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On Thursday, United States Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk will co-lead a new War Department effort titled Project Meridian, according to Fox News. The initiative, unveiled during Hegseth's State of the Force address, will be overseen by the department's Chief Technology Officer, Emil Michael.

Project Meridian aims to study the future of warfare, highlighting the necessity of incorporating perspectives from beyond the Pentagon due to potential biases and risks. The 120-day project aims to map the trajectory of wars, domains, and technologies, culminating in a public presentation of findings and a classified annex for military leadership.

Hegseth outlined an expansive mandate, focusing on identifying domains to conquer and capabilities to master, while steering the discovery, development, and fielding of systems and weapons for future generations of American troops. Musk and his company SpaceX are major Pentagon contractors, while Anduril Industries, led by Palmer Luckey, specializes in autonomous weapons and advanced military systems.

The unveiling of Project Meridian is part of Hegseth's broader push to reorient the American military towards autonomous warfare and rapidly emerging technology, including the establishment of the Autonomous Warfare Command (AUTOWARCOM) with service-like authorities to rapidly scale autonomous and robotic capabilities across joint forces.