国防部最大的两家承包商将帮助领导一个可能直接使他们受益的项目。
Two of the Defense Department’s biggest contractors will help lead a project that could directly benefit them.
五角大楼官员警告称，皮特·赫格塞斯让两位亿万富翁国防承包商帮助主导军队未来的计划将产生利益冲突，威胁该部门的长期廉洁性。
Pentagon officials warn that Pete Hegseth’s plan for a pair of billionaire defense contractors to help steer the military’s future will produce conflicts of interest that threaten the long-term integrity of the department.
国防部长的这项努力被称为“子午线项目”，要求SpaceX首席执行官埃隆·马斯克和Anduril创始人帕尔默·拉基——以及前共和党众议院议长纽特·金里奇——“绘制未来战争的轨迹”。他们预计将在四个月内报告。
The Defense secretary’s effort, dubbed Project Meridian, asks SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey — along with former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich — to “map the trajectory of future warfare.”They are supposed to report back in four months.
五角大楼除了授权该委员会的四段备忘录以及坚持美国需要“主导”下一代战争之外，几乎未透露关于该委员会或其管辖范围的细节。
The Pentagon revealed few details about the commission or the scope of its jurisdiction beyond the four-paragraph memo that authorizes it and an insistence the U.S. needs to “dominate” the next generation of warfare.
目前尚不清楚该倡议是否会赋予这些高管马斯克去年作为唐纳德·特朗普总统政府监督部门负责人时所拥有的巨大影响力。
It’s unclear whether the initiative would give the executives the vast sway Musk enjoyed last year as leader of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Oversight.
但马斯克和拉基都领导着与五角大楼签有数十亿美元合同的公司——九位现任和前任官员表示，任何特殊准入都可能让他们将更多业务引向自己。
But both Musk and Luckey head companies that have contracts with the Pentagon worth billions of dollars — and nine current and former officials said any preferential access could allow them to funnel even more business their way.
“这完全表明，衰败和寡头政治已经接管了我们的政府，在许多情况下，直接通过购买影响力、权力和权威，赤裸裸地摆在我们面前，”已退休的空军资深军士长韦斯·布莱恩特说，他直到去年还领导五角大楼的平民伤害评估工作。他们甚至不再试图掩饰了。
“This is entirely indicative of the decay and oligarchy that has taken over our government and, in many cases, directly through purchasing influence and power and authority, blatantly right in front of us,” said Wes Bryant, a retired Air Force master sergeant who until last year led the Pentagon’s civilian harm assessments. “They’re not even trying to hide it anymore.”