School of War

Ep 259: Christian Brose on Rethinking How We Fight

40 snips
Dec 23, 2025
Christian Brose, President and Chief Strategy Officer at Anduril Industries and author of The Kill Chain, shares insights on the future of warfare. He discusses the alarming erosion of U.S. military advantage and the misconceptions hindering long-term preparedness. Brose emphasizes the need for innovative procurement processes and learning from Ukraine without simply copying its systems. He advocates for leveraging AI in defense while ensuring human oversight, and examines the importance of liberal arts in maintaining creativity in high-tech warfare.
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ANECDOTE

Oversight Briefings Sparked Alarm

  • Christian Brose recounts his time as staff director on Senate Armed Services seeing briefing after briefing.
  • A single classified briefing consolidated those trends and galvanized action with Senator McCain.
INSIGHT

Procurement Built For The Cold War Era

  • Cold War–era centralized planning (PPBE) still dominates procurement and discourages rapid innovation.
  • That process is mismatched to fast commercial-driven technological change and evolving threats.
ADVICE

Build Programs And Produce At Scale Now

  • Use current authorities and funding to create new programs focused on scalable, adaptable capabilities now.
  • Prioritize rapid idea generation, program creation, and scaled production instead of process excuses.
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