BLUF: Security Beyond One Source

The New York Times editorial board recently wrote about America’s defense industrial base and its ability to answer the call if needed. Unfortunately, it seems to miss a critical reality when it comes to our nation’s defense dynamics: it's true that America’s national security cannot hinge on any single company, platform, or breakthrough technology, but it also does not work if all the players - big and small - are not alive and well in the ecosystem. 

Let us explain. Unfortunately, this debate is too often framed simply as a binary choice between legacy defense manufacturers and new entrants promising radical disruption. In reality, our security depends on both. 

Platforms like the B-2 bomber, whose strategic impact was most recently made clear in Operation Midnight Hammer, continue to underpin U.S. deterrence. While emerging solutions, whether in autonomy, software, drones, counter-UAS, or next-generation munitions, offer the adaptability America needs to stay ahead of adversaries who are investing heavily in their own modernization. And maybe someday, that won’t be the case but today, it's the cold, hard truth.

Innovation doesn’t just come from one contractor, nor from a handful of startups. It comes from a full ecosystem: established defense firms, new commercial partners, government laboratories, academia, and a growing community of mission-driven technologists. The Pentagon’s job is to empower and work with that entire industry, accelerate procurement pathways, and ensure that the best technology, regardless which side of the industrial base it comes from, reaches the warfighter quickly.

The future of national defense will be built not by one or two contract winners, but by harnessing the full breadth of American ingenuity across entire industries.

If you are interesting in receiving our full newsletter every Thursday, subscribe here.