United States Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Thursday announced that SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk will co-lead a new War Department effort to study the future of warfare, Fox News reported.
There are obvious biases and risks to asking ourselves to both ask the questions and answer them,” as reported by Fox News. Making the announcement during his ‘State of the Force’ address, Hegseth unveiled the initiative, titled “Project Meridian.
The high-level advisory panel will be co-led by Elon Musk alongside defence-tech czar Palmer Luckey and former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich, according to Fox News. Explaining the decision to bring private-sector giants into the high-level defence fold, Hegseth said, “The best forecasters of future conflict do not solely reside inside the Pentagon. The panel is set to begin work immediately, with Hegseth meeting Musk, Luckey, and Gingrich in a secure facility near the stage right after his speech, according to the channel. As part of this overhaul, Hegseth announced the establishment of the Autonomous Warfare Command (AUTOWARCOM), a brand-new four-star combatant command endowed with “service-like authorities” designed to rapidly scale autonomous and robotic capabilities across the joint forces.
