If you thought, following the end of Elon Musk’s DOGE tenure, that you’d seen the last of him in the Trump administration, you’d be sorely mistaken because he’s just been tapped to head up the Department of War’s new project Meridian alongside former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (GA-6) and young defense tech billionaire Palmer Luckey.
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Meridian will investigate not only what weapons we should be focusing on in the future, but what domains we’ll need to dominate to ensure our security. With the guidance of Department of War Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael, the team is tasked over the next 120 days with not just predicting our needs in the next few years, but what we may require decades from now.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth introduced the trio Wednesday at his State of the Force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia:
🚨 THERE HE IS! Elon Musk just got appointed by SecWar Pete Hegseth to co-lead the Pentagon’s PROJECT MERIDIAN for the future of warfighting
And Elon made sure to personally show up for Hegseth’s State of the Force address in Quantico 🔥
Elon with President Trump to surge Super… pic.twitter.com/vB22T1ok69
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) September 30, 2026
🚨 THERE HE IS! Elon Musk just got appointed by SecWar Pete Hegseth to co-lead the Pentagon’s PROJECT MERIDIAN for the future of warfighting
And Elon made sure to personally show up for Hegseth’s State of the Force address in Quantico 🔥
Elon with President Trump to surge Super Intelligence at the White House yesterday, now he’s helping our military stay number one
PURE PATRIOT! 🇺🇸
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They already have a cool logo:
From under the earth to beyond the moon, our warfighters will have technological superiority.
PROJECT MERIDIAN: THE FUTURE OF WARFARE 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Fr3ngH1Y6z
— Department of War CTO (@DoWCTO) September 30, 2026
Musk, the owner of the social media platform X, has had astounding success in the tech world, is the CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX, and is the richest man in the world. He also famously served as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), where he regularly made headlines about discovering multiple instances of mass graft and waste in the federal government.
Gingrich is an author and pundit who served as the Republican House Speaker from 1995 to 1999 and was most noted for his “Contract With America.”
Thirty-four-year-old Palmer Luckey, meanwhile, founded Oculus VR and later the defense company Anduril Industries.
The trio isn’t wasting any time — they’ve already attended their first meeting.
Hegseth said the initiative would begin immediately, and he would meet with Musk, Luckey and Gingrich in a secure site just 200 yards from the stage after his speech.
Project Meridian will have 120 days to “ruthlessly map the trajectory of wars, domains and technologies,” culminating in a public rollout of its findings and a classified annex.
Hegseth described a sweeping mandate that stretches “from under the Earth to beyond the moon.”
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It isn’t just a question of what; it’s also a question of where.
Rather than developing new military strategies or policies, the group will seek to identify “the domains that we must conquer and capabilities we must master” and focus on “discovering, developing and fielding” weapons and systems that could be needed by future generations of American troops.
I can’t claim to know what this is, but it looks pretty futuristic:
PROJECT MERIDIAN will inform the @DeptofWar on the lethal capabilities required to dominate the future of warfare, from the subterrane to the seabed. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/4boJz60gQZ
— Department of War CTO (@DoWCTO) September 30, 2026
I’m very curious indeed to see what they come up with. I’m pretty sure it won’t be boring.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leadership, the warrior ethos is coming back to America’s military.
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