Worth a read if you are interested at all in the dynamics of M&A in the defense market. I've been keen on Anduril's strategy for years now, first seeing them as a Senate staffer hawking the initial Sentry Tower on Capitol Hill (they were genius in building trust through a smaller but very tangible and politically top-of-mind use case) and now following them as an M&A professional and national security nerd. Both the company's technology and its strategy are pushing defense industry in the right direction - more than anyone else is really doing, and I appreciate the team's willingness to push uphill and fuse intelligence, general business craftiness, and patriotism together.
They still have many obstacles ahead; sitting next to primes and getting defense officials to say your name in public is a good first step, but they still have to win, win, and win again in competition (and the PPBE process isn't changing any time soon). Ultimately, I think their path is one of success for the company and a major net positive for national security.
To the point of competition, whether it is that others are "groking" their playbook, that their playbook is just a natural extension of how M&A has shaped the defense industry historically, or that they are simply on the general party wave of interest in emerging technology/the defense startup ecosystem, that competition may be emerging sooner rather than later. Saab's acquisition of CrowdAI (let's all stop considering just the 5 biggest primes as "the Primes" - there are plenty more) highlights the rise of foreign-owned defense companies entering the US defense market, and Lockheed's recent admission to talks with a solid rocket motor company - which has to be one of their LM Venture investments X-Bow - highlights the nascent utility of the defense corporate venture buildup.
Packy McCormick discusses Anduril Industries' business strategy, the big bets we're making as a company and how we fill the gap between legacy defense systems and modern technology in today's edition of Not Boring.
"Anduril aims to serve as an integration layer between old and new, between the traditional, centrally-planned way the DoD procures and deploys capabilities and the free market of startups and SMBs building cutting edge defense technology."
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https://lnkd.in/gY3HrcNt
![Anduril: Acquiring Prime]()
Anduril: Acquiring Prime
notboring.co
Product Owner at CERVUS DEFENCE AND SECURITY LIMITED
1moA good day out of the office and a great opportunity to see how the Militec Targets are manufactured and the new developments being made. If you want a well built target lifter that reliably works in some of the worst weather conditions and survives a grenade strike, I thoroughly recommend Militec Targets. Martin Gibson thank you for hosting us, and for the awesome time at Bike Park Wales! I will be back soon!