5 ms·

The US military could probably use a few dozen Andruils to modernize it and make it truly effective at its core mission. It does seem like a failing of Silicon

The US military could probably use a few dozen Andruils to modernize it and make it truly effective at its core mission. It does seem like a failing of Silicon Valley that it doesn't produce more military tech startups. Palmer Luckey had to get megarich first before it was possible to get Anduril funded. Same thing Elon Musk had to do to create SpaceX. There's obviously a VC funding gap, and clearly "the VR guy" and the "the PayPal guy" can do a lot more than most people believed. And so can a lot of other people who understand modern software and hardware.

AyyWS 5y ago
Navigating the DoD bureaucracy is not trivial. We had to work through a prime contractor. I never understood why it worked that way. My defense company will be a portmanteau of a LOTR weapon and a Nikola Tesla reference.
dmoy 5y ago
There's already a few thousand Andruils. There's a pool of something like 3,000+ small defense contractors like this. What they should absolutely do is put more money into the SBIR program. And stop doing so much of it through the fucking navy lol.
- staunch 5y ago
  Of course there are lots of military contractors. There were lots of space-related government contractors before SpaceX too. SpaceX and Anduril seem to be unique in that they're following the Silicon Valley tech startup playbook and not the typical US government contractor playbook.
namelessoracle 5y ago
The normal customer/client relationship is completely twisted in regards to the military industrial complex. A normal relationship would be that you have 5 people who make guns who all show their gun to the army and the army picks the best gun. Instead the army has the 5 companies "propose" a gun, and they choose who gets to TRY To make that gun. And if they fail its sunk cost fallacy all the way down. Also part of why they choose a company to try and make that gun is because they always choose that company and they have the most "experience". The argument for this state of affairs is that the military industry can no longer be spun up on demand and basically needs to be subsidized so it can continue exist in peace time. The reality is that these industries fuel continual low level conflicts, waste massive amounts of money and destroy the country. The only real solve is that the they need a new branch of the military that handles production and R&D in house, and also mans and owns the factories, and to stop giving contracts to parasitic companies.
- staunch 5y ago
  SpaceX showed a way through the bureaucracy and corruption. By building technology that was dramatically better and cheaper, it became almost impossible for NASA to avoid awarding them contracts. This seems to be Anduril's approach as well. Whether they can execute as well as SpaceX has done remains to be seen.
  - namelessoracle 5y ago
    You could argue this only happened because the technology effectively stagnated for so long that private sector actors were able to not only catch up but get ahead. And even then it only caught up because that particular technology was a passion project for a billionaire, and they werent necessarily optimizing towards wealth extraction in the space. Personally I dont think its a great idea for a country to let their military technology stagnant if military supremacy is a core part of your international doctrine like the United States.
  - lallysingh 5y ago
    They also had other customers. That's an important difference. SpaceX can be profitable without NASA contracts.
- jeffreyrogers 5y ago
  > The only real solve is that the they need a new branch of the military that handles production and R&D in house, and also mans and owns the factories, and to stop giving contracts to parasitic companies. Might be a good idea, but the military doesn't pay enough (and can't because of regulations) or have the prestige to do this. Part of why the contractors exist is so the military can pay more.
  - namelessoracle 5y ago
    The nice/bad thing about the military is they can literally train people from the ground up in whatever particular skill sets they need. No matter how obscure. The military pays for people to get medical degrees and all kinds of advanced degrees already. In fact military training is the primary pipeline for people to enter industries with esoteric skill sets. Adding to those skill sets stuff like "chip production" isnt that big of a reach. The brutal reality is that the modern American military is a giant jobs program to begin with. Having a "factory corps" that has "soldiers" who are basically assembly line workers with military retirements and benefits might actually be a plus for alot of people.

AyyWS 5y ago

Navigating the DoD bureaucracy is not trivial. We had to work through a prime contractor. I never understood why it worked that way. My defense company will be a portmanteau of a LOTR weapon and a Nikola Tesla reference.

dmoy 5y ago

There's already a few thousand Andruils. There's a pool of something like 3,000+ small defense contractors like this. What they should absolutely do is put more money into the SBIR program. And stop doing so much of it through the fucking navy lol.

staunch 5y ago
Of course there are lots of military contractors. There were lots of space-related government contractors before SpaceX too. SpaceX and Anduril seem to be unique in that they're following the Silicon Valley tech startup playbook and not the typical US government contractor playbook.

namelessoracle 5y ago

The normal customer/client relationship is completely twisted in regards to the military industrial complex. A normal relationship would be that you have 5 people who make guns who all show their gun to the army and the army picks the best gun. Instead the army has the 5 companies "propose" a gun, and they choose who gets to TRY To make that gun. And if they fail its sunk cost fallacy all the way down. Also part of why they choose a company to try and make that gun is because they always choose that company and they have the most "experience". The argument for this state of affairs is that the military industry can no longer be spun up on demand and basically needs to be subsidized so it can continue exist in peace time. The reality is that these industries fuel continual low level conflicts, waste massive amounts of money and destroy the country. The only real solve is that the they need a new branch of the military that handles production and R&D in house, and also mans and owns the factories, and to stop giving contracts to parasitic companies.

staunch 5y ago
SpaceX showed a way through the bureaucracy and corruption. By building technology that was dramatically better and cheaper, it became almost impossible for NASA to avoid awarding them contracts. This seems to be Anduril's approach as well. Whether they can execute as well as SpaceX has done remains to be seen.
- namelessoracle 5y ago
  You could argue this only happened because the technology effectively stagnated for so long that private sector actors were able to not only catch up but get ahead. And even then it only caught up because that particular technology was a passion project for a billionaire, and they werent necessarily optimizing towards wealth extraction in the space. Personally I dont think its a great idea for a country to let their military technology stagnant if military supremacy is a core part of your international doctrine like the United States.
- lallysingh 5y ago
  They also had other customers. That's an important difference. SpaceX can be profitable without NASA contracts.
jeffreyrogers 5y ago
> The only real solve is that the they need a new branch of the military that handles production and R&D in house, and also mans and owns the factories, and to stop giving contracts to parasitic companies. Might be a good idea, but the military doesn't pay enough (and can't because of regulations) or have the prestige to do this. Part of why the contractors exist is so the military can pay more.
- namelessoracle 5y ago
  The nice/bad thing about the military is they can literally train people from the ground up in whatever particular skill sets they need. No matter how obscure. The military pays for people to get medical degrees and all kinds of advanced degrees already. In fact military training is the primary pipeline for people to enter industries with esoteric skill sets. Adding to those skill sets stuff like "chip production" isnt that big of a reach. The brutal reality is that the modern American military is a giant jobs program to begin with. Having a "factory corps" that has "soldiers" who are basically assembly line workers with military retirements and benefits might actually be a plus for alot of people.