Hegseth Names Musk, Luckey and Gingrich to Lead Pentagon Warfare Study

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Project Meridian, a roughly 120-day Pentagon study of the technologies and weapons the military may need for future conflicts, from underground battlefields to the region of space between Earth and the moon. Elon Musk, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will help lead the effort, overseen by Pentagon technology chief Emil Michael, with additional participants from government, industry, academia and policy circles. Hegseth said the initiative is intended to bring outside expertise into the Pentagon and focus on identifying and fielding tools, rather than creating military strategy or policy; its findings are expected in a public report with a classified annex. The appointments have raised conflict-of-interest concerns because Musk’s SpaceX and Luckey’s Anduril hold major defense contracts, while both men are prominent Republican political donors.