Elon Musk has joined Project Meridian, a new Pentagon project to help shape the future of American warfare. • Announced by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, the project will be co-led by Musk, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. • Its mission is to identify where future military conflicts could happen and which weapons, technologies and capabilities America will need to win. • Musk and Luckey are being brought in as founders who build technology, with the task of envisioning solutions for future warfare. • Pentagon technology chief Emil Michael is facilitating the effort, supported by experts from industry, academia and policy. • The team has 120 days to deliver its findings and recommendations in a publicly released report, accompanied by a classified annex. • That is far faster than earlier reviews, including Eric Schmidt’s two-year National Security Commission on AI and a nearly three-year Pentagon acquisition reform study. • Potential scenarios span underground combat, the deep ocean, space around the Moon and even Mars. • The team will reportedly have broad freedom to explore ideas, without a fixed list of required reporting areas or a mandate limited to AI, cyber or space. • The focus extends beyond today’s shortcomings in software, AI and manufacturing to emerging threats and vulnerabilities the military may not yet recognize. The goal is to bring private-sector innovation into military planning, overcome slow development and help American forces maintain a technological advantage for decades to come.