Elon Musk to receive top-secret briefing on US war plans for China

Elon Musk is to receive a briefing on the US military’s top-secret war plans for China, according to two US officials.

Tesla CEO and presidential adviser Elon Musk. Picture: AP

Elon Musk is to receive a briefing on the US military’s top-secret war plans for China, according to two US officials, giving the wealthy businessman and presidential adviser insight into one of the Pentagon’s most closely guarded operational blueprints.

Mr Musk will be briefed on how US forces would fight in a potential China war, including maritime tactics and targeting plans, the officials said. China will be one of several topics to be discussed at the Defence Department on Friday (Saturday AEDT), one of the officials said.

The meeting underscored the crosscutting interests Mr Musk has as a senior adviser to President Donald Trump with a powerful and expansive role in the new administration. It could give him as the head of Tesla, which relies on China for car production, and SpaceX, a US defence contractor, access to sensitive military secrets unavailable to business competitors.

Mr Musk, according to one person familiar with the arrangements, is receiving the briefing because he asked for one. He has a security clearance but isn’t in the military chain of command or known to be a military adviser to Mr Trump.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that Mr Musk would visit the Pentagon, in a statement on X, Mr Musk’s social-media site. “It’s an informal meeting about innovation, efficiencies & smarter production, ” he said, denying that the presidential adviser would receive a sensitive China briefing.

Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow for US-China competition at the Hudson Institute in Washington, said Pentagon leadership might be trying to protect themselves against Mr Musk cutting sensitive military programs. “But they don’t need to give Musk the full briefing to avoid that outcome,” he said.

Specific details of the US war plans for China aren’t known and are only discussed publicly by Defence Department officials and senior officers in the broadest terms. The Pentagon maintains operational plans for many potential adversaries and updates them regularly.

Admiral Sam Paparo, the head of Indo-Pacific Command, said last month in remarks at a defence forum in Hawaii that the US had “war-winning advantages” in any possible conflict with China in space and cyber capabilities, as well as a “generational advantage” in submarines.

Admiral Paparo is expected to participate in the Musk briefing with Mr Hegseth, Deputy Defence Secretary Steve Feinberg, and Admiral Christopher Grady, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The National Security Council and Indo-Pacific Command, which is responsible for US military operations in Asia, declined to comment about the Pentagon briefing for Mr Musk, which was first reported by the New York Times.

Mr Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency and obtained a security clearance, has taken a growing interest in US national security policy. The visit will be Mr Musk’s first known appearance at the Pentagon this year.

He has weighed in recently on defence acquisitions, calling on the Pentagon to stop buying Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jets and to shift to a large fleet of drones. “Manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway,” he posted to X in November. “Will just get pilots killed.” Lockheed Martin owns half of a rocket company that is one of SpaceX’s biggest competitors in space launch.

Mr Musk recently made an unannounced visit to the National Security Agency, an intelligence agency focused on communications intercepts, to discuss operations and staff reductions. He was also involved in dismantling the US Agency for International Development and folding its remaining functions into the State Department.

Mr Musk has made positive comments about China in recent years, leading Beijing to hope he could be a conduit to Mr Trump. In 2023, Mr Musk said he was “kind of pro-China” during a conversation about whether Beijing would be helpful in writing global rules about artificial intelligence.

“I have some vested interests in China but, honestly, I think China is underrated and I think the people of China are really awesome and there is a lot of positive energy there,” he said.

Mr Musk has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a close partner of China, the country that has supported Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. During one of their conversations, Putin asked Mr Musk not to activate a Starlink internet satellite above Taiwan as a favour to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Top US officials in both parties have warned that China is the greatest danger to American security. China has increasingly threatened Taiwan. Western intelligence officials believe China is working towards being ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, potentially drawing the US into a regional conflict.

The Wall Street Journal