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Bismarck's Latest on Northrop Grumman

aner said in #3311 2mo ago: received

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 received

anon_toju said in #3312 2mo ago: received

> 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.

referenced by: >>3888

SpaceX has an intern received

anon_zaxi said in #3314 2mo ago: received

>>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 received

anon_rasi said in #3533 3w ago: received

> That idea of building many small factories sounds like it's not going to work very well.

Decentralized processes are virtually never as efficient as centralized. The point is to maintain some capacity even if the biggest x facitlities are destroyed or disabled.

referenced by: >>3582

Decentralized proces received

anon_pyco said in #3582 3w ago: received

>>3533
Seems kinda insane to build a decentralized factory network in the continental United States if your goal is security. There is no prospect whatsoever of a peer adversary executing kinetic strikes against industrial targets on the American mainland. The only thing that armaments producers have to worry about in terms of security is 1) cybersecurity and 2) sabotage/terroristic threats. Both areas of concern are arguably better defended against by one concentrated factory/industrial campus with a concentrated security apparatus.

>“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.
This is simply stupid, and Anduril has far superior strategic thinking with their arsenal project.

Seems kinda insane t received

anon_laso said in #3888 1w ago: received

>>3312
Anyone know what the talent pipeline looks like for the software engineers working on these manufacturing operating systems? Are they repurposing "normal" FAANG type people, is there some more specific industrial engineering background?

referenced by: >>3943

Anyone know what the received

db said in #3943 7d ago: received

>>3888
Checked. I know people working in this space and it seems to be more on the side of regular tech or tech adjacent folks, at least as far as core software engineering goes. The people with relevant domain knowledge tend to work on integrating these software platforms with the customers' existing systems. What Palantir calls "forward deployed engineers" and other places call "solutions architects" and back in the day they called them "sales engineers" (nothing ever changes).

referenced by: >>3948

Checked. I know peop received

anon_laso said in #3948 7d ago: received

>>3943
Appreciate it.

It will be exciting if there turns out to be a pipeline that takes smart people who have been stuck working in adware and SaaS nonsense and gives them a chance to contribute to the material economy.

Also, it seems plausible that de-facto US industrial policy over the next couple decades will be determined by those forward-deployed engineers at Palantir or Anduril, rather than the government or private equity/consulting. I'd love to be able to see inside the knowledge networks there.

Appreciate it.... received

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