Protect national security from conflicts of interest within defense industry

I am writing to express concern about potential conflicts of interest in the Pentagon’s new Project Meridian. The 120-day initiative will examine future battlefields, identify weapons and technologies U.S. forces may need, and recommend capabilities for development and testing. Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey, and former Speaker Newt Gingrich have been named co-directors. My concern is that Musk leads SpaceX and Luckey co-founded Anduril, companies with substantial Defense Department business. Asking defense-industry leaders to help recommend future military capabilities creates an obvious potential conflict when their own companies could benefit from subsequent procurement decisions. The Pentagon should certainly seek expertise from America’s technology sector. But that expertise must be accompanied by strong safeguards protecting the independence of military decision-making and public confidence in the procurement process. I urge Congress to examine Project Meridian’s ethics requirements, financial disclosures, recusal procedures, and conflict-of-interest safeguards, and to ensure that participants cannot influence recommendations from which they or their companies could financially benefit. National security decisions must be driven by the needs of our armed forces and the American people—not by the financial interests of government contractors.