Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey, Newt Gingrich to Help Pentagon with Warfare Initiative

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth launched Project Meridian to identify the weapons, technologies and military capabilities the U.S. will need in future wars, naming Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as co-leads with Pentagon tech chief Emil Michael overseeing the effort. The 120-day project will map future battlefields and prioritize domains and systems to master from subterranean environments to lunar operations, focusing on discovering, developing and fielding concrete capabilities rather than on doctrine or policy. None of the three co-leads has served in the U.S. military.

The selection places two executives whose companies already hold multibillion-dollar Defense Department contracts at the center of technology recommendations: SpaceX recently won a $4.16 billion airborne-threat tracking satellite contract and a $2.29 billion military communications award, while Anduril holds a Marine Corps counter-drone contract worth up to $642 million. The announcement accompanies a broader Pentagon push toward autonomous warfare, including plans for a new four-star Autonomous Warfare Command. Musk, Luckey, Anduril, Tesla and Gingrich did not immediately comment on the appointments.