WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the launch of two major transformative and complementary initiatives: Projects Meridian and Agincourt.

Meridian, which will be co-directed by Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey, and Newt Gingrich, is the imagination engine, anticipating how future wars will be fought and identifying the capabilities America must master. Agincourt is the execution arm, turning those ideas into fielded capability at speed and scale. Together, they establish a new vision for the American military: one capable of anticipating future threats and securing technological superiority across every domain of warfare, including the increasingly contested cognitive domain.

Independent Women applauds Secretary Hegseth’s bold leadership and the Trump Administration’s determination to secure peace through strength by confronting the growing threats to America’s security, sovereignty, and way of life.

Meaghan Mobbs, director of Independent Women’s Center for Safety and Security, said: 

“Project Meridian asks what future war could become. Project Agincourt makes sure America can respond before that future arrives.

“With the former being led by Newt Gingrich, Elon Musk, and Palmer Luckey, it brings strategic and technological imagination to the task. In particular, Musk’s experience at the intersection of AI, algorithms, and communications is especially relevant as adversaries increasingly target the American mind itself. 

“The most dangerous assumption in national security is that the next war will resemble the last one. History punishes militaries that confuse tradition with readiness, dismiss disruptive technologies as novelties, or refuse to imagine what an adversary might attempt. 

“Our greatest advantage has never been bureaucracy. It is the unmatched ingenuity of the American people, combined with the courage and experience of the American warfighter. Harnessing both is how we deter future wars, and how we win decisively if deterrence fails.”

This fall, Independent Women will be launching a major report and storytelling campaign: “The War on America’s Mind: The New Battlefield is You.” 

The report aims to educate Americans about how adversaries exploit algorithms, online networks, and existing divisions to deepen isolation, radicalization, hatred, and distrust to tear down the country from within. 

This latest effort by the Department of War will help to address issues like these head-on, as the modern battlefield becomes increasingly digital and reaches quietly into American homes and social networks.

Attacks on the American mind never announce themselves as propaganda or adversarial action. They appear as humor, beauty advice, grievance, compassion, political education, therapeutic language, community, sexual liberation, religious certainty, or social justice, but left unaddressed, they will target the minds, identities, and loyalties of Americans.

SEE MORE FROM INDEPENDENT WOMEN ON STRONG DEFENSE AND AMERICA FIRST FOREIGN POLICY:

To learn more about Independent Women’s Center for American Safety and Security, visit https://www.independentwomen.com/cass/. 

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