A little over a year after leaving government service, Elon Musk is set to return in a limited capacity, co-directing a Pentagon initiative known as Project Meridian focused on the future of warfare, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday.
said
— @elonmusk View on 𝕏
Musk, who has long expressed a belief that wars will eventually be fought with autonomous drones, is set to advise the panel as co-director alongside Palmer Luckey, who is the founder of the defense start-up Anduril, and former House speaker Newt Gingrich.
The group will “study the battlefields of the future” and “identify which weapons and technologies warfighters will need to harness to dominate in these environments,” Hegseth said in a Pentagon memo. The group is expected to deliver a report with recommendations to him by late January.
“Future wars are all about drones & hypersonic missiles,” Musk said in 2024, one of many similar proclamations in recent years.
For Musk, whose oversight of the U.S. DOGE Service ended in turmoil and spilled into a feud with President Donald Trump over Trump’s spending bill, the position on the panel marks his most formal return to government in any capacity. Musk and Trump ultimately reconciled, and he joined other tech leaders at the White House this week for a meeting on AI safety.
Catch up quickly every weekday morning with a rundown of the 7 most important and interesting stories. Sign up for The 7 newsletter.
