget of more than $800 billion.

However, Mr Hegseth is expected to reject these concerns out of hand.

“As President Trump also told me, we have repeatedly put people at the top of the Pentagon who supposedly had ‘the right qualifications’ – be they retired generals, academics or defense contractor executives – and where has that gotten us?” His prepared comments were read. “He believes, and I humbly agree, that it is time to put someone with dust on their boots in charge.”

But Mr. Hegseth, who retired with the rank of major and served in Iraq and Afghanistan and was a platoon leader at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is also expected to express a willingness to listen to advisers.

“I know what I don’t know,” he is quoted as saying, adding that his success as a leader “has always been about setting a clear vision, hiring people smarter and more capable than me, empowering them to succeed, and everyone to be held accountable.” and the pursuit of clear metrics.”

Mr. Hegseth’s prepared remarks also detail his combat experience, saying he dodged improvised explosive devices, “heard bullets whizzing by,” “pulled out bodies” and “kneeled before a battlefield cross.”

“It’s not academic to me; This is my life,” his prepared remarks said. “I led then and I will lead now.”

According to his prepared remarks, Mr. Hegseth is expected to pledge to “be patriotically apolitical” if he is confirmed as Pentagon chairman, while also accusing the Biden administration of not holding himself to the same standard.

He will also send a clear signal that under his leadership the Pentagon would not prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion policies, programs that have also been targeted by Republican lawmakers.

“Unlike the current government, politics should play no role in military affairs,” Mr. Hegseth’s prepared comments said, adding: “Our standards will be high and they will be equal (not equitable, that’s a whole other thing Word).”

Mr. Hegseth was criticized for previously saying he did not believe women should take on combat roles in the military — a position that particularly angered Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican and the Senate’s first female combat veteran. Ms. Ernst, a member of the committee that will hear his testimony on Tuesday, said in a statement last month that Mr. Hegseth had promised her to appoint a senior official to “uphold the roles and values ​​of our servicemen and women. “on quality and standards, not on quotas.”