Jason Alderwick

Anduril CEO @SchimpfBrian’s biggest lesson from Palantir: “This focus on talent. Everyone says it. In practice—it’s a lot more annoying than you’d think.” “Often the talented people are super opinionated, kind of aggressive, tell you you’re dumb. It doesn’t always feel good.” “What Karp really recognized and drove at Palantir was this notion of: let’s have really brilliant people that are highly empowered to own problems.” “It’s probably the number one lesson in how we run things here.”

Timely….

Given the understandable focus this weekend on the UK’s lack of air defences, I’m reposting a link to The Wargame podcast Last April, we simulated a Russian ballistic and cruise missile attack on the UK and how a fictional government COBR might respond podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the…

The Iran war has humiliated the British military Managed decline has become the rule within our armed forces By @edwardstrngr #Echobox=1774053154" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">newstatesman.com/politics/2026/…

In a more dangerous world, weakening our energy security is a risk Britain cannot afford. The transition to net zero must be managed with realism, stability and security in mind. The UK faces a clear choice: strengthen domestic energy supply or increase our dependence on imports.

An Oldie but a Goldie

Let me just try and summarise. The US wants us to join a conflict that we didn’t start, wasn’t consulted on, and a week ago told we weren’t needed for as it was “already won”. Is that about it?!

Does this include the Treasury 🙈

someone built a $96 3D-PRINTED MANPADS rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor and piano wire its called Project Canard it integrates with distributed camera nodes to triangulate airborne targets and update flight paths in real-time it proves the barrier to advanced hardware has completely collapsed, moving precision weapons from defense labs to consumer garages the entire launcher and interceptor frame is 3D printed in PLA and runs off a standard off-the-shelf ESP32 microcontroller it even spins up a local Wi-Fi network so you can monitor live telemetry and arm the system directly from your laptop

That awkward moment when you are shown to be the cause of high fuel prices…

@edwardstrngr @larisamlbrown @gjb70 Alternatively #FAFO

@larisamlbrown @gjb70 For anyone wanting more on the mechanisms of sclerosis, and what happened between the UK Strategic Defence Review in Jun and Trump’s US Security Strategy in Dec, then there is more detail here👇 (fuller response to Times article later) policyexchange.org.uk/publication/th…

How the problems with the defence investment plan can be traced back to June last year and warnings from Angus Lapsley and Admiral Tony Radakin. Plus much more about the behind the scenes tensions inside the MoD in our read today thetimes.com/article/da2f1d…

“Of course Trump is going to abuse us….We have to learn to take the insults and keep our own heads.” Starmer has been “right to keep as far as possible” from the Iran war but the UK must now play a part in keeping open the Straits of Hormuz, says Sir Max Hastings.

To all those using 20/20 hindsight to try and bring the Government or CDS down over the one-off Akrotiri drone strike. I hope you never end up leading us in wartime, because you won’t be able to cope with the real risks of combat and its terrible consequences.

Listening to the disingenuous mudslinging in Parliament just now between the @UKLabour defence secretary @JohnHealey_MP & @Conservatives shadow defence secretary @jcartlidgemp over which party is to blame for the UK’s diminished armed forces. Healey keeps repeating the government line about how defence was hollowed out during 14 years of the Tories. And I’m not defending the defence cuts that happened then which were hugely damaging. But they also happened under the previous Labour government. This current spat was prompted by the poor availability of our fleet of six Type 45 destroyers - with HMS Dragon still alongside, almost a week after the PM said she would be sent to defend Cyprus. But it was the last Labour government that settled on the size of the fleet being just six warships instead of eight. And I think the original plan had been to procure 12. More ships = better availability. I wish all political parties could accept their respective responsibility for the weakened state of UK defence and then seriously work collectively to fix it

😂

What our Editor says is true - we fancied the idea of the UK Marine Corps a long time ago and put it forward in commentaries...but to be frank its time came and went. It's big boys' rules now - way beyond what can be handled by some anaemic UKMC. Some declinist tri-service-merged-service will not match the scale of the effort needed. The IDF has always been just 'an army and air force with a navy tacked on' and, to be frank, its navy is somewhat limited and imbalanced, its main missions being land attack. Our current Royal Navy has impressive deep water capabilites far in excess of that - the problem is successive governments' kamikaze approach to defence. They talk big and think small, committing the British military to global military tasks while the front line forces wither. They have also wasted billions in taxpayers' money on things like Ajax, while refusing to realise the potential of the Carrier Strike Group, also botching submarine support, destroying the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and allowing a 17 year holiday in frigate consumption...and leaving the Royal Marines with no ships. UK defence is not only embarrassed by totally inept political leadership but also simply paralysed.

I was on the ground in our British base in Cyprus yesterday. I saw how our British forces are working round the clock, in the face of repeated air raid sirens, to protect British lives and British interests. (1/2)

Chair @TanDhesi opened a major backbench debate in @HouseofCommons on defence spending with a call for action and a stark warning that the UK is not keeping up with the pace of the threat.