Technology billionaire Elon Musk is set to take a leading role in a new Pentagon program examining the future of warfare, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced yesterday, Wednesday.

Speaking to military personnel at the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, Hegseth said Musk and unmanned vehicle technology entrepreneur Palmer Luckey would be among those leading the initiative, known as Project Meridian.

The Pentagon expects the program to present its findings within 120 days.

The program aims to “creatively look to the future and identify the areas we need to master and the capabilities we need to have”, Hegseth said.

The Defence Secretary also referred to autonomous warfare, namely the use of weapons systems and artificial intelligence capable of operating and carrying out attacks without direct human intervention.

“We need to look ahead to the future to achieve technological and military dominance on the battlefield over the coming decades,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth also announced the creation of a new Autonomous Warfare Command, which will be headed by a general and tasked with expanding the use of autonomous and robotic systems across the US armed forces.

Pentagon dispute over autonomous weapons

The prospect of autonomous weapons powered by artificial intelligence recently came to public attention during a dispute between the Pentagon and US artificial intelligence company Anthropic.

Anthropic refused to allow its technology to be used in autonomous weapons or for the mass surveillance of US citizens, while the Pentagon insisted that it should be able to use artificial intelligence for any lawful purpose. The company was subsequently designated by the Pentagon as a supply-chain risk.

Musk is also heavily involved in artificial intelligence and robotics. His company SpaceXAI is developing the Grok system, while Tesla, the carmaker he leads, is increasing production of its humanoid robots, Optimus.

Wider changes at the Pentagon

Project Meridian was just one of the initiatives Hegseth revealed in his speech. The secretary also confirmed plans to reduce the number of senior officer positions by around 20%. He also announced an initiative to enable major US military installations to generate their own electricity in the event of interruptions to their power supply through civilian grids.

Hegseth said Trump wants to establish a new military base in the US and called on states to submit proposals to host between 15,000 and 25,000 military personnel.