国防部长佩特·赫格塞思周三宣布，xAI首席执行官埃隆·马斯克、安杜里尔联合创始人帕尔默·卢基以及前众议院议长纽特·金格里奇（R-乔治亚州）将领导一项新的五角大楼计划，研究战争的未来，称为“梅里迪安计划”。五角大楼负责人表示，该项目旨在利用美国的创新者、高级领导和技术专家，展望数十年未来，并“预测明日冲突的创造性解决方案”。
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday announced that xAI CEO Elon Musk, Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey and former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) will lead a new Pentagon effort to study the future of warfare, dubbed "Project Meridian." The Pentagon chief said the project is meant to harness America’s innovators, senior leaders and technologists to look decades into the future and “forecast the creative solution for tomorrow's conflicts.”
他表示该项目“是有目的的未来主义”，并指出它并非旨在制定新的战略或政策。“我们应该谦逊地认识到，最优秀的未来冲突预测者并不只存在于五角大楼内部，”赫格塞思说。“让我们自己既提问又回答这些问题，显然存在明显的偏见和风险。”
“It is futuristic on purpose,” he said of the project, which he said was not meant to develop new strategies or policies. “We should have the humility to recognize that the best forecasters of future conflict do not solely reside inside the Pentagon,” according to Hegseth. “There are obvious biases and risks to asking ourselves to both ask the questions and answer them.”
赫格塞思表示，在研究与工程部副部长埃米尔·迈克尔的领导下，马斯克、卢基和金格里奇将专注于发现、开发并部署我们的子孙后代在其一生中所需的武器和系统，毫无创造性限制或约束，适用于任何未来战场，从地底到月球之外。
Hegseth said Musk, Luckey and Gingrich, under the leadership of Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael, “will be focused on discovering, developing, and fielding the weapons and systems that our children and our grandchildren will need in their lifetimes, without any creative limitations or restrictions, on any future battlefield, from under the Earth to beyond the Moon.”
三位人士在赫格塞思宣布时都出席了五角大楼，负责人表示，他们关于梅里迪安计划的首次会议将在活动结束后直接在建筑内的敏感隔离信息设施中举行。
All three men were in attendance at the Pentagon as Hegseth made his announcement, and the Pentagon chief said their first meeting on Project Meridian would happen directly after the event in a sensitive compartmented information facility in the building.
他表示：“在这次演讲之后，我们将立即投入行动，在此期间，梅里迪安计划将无情地绘制战争、领域和技术的轨迹，以确保本国国防部、贵国国防部在未来占据主导地位。”一份在宣布后不久发布的备忘录强调美国军方“绝不能把现有的优势视为理所当然”，因为全球在人工智能、自主武器系统、定向能技术、机器人技术以及生物技术等领域正经历着飞速的发展。
“Right after this speech, we are going to hit the ground running, and in that time, Project Meridian will ruthlessly map the trajectory of wars, domains and technologies to ensure this War Department, your War Department, dominates the future,” he said. A memo released shortly after the announcement stresses that the U.S. military “must not take our current advantages for granted” as the world is witnessing rapid advances in artificial intelligence, autonomy, directed energy, robotics, biotechnology and other high-tech areas.
根据9月30日发布的备忘录，这些新技术、新的作战方式以及技术进步将深刻改变战争的本质。“为了保持全球主导地位，美国必须预判未来的作战环境，并果断采取行动，开发出能够在这些环境中占据优势的武器和装备。”赫格塞思（Hegseth）指示迈克尔（Michael）启动“子午线计划”（Project Meridian），要求该计划“研究未来的战场环境，确定作战人员需要掌握哪些武器和技术才能在这些环境中占据优势，并提出可行的解决方案”，最迟应在2027年1月28日（即120天后）之前完成这些工作。
“Combined, these new domains, new ways of fighting, and technological developments will profoundly alter the character of warfare,” according to the Sept. 30 memo. “To maintain global dominance, the United States must anticipate future operational environments and act decisively to develop the tools to dominate in them.”Hegseth directed Michael to commission Project Meridian to “study the battlefields of the future, identify which weapons and technologies warfighters will need to harness to dominate in these environments, and propose actionable solutions to start developing, testing and fielding these capabilities” no later than Jan. 28, 2027, or 120 days from now.
此外，“子午线计划”还将邀请一批顶尖的技术专家、创新者、商业领袖、政策制定者以及国家安全专家共同参与，共同提出解决方案。他还强调，联合参谋部及所有军种都应准备好将自己的未来作战计划和研究工作与“子午线计划”相结合。
Project Meridian also will call on “a group of top technologists, innovators, business leaders, policy makers, and national security experts” to come up with proposed solutions. He adds that the Joint Staff and all services should be prepared to connect their future warfare efforts and research to Project Meridian.