By Alayna Treene, Pamela Brown, Haley Britzky and Oren Liebermann

(CNN) — President Donald Trump on Monday announced he had signed four executive orders that will reshape the military, including banning transgender service members from serving in the US armed forces; gutting the military’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs; and reinstating with back pay service members who were discharged for refusing to get vaccinated from Covid-19.

Trump said he signed the executive orders while aboard Air Force One on a return flight to Washington from Florida. CNN previously reported Trump was expected to do so, according to two White House officials.

The orders, which were first reported by the New York Post, come as Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, was sworn in as secretary of defense on Saturday. Hegseth has long stated he planned to implement major cultural changes to the military, including ending DEI practices and removing “woke” service members.

Moments after his arrival at the Pentagon on Monday, Hegseth told reporters that there are “more executive orders coming.”

“Today, there are more executive orders coming, … on removing DEI inside the Pentagon, reinstating troops who were pushed out because of Covid mandates, iron dome for America — this is happening quickly, and as the secretary of defense, it’s an honor to salute smartly as I did as a junior officer and now as the secretary of defense to ensure these orders are complied with rapidly and quickly,” Hegseth said.

Trump had banned transgender Americans form serving in the military in 2017 during his first administration, but then-President Joe Biden issued an order in 2021 repealing the ban.

Hours after being sworn in for his second term last week, Trump signed an order revoking the Biden administration’s 2021 move to allow transgender members to serve. However, the order Trump announced he had signed Monday goes even further, one of the officials said, and outlines new military standards regarding gender pronouns and state that mental and physical readiness requires transgender service members be banned from the military.

“It can take a minimum of 12 months for an individual to complete treatments after transition surgery, which often involves the use of heavy narcotics. During this period, they are not physically capable of meeting military readiness requirements and require ongoing medical care. This is not conducive for deployment or other readiness requirements,” one of the officials said, citing a fact sheet.

“The implementation [of the ban] is on the DoD regarding specifics,” the official said. In 2018, there were an estimated 14,000 transgender service members in the US military, according to the Palm Center, an independent research institute that has conducted extensive research on sexual minorities in the military.

A Pentagon memo detailing the ban during Trump’s first term in office recommended making exceptions for transgender service members already serving in uniform who had joined the military under previous policies before the ban took effect; those who do not require a change in gender; and those who had been “stable for 36 consecutive months in their biological sex prior to accession.”

It’s unclear whether the administration’s new ban will also have exceptions. Asked about possible exceptions on Monday, Hegseth said only that there will be an executive order “on that right now, today.”

A second EO states that any “discriminatory” policies related to DEI in the military will be banned. The order comes after the Trump administration ordered employees in any federal diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility offices to be placed on paid administrative leave “effective immediately.”

All DEI practices in the US armed forces will also be subject to an internal review by Hegseth.

The third executive order directs Hegseth to reinstate all active and reserve service members who were previously discharged for failing to get the Covid-19 vaccine. They will be reinstated with their former rank and given back pay and benefits, one of the officials said. However, the Pentagon had already rescinded the military’s Covid-19 vaccination mandate, allowing them to rejoin after Biden signed the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act requiring the change. As of Monday, 113 of the more than 8,000 US service members who were discharged from the military for refusing to be vaccinated have sought to since the vaccine mandate was officially repealed.

And a fourth order would begin the process of creating a “next generation” missile defense shield for the US, according to a fact sheet on the order obtained by CNN.

The order calls for an “Iron Dome” for an America, borrowing the name of the vaunted short-range Israeli missile defense system that for years has been used to intercept launches from Gaza. The US provided billions of dollars in funding to Iron Dome, and the US Army has its own system.

“The Executive Order directs implementation of a next generation missile defense shield for the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next generation aerial attacks,” the fact sheet reads, calling such potential attacks as a “catastrophic threat,” though none of these types of weapons has been launched against the territory of the United States in modern warfare.

The US military also has the capability to deploy a layered air defense system, from long-range Patriot missiles, which have proven effective at intercepting ballistic and cruise missiles over Ukraine, to shorter-range systems like shoulder-launched Stinger missiles.

This new executive order calls for an advanced space-based series of systems to detect and shoot down launches against the United States.

It does not say how much the shield would cost or outline a timeline for its development.

This story has been updated with additional details and background information.

CNN’s Michael Williams and Alejandra Jaramillo contributed to this report.

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