Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has named Elon Musk to co-lead a new Pentagon study of how future wars could be fought. Hegseth announced the effort, called Project Meridian, on Wednesday, September 30, in a speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, CNBC reported.
Musk will co-lead with Palmer Luckey, co-founder of defense technology company Anduril, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Pentagon technology chief Emil Michael will oversee the project. The team has 120 days to look years and decades ahead at the weapons, technologies and military capabilities the United States may need. It is a study, not a command role, and the co-leads will work with a wider team from government, industry, academia and the policy world, Hegseth said.
Hegseth said the project is “not about developing new strategies or new policies”. It will cover every future warfighting domain, “from subterranean depths to the cislunar frontier”, The Next Web reported. It will end with a public report and a classified annex. He also said the best forecasters of future conflict are not all inside the Pentagon, according to The Hill.
The business ties
Musk’s company SpaceX and Luckey’s Anduril both hold large Pentagon contracts. CNBC reported that the role puts the two in a position to help define future military technology needs while their companies compete for billions of dollars in Defense Department business.
Luckey told Axios that Americans do their best work on national security when they bring scientists, engineers and technologists together. Axios also noted that this is Musk’s first official role advising the Trump administration since their public feud last year, after he left the Department of Government Efficiency. The two have since reconciled.
Meridian was one of six initiatives Hegseth announced that day, including a new Autonomous Warfare Command focused on robotic, AI and drone warfare. The three co-leads were due to meet for the first time right after the speech, and final findings are expected in about four months.
