Hegseth Launches ‘Meridian Project’ to Study Future Warfare

The signal here is less the project itself than its composition: a defense secretary handing a forward-looking warfare study to a tech executive, a former speaker, and a defense-tech founder, rather than to uniformed planners or established think tanks. That arrangement suggests the Pentagon wants private-sector and political instincts baked into how it thinks about future conflict, which matters for defense contractors, RWA-adjacent dual-use technology, and anyone tracking how procurement priorities get set. With no scope or timeline disclosed, whether this becomes a durable planning channel or a one-off announcement is the open question.