India, Oct. 1 -- US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has tapped SpaceX and AI executive Elon Musk, Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to help lead a new Pentagon initiative examining how warfare could change in the coming decades.

The trio will work on Project Meridian, a new effort aimed at identifying technologies and weapons that the US military may need for future battlefields. Hegseth announced the initiative on September 30, saying it would bring outside innovators and technology leaders into a process traditionally led within the Pentagon.

"It is futuristic on purpose," Hegseth said, stressing that the project is intended to forecast future conflicts rather than develop immediate military strate...