- On Sept. 30, 2026, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivered what he called a “State of the Force” address. During it, he announced the launch of “Project Meridian,” which he described as “an effort led by America’s best minds to study the future of warfare.”
- Hegseth named Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Palmer Luckey, founder of defense technology company Anduril Industries, as heads of Project Meridian.
- In a memorandum published the same day, Hegseth wrote, “Project Meridian’s primary function will be to map the trajectory of future warfare, identify critical capability gaps, and propose actionable solutions in furtherance of the identified goals in the 2026 National Security Science and Technology Strategy.”
- Snopes will update this report if additional information surfaces about what, specifically, Project Meridian will do. We have reached out to the Department of Defense, Musk, Gingrich and Luckey asking for more details about what the project will entail and are waiting for responses.
In late September 2026, a rumor spread online that Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich had joined a new effort announced by the U.S. Department of Defense called “Project Meridian.”
Several social media posts made the claim, including on Reddit and X. One X post (archived) said Musk, Gingrich and Palmer Luckey, founder of defense technology company Anduril Industries, had been recruited to lead the project “to focus on developing future warfare and autonomous weapons systems for battlefields ‘from under the Earth to beyond the moon'”:
The official X account of the DOD’s chief technology officer confirmed the story (archived):
“From under the earth to beyond the moon, our warfighters will have technological superiority,” the post read. “PROJECT MERIDIAN: THE FUTURE OF WARFARE.”
Here’s what we know so far about the initiative, its goals and the people involved:
Hegseth’s announcement
On Sept. 30, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivered what he called a “State of the Force” address — meant to evoke the State of the Union address, which the president delivers annually to Congress — and announced the launch of Project Meridian, which he described as “an effort led by America’s best minds to study the future of warfare.”
Hegseth began to describe Project Meridian roughly midway through his address (at 34:45 in the video):
Today we are leveraging a unique source of American advantage. One our adversaries do not have: our innovators, our senior leaders and our technologists — big thinkers who will forecast the creative solutions for tomorrow’s conflicts. That’s why today at my direction I am announcing Project Meridian, an effort led by America’s best minds to study the future of warfare. Under the leadership of the department’s chief technology officer, Emil Michael, Project Meridian will be co-led by three of our nations best minds. Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey and Newt Gingrich, all of whom are up in the audience with us today.
Shortly after he named them, Musk, Luckey and Gingrich stood up to applause from the crowd.
Musk, Gingrich and Luckey
Hegseth said the three men would lead a group of “subject-matter experts from across our nation’s unmatched innovation, academic and policy ecosystems.” The goal, he said, would be to develop “absolute technological superiority,” by focusing on, among other things, “autonomous warfare” — in other words, weapons and equipment capable of functioning autonomously.
Musk was previously involved in President Donald Trump’s administration as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, which spearheaded drastic spending cuts to government programs. (The Government Accountability Office said in August 2026 that DOGE incorrectly reported or failed to substantiate some of its purported savings.) Musk’s xAI technology has reportedly been used by U.S. forces in the Iran war.
Gingrich has consistently defended the war with Iran (archived), which has proved unpopular with U.S. voters, according to polls.
Luckey described himself as a “radical Zionist” during “The Shawn Ryan Show” podcast in February 2025, saying he defended Israel’s right to exist. Asked directly by Axios what he thought of the war in Iran, he declined to answer.
Autonomous warfare
During the address, Hegseth also announced the creation of a new combatant command: “Today, with Autonomous War Command — AutoWarCom — we institutionalize and we supercharge the era of SI, robotics, and autonomous systems. All in order to win,” Hegseth said. (“SI” refers to “super intelligence,” what the federal government began calling artificial intelligence in September 2026.)
Hegseth appeared to present Project Meridian as the way to identify the technologies best suited to arm AutoWarCom. He said the group led by Musk, Gingrich and Luckey would render its first conclusions in 120 days.
The same day, the Pentagon published a memorandum that further outlined the goal of Project Meridian. It read:
Project Meridian will leverage critical perspectives from outside the Pentagon, drawing upon a group of top technologists, innovators, business leaders, policy makers, and national security experts. Project Meridian’s primary function will be to map the trajectory of future warfare, identify critical capability gaps, and propose actionable solutions in furtherance of the identified goals in the 2026 National Security Science and Technology Strategy.
For further reading, Snopes has investigated a number of rumors about Hegseth’s Defense Department, including a claim that the department spent $93 billion in one month.
