USA · updated 1h ago · 2 min read
Pete Hegseth Launches Project Meridian With Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey, and Newt Gingrich
A 120-day Pentagon study of future warfare technologies and capabilities. Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey, and Newt Gingrich co-lead Project Meridian.
Whether the co-leads imply bias and conflict of interest.
7 of 8 outlets skipped it: hegseth will cut 20% of general and admiral positions by January.
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Common Dreams
“A board loaded with defense contractors and one draft-dodging war hawk will decide the future of the US military,”Read the original ↗
Common Dreams criticises the co-leads as biased and risky, while The Hill and CNBC describe the project as a futurist, structured study.
Meridian Project Announced
Pete Hegseth announced Project Meridian as a 120-day initiative to examine emerging technologies that the Department of Defense believes will be critical in future warfare, and he unveiled it during his “State of the Force” address at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. Hegseth said the project “will be co-led by three of our nation's best minds, Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey, and Newt Gingrich,” and the Pentagon plans to publish its recommendations in an unclassified report accompanied by a classified annex.
Hegseth’s announcement placed the project under the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer, Emil Michael, and it set a 120-day deadline to present its first conclusions. The Pentagon said the study will cover subterranean scenarios and space isocline (cislunar space), the region between Earth and the Moon, and it will focus on identifying capabilities for possible conflicts in the coming decades.
Autonomous Warfare Command
Hegseth also announced the creation of an Autonomous Warfare Command, or Autowarcom, described as “a new four-star combatant command with service-like authorities built to scale autonomous and robotic capabilities across the joint force.” Hegseth defended the combination of high-tech conventional armament with large numbers of autonomous systems and cheaper drones, and he pointed to the war in Ukraine where drones have become a central tool of combat.
The Pentagon’s plan tied Meridian to a broader package of measures, including the creation of a new four-star command specialized in autonomous warfare and robotics developed through the so-called Project Agincourt. Hegseth said the Meridian effort would focus on “discovering, developing, and fielding” weapons and systems that future U.S. troops may need on battlefields ranging “from under the Earth to beyond the moon.”
Cuts and Conflict Concerns
Hegseth announced that the Pentagon would eliminate 20% of its roughly 800 general and admiral positions by January, doubling a previously announced 10% reduction, and he described the cuts as necessary to eliminate “redundant force structure” and “unnecessary bureaucratic layers.” Common Dreams reported that the appointments came as Hegseth moved to eliminate hundreds of senior armed service leadership position, including many generals and admirals, and it said the contrast drew criticism from lawmakers and military observers.C
Marty Taylor, a NewBlue USA executive, criticized the plan on social media by saying, “A board loaded with defense contractors and one draft-dodging war hawk will decide the future of the US military,” and he added, “What could possibly go wrong?” The Pentagon press release did not detail recusal rules or an independent review mechanism for the co-directors, and the announcement also drew attention to defense contracts of the companies linked to two of the co-directors.