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Bismarck's Latest on Northrop Grumman

aner said in #3311 2d ago:

Yesterday, Samo Burja of Bismarck Analysis and their "Briefs" newsletter/product wrote on Northrop Grumman's technological expertise (stealth capacities) and their shortcomings as an institution beholden to Pentagon & state-driven initiatives as well as (non-technical/eng background) managers oriented towards financialization before technological innovation and defense capability prowess.

One could quibble with Samo's particular points, but what I wish to focus on is what makes heavily-funded, VC-backed defense startups "justified" and "innovative". Namely—novel manufacturing practices.

Ethan Thornton, the young CEO of Mach Industries which has $100M+ in funding from the biggest names in VC (learn more here: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mit-dropout-ethan-thornton-secures-233428897.html?guccounter=1), said the following about their manufacturing practice:

>“Instead of very centralized factories, we will build many, many smaller factories to actually have a survival defense industrial base,” he explained. The factories will be designed to take raw materials through final assembly.

In Anduril's press release for their Arsenal 1 Hyperscale Manufacturing Facility in Ohio (https://www.anduril.com/article/anduril-building-arsenal-1-hyperscale-manufacturing-facility-in-ohio/), they had the following to say:

>Arsenal-1 will be the first of its kind: a manufacturing facility that utilizes a common set of commercial manufacturing tooling, machinery, and processes for every type of autonomous vehicle that Anduril produces. Arsenal-1 provides maximum flexibility to reallocate the most critical manufacturing resources — people, capital, machines, and materials — to meet new requirements, launch new products, or scale production to meet surges in demand, indefinitely. The foundation of Arsenal-1 is Arsenal OS, an integrated digital software platform that integrates the design, development, and mass production stages for all Anduril products.

My question, in short, is—how different and more effective are these processes from those of the primes?

P.S. Lawrence Hamtil (https://x.com/lhamtil) is a recommendation I have for anyone interested in learning more about how defense primes operate.

referenced by: >>3314

Yesterday, Samo Burj

anon_toju said in #3312 2d ago:

> how different and more effective are these processes from those of the primes?

SpaceX has an internal ERP system called Warp Speed. From the people I know who work there, it is a significant part of what makes the company work as well as it does.

The fact is that for many old hardware companies, the core iteration loop is built around retarded, DMV-like systems. BMW files Change Orders--formal documents with lots of form fields and sign-off--not just for hardware, but even for software changes. This is one reason why their in-vehicle software is so bad. Meanwhile, their tech-native competitors use Github.

Similarly, many old-world factories run on SAP, which is worse than you can imagine.

To run a hardware-rich fast modern development cycle, you need excellent software at the heart of it. Software like Warp Speed tracks every part, every inventory item, has a fast efficient phone app, take a picture to log an inspection, etc.

--

I have no idea whether ArsenalOS is similarly great or just marketing or somewhere in between. But in general, bringing tech-world iteration speed & ideas--ship early and often, move fast and break things--is a tremendous advantage over traditional hardware cos whose iterations are measured in years.

SpaceX has an intern

anon_zaxi said in #3314 2d ago:

>>3311
That idea of building many small factories sounds like it's not going to work very well. I'm not a manufacturing guy, but centralization in "gigafactories" is what SpaceX is doing. Vertical integration is probably better than whatever the primes are doing though.

The anduril quote could just be marketing bullshit, or could mean something. There's always demand for new buzzwords, but execution ability and creative live player rethinking seems to be the best "paradigm".

I'd love to know more about SpaceX's internals. I would assume that whatever is the cutting edge right thing to do, they are doing it.

That idea of buildin

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