The U.S. is reliant on vulnerable supply chains for critical minerals and high-tech components. Maintaining a competitive edge will require deeper public-private partnerships and modernization of how the government acquires and scales innovation, according to a group of frontline investors and executives. The group included Teresa Carlson, chief executive of the General Catalyst Institute, Jon Garrity, chief executive of MIT-born defense tech startup Tagup, Aidan Madigan-Curtis, a partner at venture firm Eclipse, and Peter Wilczynski, chief product officer at spatial intelligence firm Vantor.
“They’ve got [tactical] drone capability thousands of times [greater than what] we do,” Aiden Madigan-Curtis said of China. “They’re the only ones with a true robust robotics ecosystem. We really don’t have the capacity here.”
In Monday’s Brainstorm discussion, Eclipse partner Madigan-Curtis highlighted new developments in space-based weaponry, pointing to startups like True Anomaly, which is developing a “constellation of attack satellites” purpose-built for the U.S. Space Force.
Madigan-Curtis contended that AI breakthroughs are compelling Washington to forge new regulatory frameworks in real time, such as the recent presidential memorandum on AI.
Tagup’s Garrity underscored that AI now allows the military to solve the problem of measuring output and readiness. To close the manufacturing and industrial output gap with China, the U.S. must leverage AI.
“For the first time now with advances in artificial intelligence, new sensing, more data, we can actually link [inputs and outputs]” Garrity said. “That’s a completely new capability that I think is going to really rapidly transform the way we think about the supply chain.”
