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.