Elon Musk to co-direct Pentagon’s Project Meridian on future warfare

Elon Musk is heading back to Washington. This time he is trading spreadsheets for battlefields. Musk will co-direct Project Meridian, a Pentagon initiative focused on the future of warfare. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the effort on September 30, 2026. It is a short, intense sprint built to answer one question: what technology will the US military need to stay on top? What Project Meridian actually is The project runs for 120 days. Findings are due by January 28, 2027, so the clock is already ticking. Musk will not be steering alone. He shares the co-director title with Palmer Luckey and Newt Gingrich. The trio will work under CTO Emil Michael. The scope is wide. Meridian is set to study warfare across a range of domains, from underground operations all the way out to cislunar space. Cislunar space is the region between Earth and the Moon, a stretch that is becoming a strategic frontier. The research zeroes in on several technology areas. These include artificial intelligence, autonomy, directed energy and biotechnology. Directed energy refers to weapons that use focused energy, such as lasers, rather than traditional projectiles. The project comes with an important bou...