Hegseth’s Project Meridian faces lawsuit over contractor influence | Magica
Lawsuit challenges contractor influence on Hegseth’s future-of-warfare panel
Editorial Team
••📖7 min read
Three watchdog groups seek to halt Project Meridian, alleging that its contractor-heavy membership and closed meetings violate federal advisory committee law. MITRE’s invitation for outside ideas complicates the dispute over public participation.
Three watchdog groups seek to halt Project Meridian and block the Pentagon from using advice produced before it meets federal advisory committee requirements.
Their lawsuit challenges both industry financial interests and missing perspectives on spending, civilian protection and military restraint.
MITRE is accepting outside ideas through November 12, but says the exercise will neither select contractors nor develop acquisition requirements.
Three government watchdog organizations have sued the Defense Department over Project Meridian, its future-of-warfare initiative, alleging that officials assembled an industry-dominated advisory committee without the charter, balanced membership and public access required by federal law.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), an ethics and transparency watchdog; Public Citizen, a public-interest research, litigation and advocacy organization; and the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), a watchdog with roots in Pentagon procurement oversight, filed the case on November 2 in federal district court in Washington. Their complaint seeks to stop the project’s work until it complies with the Federal Advisory Committee Act and prevent officials from relying on advice developed during noncompliance. These are allegations and requested remedies, not court findings.
The dispute concerns who helps define future military needs before they shape spending priorities. Project Meridian’s operator, MITRE, a private nonprofit that runs federally funded research and development centers, describes a long-range research exercise rather than a procurement process. Its invitation for outside submissions offers a route to contribute ideas, while leaving the lawsuit’s questions about membership, deliberations and records unresolved.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Army National Guard infantry officer whose official biography records deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, commissioned Project Meridian on September 30, 2026. He directed Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s chief technology officer, to create and lead the effort through a partner organization.
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According to the complaint’s account of Hegseth’s announcement, SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk, defense technology company Anduril’s co-founder Palmer Luckey, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich were selected as co-leaders. Hegseth said the project would draw technological, business, policy and national security expertise from outside the Pentagon.
Their assignment is to assess future battlefields, identify capability gaps and recommend how to develop, test and field weapons and technologies, including artificial intelligence and autonomous systems. Hegseth set a January 28, 2027 deadline for final recommendations, following a 120-day study.
These centers are contractor-run organizations that support government agencies’ research needs. The complaint cites an October 2 Pentagon announcement assigning MITRE’s National Security and Engineering Center to manage the project and author an unclassified report of no more than 30 pages, with classified annexes.
The filing says meetings occurred on September 30 and October 1 without public notice or attendance. It cites Hegseth’s public description of the first gathering as taking place in a secure facility used for classified information.
The complaint identifies 19 private-sector members and two government employees. Employment category does not establish a financial conflict. Source: Public Citizen — Complaint.
Industry expertise brings financial stakes
The plaintiffs describe 19 of Project Meridian’s 21 members as working in the private sector. The two government employees they identify are Michael and Victoria Coleman, the Air Force’s chief scientist, both of whom report to Hegseth. This count describes the membership as presented in the complaint; it does not mean that every nongovernment member has a financial conflict.
Musk and Luckey illustrate the plaintiffs’ concern about advisers assessing technologies their companies sell. The complaint identifies Musk as SpaceX’s largest shareholder and cites a $2.29 billion military satellite communications network contract. It also identifies him as chief executive of artificial intelligence company xAI, which holds a Pentagon contract worth up to $200 million. The latter is a potential contract value, not evidence of money already paid or business directed by Project Meridian.
The filing describes Anduril as a supplier of unmanned drones, battlefield software, semi-autonomous aircraft and other military systems. Other listed participants have ties to autonomous vessels, automated manufacturing, robotics, cybersecurity and defense investment firms. These interests explain the alleged exposure to future Pentagon priorities; they do not establish that any participant improperly influenced a recommendation or contract.
The plaintiffs’ balance argument is broader than financial disclosure. They say the committee lacks meaningful representation on military restraint, civilian protection, AI ethics, defense budgeting, government ethics and international law. They acknowledge four civilian members without identified financial interests in the outcome—Gingrich, retired Army General James Rainey, retired Marine Colonel Frances “Bing” West and former deputy national security adviser Nadia Schadlow—but contend that their experience does not supply the missing perspectives.
POGO also seeks a place in the process. Founded in 1981 as the Project on Military Procurement, it has investigated Pentagon spending and operates the Center for Defense Information. On October 29, it asked officials to appoint William Hartung, its specialist in defense budgets and the arms industry, whose prior work includes directing defense policy projects at several research institutions. The complaint says POGO had received no response when it filed suit.
CREW and Public Citizen say officials likewise had not answered their requests for project records. Public Citizen’s relevant advocacy includes Pentagon procurement, AI-enabled weapons and civilian casualties. The groups are seeking information and representation to advance those missions, as well as challenging the initiative’s legality.
MITRE’s open call has a narrower purpose
MITRE’s open call for ideas, issued October 29, welcomes contributions from established defense companies, startups, research organizations, innovators outside the traditional defense sector and individuals with relevant expertise. Submissions are due November 12 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
MITRE says its independent, unclassified analysis will examine military advantage 10–30 years into the future and beyond. It excludes submissions focused on near-term products or capabilities, as well as marketing materials, pricing information and requests for funding or endorsement.
It also says the call is unrelated to an active or anticipated contract award, submissions will not be used to select contractors, and participation provides no acquisition advantage. Project Meridian will not develop acquisition requirements, specifications, statements of work or source-selection materials, according to MITRE.
The organization says it will assess timely submissions against common criteria, including relevance, novelty and alignment with the project’s goals. Selected contributors may be invited to follow-up exchanges or meetings. MITRE may incorporate information into its analysis but has no obligation to use a submission or engage with its author. Submitting an idea creates no contractual or advisory relationship with MITRE or the department.
These terms qualify any suggestion that the project is simply a route to immediate contract awards or entirely closed to outside ideas. They do not establish that submitting ideas is equivalent to committee membership, access to deliberations or access to records—the separate safeguards sought in the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs invoke the Federal Advisory Committee Act, enacted in 1972 to govern outside advice to the executive branch. Their argument is that the government’s creation and direction of Project Meridian make it subject to the act despite MITRE’s involvement. They allege officials filed no charter, supplied no required public-interest determination and failed to establish safeguards against inappropriate influence.
The complaint also points to an existing alternative: the Pentagon’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Board, established in February 2026 by merging two advisory committees. According to the filing, that board has a charter under the act and a remit covering science, technology, innovation, manufacturing and acquisition. The plaintiffs contend officials failed to establish why an existing committee could not provide the advice sought from Meridian.
MITRE’s open call preceded the lawsuit; outside submissions are due before the deadline for final findings and recommendations. Source: MITRE — Project Meridian open call.
Whether the Pentagon can use the recommendations
The lawsuit names the Defense Department, Hegseth and Michael. Beyond halting committee business, it seeks preservation and disclosure of records and an injunction against officials relying on recommendations based on work conducted during noncompliance.
The legal framework described in the complaint permits some meetings to be closed and some records to be withheld. The allegation is that officials provided neither the required access nor written reasons for closing meetings. The question is therefore whether the project’s structure and operations meet applicable safeguards, including any lawful limits on disclosure.
MITRE’s November submission deadline and Hegseth’s January reporting deadline make two different processes consequential: gathering outside ideas and deciding whether the Pentagon may accept and act on the resulting advice. Evidence about government control, member selection, conflict safeguards and records handling is needed to resolve the lawsuit’s central question. An open call alone does not answer it.
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