Best of LinkedIn: Defense Tech CW 08/ 09

00:00:00: provided by Thomas Allguyer and Frenas, based on the most relevant posts on LinkedIn about DefenseTech in CW eight nine.

00:00:07: Frens is a B to be market research company that equips product and strategy teams with market and competitive intelligence across the defense industry.

00:00:15: And uh welcome to deep dive.

00:00:17: yeah

00:00:17: Welcome.

00:00:18: just a quick note for you.

00:00:19: tuning in cw eight nine Just means calendar weeks.

00:00:21: eight nine right?

00:00:23: Today we're really digging into top defense tech trends we've seen across LinkedIn during that specific window.

00:00:29: Exactly,

00:00:30: and our mission for you today especially if your professional trying to navigate this really rapid digital transformation in defense is basically cut through the

00:00:39: fluff.

00:00:40: Yeah there's a lot of fluff out here

00:00:42: So much.

00:00:43: We want focus on actual strategic shifts happening right now.

00:00:46: so were looking at autonomy, defense AI space data And uh industrial base.

00:00:52: Ok lets unpack.

00:00:53: first theme then autonomy, drones and counter UAS.

00:00:57: Because unmanned systems I mean they aren't just a new tool anymore.

00:01:00: No

00:01:01: not at

00:01:01: all.

00:01:01: They are completely changing the basic math of modern warfare.

00:01:05: They really are!

00:01:06: And to grasp this sheer scale of that there was this eye-opening insight shared by Jan Hendrik Bulens.

00:01:13: He pointed out reports saying There can be up to twelve thousand drones operating over the single city of Pokrovsk any one time.

00:01:21: Wait hold on Twelve thousand yeah over one city.

00:01:26: How does the military even operate under that kind of density?

00:01:29: Well,

00:01:29: this short answer is they often don't and That's exactly bullens his point.

00:01:33: Western militaries just aren't built for that right.

00:01:35: our air defenses were designed Over decades to track you know fast fighter jets in missiles not mass low-cost autonomous swarms.

00:01:43: So in this environment The scale itself Is the weapon.

00:01:45: Wow if You have twelve thousand drones providing constant surveillance And strike capability.

00:01:50: You can't outthink that manually.

00:01:52: Okay, let's unpack this because if scale is the weapon then defense basically becomes an accounting problem.

00:01:57: Exactly.

00:01:58: Which connects perfectly to a post I saw from Oleksandr Lisikov.

00:02:01: He argues that air defense well it no longer just about tech capability It purely about economics.

00:02:07: Purely economic

00:02:07: Right!

00:02:08: Because you can't fire a multi-hundred thousand dollar interceptor missile at drone You'll

00:02:14: literally bankrupt your military.

00:02:16: Exactly,

00:02:16: before the adversary even runs out of drones!

00:02:18: And Lysikov points that new logic here is structural.

00:02:22: Don't fight mass with scarcity.

00:02:24: The industry has to shift to low-cost interceptors and serial production

00:02:29: Which means we really have to rethink platforms entirely.

00:02:31: We do...and see this pivoting into the sea.

00:02:34: actually Richard William shared a great analysis Portugal's new drone carrier, the Dijuan II.

00:02:41: Oh right!

00:02:42: The Drone Carrier?

00:02:43: Yeah because for eighty years sea power meant ten billion pound supercarriers Right?

00:02:49: Huge crews.

00:02:50: But Goliom notes this new ship completely flips that.

00:02:53: It's an affordable modular platform designed just to deploy autonomous swarms,

00:02:58: democratizing seapower.

00:02:59: basically

00:03:00: exactly the advantage shifts from the size of the hull to the algorithms and mark k reinforced this when he was talking about china's wing loom x maritime drone.

00:03:10: The real advantage there isn't necessarily the platform innovation itself it's the massive manufacturing scale in ecosystem integration behind it

00:03:18: right?

00:03:19: Speaking of which, I have a wildcard example here from Stefan Wilhelm that is...I mean it sounds like sci-fi but its happening.

00:03:26: Let's hear it!

00:03:26: So company called Swarm Biotactics in just twelve months from founding they deployed programmable cyborg insect swarms to NATO customers.

00:03:35: Twelve

00:03:35: months?

00:03:36: That speed is insane for defense.

00:03:38: But wait Cyborg insects

00:03:40: living organisms right controlled by bioelectronic interfaces They carry edge AI directly on the insect and they move autonomously in The craziest part.

00:03:49: Yeah, Wilhelm points out this scales through biology Through breeding not factories.

00:03:54: yes That

00:03:55: is completely different.

00:03:56: scaling law.

00:03:57: It really puts that twelve thousand drone number into perspective doesn't

00:04:00: it?

00:04:00: Absolutely does.

00:04:01: but you know managing all of that requires immense computational power And AI.

00:04:05: which brings us to our second theme Defense AI and software-defined forces.

00:04:11: Yes,

00:04:12: And we have to challenge a big assumption here.

00:04:13: people think defense AI is just the tech problem.

00:04:15: right but Eva Sula completely flipped my perspective on this.

00:04:19: she argues defense AI Is not a tech problem?

00:04:23: It's a human problem.

00:04:23: A human problem exactly because for

00:04:25: thirty years defense was optimized for hardware tanks ships decades-long timelines.

00:04:31: But AI requires continuous evolution, it shifts decisions from months to minutes.

00:04:36: and Sula points out this creates massive institutional friction.

00:04:40: It really does.

00:04:40: it raises huge questions about trust and policy, And we are actually seeing a stark geopolitical an ethical rift right now over this.

00:04:48: talking about the anthropic situation

00:04:49: Yes Daniel Schneider in K Hutchinson posted about This.

00:04:53: The US recently blacklisted Anthropic the makers of Claude for federal contracts which is

00:04:58: huge For anyone In the industry.

00:05:00: only let's clarify why impartially?

00:05:02: Right.

00:05:03: so anthrape has very strict internal ethical red lines.

00:05:06: They align quite A bit with the european stance like EU Parliament and Farnhofer VVS, who strongly advocate for a human in the loop.

00:05:14: And ban mass surveillance.

00:05:15: Okay.

00:05:16: Anthropic absolutely refuses to allow fully autonomous lethal weapons without a human

00:05:20: involved.".

00:05:21: The US military requires contractors to waive those specific restrictions?

00:05:26: Correct!

00:05:27: Because anthropic wouldn't wave them they got blacklisted.

00:05:30: Hutchinson notes this ethical divergence could fragment the global market... Wow

00:05:34: so you either adopt strict guardrails and lose the biggest defense budget, or you drop them.

00:05:40: But looking at where AI is actually being integrated right now with humans still in a loop...

00:05:45: We have to talk about SixG!

00:05:46: Yes.

00:05:47: Pascal M broke down Sweden's SixG fighter concept—the KFS —and Andrew B. Eckhart posted about

00:05:53: SHIELD-AI.".

00:05:55: We have a brutal shortage of fighter pilots, right?

00:05:57: What do ya do?

00:05:58: So the pilot has become a mission commander….

00:06:00: They aren't just flying, they're managing drone swarms.

00:06:02: The loyal wingmen.

00:06:03: Because AI handles the flight mechanics right?

00:06:05: Exactly!

00:06:06: Freeing human brain for strategic decisions.

00:06:08: That makes total sense.

00:06:10: But any of this?

00:06:10: to work you need data Which brings us to theme three Space Connectivity and Data Advantage.

00:06:17: The ultimate high ground

00:06:18: Right.

00:06:19: but Annamarie Luwango shared a great insight.

00:06:21: Everyone obsesses over satellites But satellites are just infrastructure now.

00:06:25: So where is real value?

00:06:27: Downstream It's data fusion AI enabled intelligence, processing satellite imagery instantly to feed coordinates to those drone swarms.

00:06:35: Okay here's where it gets really interesting.

00:06:38: oh Mike Richardson shared this highly provocative paper about quantum sensing specifically NV diamond magnetometers.

00:06:46: that's a mouthful!

00:06:48: It is.

00:06:48: but he claims this tech is making stealth aircraft like the F-thirty five and nuclear submarines completely obsolete.

00:06:55: Wait, obsolete?

00:06:56: The whole Western deterrence model relies on stealth

00:06:59: I know.

00:06:59: but these sensors don't use radar they're passive.

00:07:03: They literally detect magnetic fields generated by a sub moving through water or the RF from jet in atmosphere.

00:07:09: So they just feel the disruption.

00:07:12: Exactly And you can stop massive subs from displacing Earth's magnetic field.

00:07:17: Richardson says a hundred thousand dollar drone with these sensors can track one hundred million dollars stealth jet.

00:07:22: Passively.

00:07:23: The implications of that are staggering, especially for nuclear deterrence.

00:07:27: if subs Are suddenly visible to cheap drones it totally destabilizes things and China has already field tested this tech according To his post its

00:07:36: wild.

00:07:36: but you know to actually build any Of the stuff quantum sensors loyal wingmen we have to manufacture

00:07:42: It yes which is our final theme industrial base in manufacturing scale.

00:07:46: Alexander D Nailed it.

00:07:48: He said the bottleneck in defense tech is no longer innovation.

00:07:52: The ideas already exist.

00:07:53: exactly, the breaking point is execution and adoption

00:07:56: which is brutal for startups.

00:07:58: Jonas Singer had some really actionable advice for founders here.

00:08:03: he basically Said stop chasing shiny Ministry of Defense contracts

00:08:06: Which sounds crazy right?

00:08:07: avoid?

00:08:08: The biggest customer

00:08:09: yeah.

00:08:09: But he points out that Modi procurement cycles can take years.

00:08:13: A startup will just burn through cash and get ghosted.

00:08:15: So

00:08:15: true!

00:08:16: He advises diversifying with private partnerships, keep the lights on build a product you could pivot And hire operators who can handle chaos not just theorists

00:08:25: Because it's about survival.

00:08:27: Speaking of the gritty reality of supply chains Tim Deseter shared very sobering post

00:08:32: About The Sanctions.

00:08:33: Yeah Despite heavy sanctions, foreign components even from European firms are still being found in downed Russian Gerin II drones in Ukraine.

00:08:43: Just off-the-shelf dual use parts?

00:08:45: Right

00:08:45: and it shows that supply chain leakage isn't just a compliance issue It's strategic vulnerability.

00:08:50: if you throttle the supply chain You directly dictate their strike tempo...it

00:08:55: all comes back to execution!

00:08:57: ...It

00:08:57: does.

00:08:57: And uh really leaves us with final thought for today.

00:09:00: Let's hear it.

00:09:01: We've talked about thirty-year hardware cycles versus twelve month biosworm scaling.

00:09:07: we're seeing hundred thousand dollars sensors threaten a hundred million dollar.

00:09:11: stealth platforms yeah if military advantage has fundamentally shifted from the size of your ships to speed up algorithms and commercial supply chains are still measuring national security using completely obsolete metrics.

00:09:24: wow that is definitely something for everyone listening to.

00:09:27: mull over.

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00:09:41: Thank You so much for joining us On This Deep Dive.

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00:09:45: Thanks For Listening Everyone!