Anduril: Sophisticated Defense to Avoid War
Anduril is a critical company for the future of the world
First, Virtual Reality
Palmer Luckey founded Oculus which created the modern virtual reality (VR) industry as we know it today.
Outstandingly, Palmer started working on this VR headset at just 15 years old.
In 2014, Palmer sold Oculus to Facebook for $2B in 2014.
But what's next for this young genius?
Next, Founding Anduril
Palmer launched Anduril Industries in 2017, which translates to "Flame of the West".
The goal of the company is to build cutting edge technologies to solve national security challenges for America and our allies.
Over the years, America's top technology companies always worked with our military. But this hasn't been the case recently....which gets to the core of the issue. Russia and China has their best companies and people working on defense challenges, albeit forcefully.
If our smartest minds are working on search engine optimization and ad-delivery, how do we expect to compete?
That was the true genesis for Anduril. In Anduril's original pitch deck they stated to "help the department of defense spend less, but do more."
Anduril is Developing Cutting Edge Technology With Real World Use Cases
Anduril is the fastest growing defense company measured by revenue, ever.
But, Anduril is NOT a one-off defense contract company. They are on building a defense product company with advanced technologies.
Their first product is the Century Tower which is solar powered, infrastructure independent, AI surveillance tower. This can be around a military base or critical infrastructure (i.e. power plants) and uses various technologies to map all things happening within several miles.
These towers use AI to flag anything happening that shouldn't be. Hundreds are already deployed at the US border saving expensive and intrusive approaches.
To complement the towers, they created little dust/rocks that have radar technology to view where the towers can't.
These small machines can detect things that are moving, and then power up upon identifying relevant motion to take images using thermal technology.
Their dust/rocks combined with their Century Towers can 100% map vast distances.
In addition to the tower technology, Anduril has created a drone called Ghost. Which can fly silent to the human ear at 100M and travel up to 80 mph. It's long shape combined with the heights it can fly, practically make the drone invisible to human senses.
Is it Ethical to Develop Advanced Military Technology?
While it may be natural to feel a little hesitant about investment in military technology, there are a few things that can give us peace of mind on why this make sense:
If there is more precision and awareness of what is happening, we can make better decisions. Saving money and lives.
It's important for the U.S. to be a leader in new technologies and not fall behind to nations like Russia and China who have illiberal ambitions.
Ultimately, technologies like these can create more accountability in our defense systems and deter unnecessary wars.
To quote Trae Sephens from Founders Fund,
The critical question is not whether the technology industry should participate in the defense sector, but how we do so ethically.
We often take for granted all the technologies developed for the military that provide Americans with safety and freedom. This safety and freedom allows us to openly discuss these tough ethical conversations around this topic.
Anduril Will Be a Nationally Relevant Company in the Decades to Come
Anduril is using modern technologies to do more to keep America safe, minimize damage to all, and save tax payers and governments money.
I believe the advanced infrastructure that Anduril is developing will lead to less drawn out conflicts and deter unnecessary wars.
Anduril will become a more sophisticated Lockheed Martin like company and develop a host of products that make it America’s defense company. It’s importance and relevance in the U.S. narrative is only just beginning.
Anduril has the potential to benefit the planet in unforeseen ways long into the future.
If you’re interested in diving deeper into how Anduril is a critical company for America, I encourage you to read: