After Falling Out With Trump, Elon Musk Is Returning to Washington to Help Lead a Pentagon Study on Warfare
by Sari Moon · Thought CatalogBy Sari Moon
Updated 4 minutes ago, October 1, 2026
Elon Musk will co-lead Project Meridian, a time-limited Pentagon study charged with mapping future battlefields and capability gaps, then proposing how the military can begin developing, testing and fielding systems to address them. The group won’t set new strategy or policy. Its public report and classified annex are due in about 120 days, around Jan. 28, 2027.
Pete Hegseth announced Meridian during a State of the Force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico, alongside the new four-star Autonomous Warfare Command, or AUTOWARCOM, which is meant to scale robotic and autonomous systems. Meridian’s outside assessment will feed that effort, with a scope running “from under the Earth to beyond the moon” and covering AI and autonomy, directed energy, robotics and biotechnology. Hegseth said the team should “creatively look to the future and identify the domains that we must conquer and capabilities we must master.”
Musk will share leadership with Anduril Industries co-founder Palmer Luckey, 34, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, 83. Neither Musk nor Luckey has served in the military, while SpaceX and Anduril already hold major Pentagon contracts for launch and satellite work and autonomous systems, respectively. The study puts leaders of 2 defense contractors in a position to help identify requirements their companies may later compete to fill.
The assignment follows Musk’s May 2025 departure from DOGE and his public break with Donald Trump over spending legislation, but their relationship had already warmed. Musk resumed donations to Republican candidates and conservative groups, then joined Trump at a White House lunch for tech leaders on Sept. 29, 2026, where they discussed AI.
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