The Department of Defense has tapped billionaire Elon Musk, defense tech founder Palmer Luckey, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to co-lead “Project Meridian,” an intensive four-month study tasked with reshaping the military’s future weapons systems and technological capabilities.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled the 120-day review on Sept. 30 during his State of the Force address to junior officers and enlisted personnel at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. Supported by academic, policy, and private-sector specialists, the panel will focus on identifying advanced systems and expediting their deployment to enhance U.S. deterrence, according to defense officials.
Both Musk’s SpaceX and Luckey’s autonomous defense firm, Anduril, hold multi-billion-dollar government defense contracts. The advisory appointment comes roughly three months after the dissolution of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the 2025 initiative Musk helped direct to streamline federal spending. While Musk asserted DOGE saved taxpayers $200 billion, an August Government Accountability Office review challenged those figures as unverified or inaccurate, and critics frequently raised conflict-of-interest concerns regarding his oversight of agencies that regulate his commercial ventures.
The review coincides with the creation of the Autonomous Warfare Command (AUTOWARCOM), a newly established four-star functional combatant command directed to field artificial intelligence, robotics, and biotechnology. In a formal memorandum, Hegseth outlined that AUTOWARCOM will subject new equipment and force structures to rigorous, simulated opposing-force combat environments, rapidly adapting and procuring effective systems.
A companion directive instructed the Joint Staff and individual military branches to align their emerging warfare research directly with Project Meridian. The panel’s unclassified findings and a classified annex are scheduled for delivery to the defense secretary by Jan. 28, 2027.
Source: Stripes.com