Misunderstood Power: Emil Michael on the Truth About the DoW & Defense Tech

Emil Michael details his multiple roles including Under Secretary of War for R&E, Chief AI Officer, and oversight of DARPA, Missile Defense Agency, and Defense Innovation Unit. He explains his path from Uber to government service and the parallel challenges of disrupting massive bureaucracies.

• •Oversees DARPA (invented the Internet), Missile Defense Agency, and core R&E functions working with top scientific labs
• •Leads Chief Digital and AI Office and Defense Innovation Unit in Mountain View to help defense tech startups navigate DoW procurement
• •Manages 3 million people and nearly $1 trillion budget with authority to disrupt the world's largest bureaucracy
• •Transitioned from Uber executive to defense tech after becoming politically active in 2017, joining Trump administration

Michael consolidated 14 outdated critical technology areas into 6 focused priorities that teams can remember and execute on daily. The framework emphasizes applied AI, hypersonic weapons, directed energy, contested logistics, battlefield information dominance, and biomanufacturing.

• •Applied AI: Leveraging OpenAI, Anthropic, XAI investments by adapting commercial AI for defense applications
• •Scaled hypersonic weapons: Making Mach 5+ missiles that can travel China to US in 30 minutes cheaper and more accessible
• •Directed energy: Space lasers and high-energy systems to counter drone attacks using automated AI targeting
• •Contested logistics: Solving 'tyranny of distance' for food, water, energy, munitions in forward positions near adversaries
• •Battlefield information dominance: Using advanced sensors to see and hear everything in modern warfare environments
• •Biomanufacturing: Using biological mechanisms to separate rare earth metals, create synthetic blood, and develop new materials

Michael frames current geopolitical tensions as a '1938 moment' requiring urgent rebuilding of US industrial base and defense capabilities. He emphasizes China's sophisticated investments during the War on Terror era and the need to redomesticate critical supply chains.

• •China invested in hypersonic missiles and space capabilities while US focused on improvised explosive devices and terrorism
• •Critical minerals, pharmaceuticals, and defense manufacturing were over-outsourced, creating strategic vulnerabilities
• •Goal is deterrence through strength, not actual warfare - preventing conflict by being prepared
• •Completed three Critical Minerals deals in 45 days to reduce China dependency
• •Shifting budget from bureaucracy to new technologies, weapons, and defense systems

The Russia-Ukraine conflict demonstrated how modern warfare has become robot-on-robot combat, with rapid innovation in fiber optic communications, automatic target recognition, and counter-drone systems. Michael outlines DoW's strategy for drone dominance across reconnaissance and offensive capabilities.

• •Russia-Ukraine war quickly evolved into drone-on-drone territorial conflict with unprecedented innovation pace
• •Combatants developed fiber optic cable communications to bypass satellite jamming and AI-powered target recognition
• •DoW building arsenal of large drones for offensive strikes and small drones for reconnaissance at forward bases
• •Counter-drone capabilities critical for southern border drug interdiction and military base protection
• •Drone dominance requires both offensive capabilities and defensive counter-measures

Michael discusses the AI Action Plan's three executive orders establishing US AI dominance through chip manufacturing, power generation, and regulatory freedom. He details specific DoW applications including satellite imagery analysis, logistics modeling, and AI-powered design.

• •Executive orders focus on best chips, data center power, and removing state regulations holding back AI companies
• •Accelerating permitting for data centers and nuclear power generation after decades of stagnation
• •TSMC chip factory in Arizona now producing NVIDIA chips, developing domestic lithography capabilities
• •Training AI models on 50 years of satellite imagery for enhanced intelligence gathering
• •Using AI for logistics, conflict simulation (video game-style modeling), and physics-based design replacing CAD drawings
• •Launching department-wide AI initiative next week - first time ever at DoW scale

Michael defends Palantir as a nuts-and-bolts software company solving basic inventory and logistics problems, not just controversial surveillance applications. He addresses why defense tech companies face stigma and argues the perception gap comes from privilege and distance from actual security threats.

• •Palantir pioneered big data with AI capabilities, solving fundamental problems like tracking tanks and munitions across trillion-dollar inventory
• •Forward-deployed engineers work directly with warfighters on everyday organizational problems, not just controversial applications
• •Defense tech stigma stems from Google's cloud contract withdrawal due to employee protests - those days are ending
• •People removed from conflict consequences find it easier to disdain what it costs to keep country safe
• •Extreme violence terminology triggers people in 'bubbles of privilege' who lack battlefield exposure or historical understanding

Michael praises Pete Hegseth as potentially the greatest Secretary of War in our lifetimes due to his fresh perspective and lack of industry bias. He outlines the mission to create five new defense companies to challenge traditional primes alongside Anduril, Palantir, and SpaceX.

• •Hegseth brings no defense industry or political biases, approaches with 'what's broken, what's working' mentality
• •Built cohesive leadership team open to any idea - privilege to work with one of best leaders Michael has experienced
• •Goal: Create five more companies beyond Anduril, Palantir, SpaceX to challenge Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman
• •Excited about Planet Labs (commercial satellite imagery), Neuros (drones), and Hadrian (AI manufacturing)
• •Frontier AI companies (OpenAI, Anthropic, XAI) eager to help DoD with unprecedented applications
• •Focus on companies doing hard things involving hardware, not just software