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Conversations with Tyler #225 · October 30, 2024 · 70m

Christopher Kirchhoff on Military Innovation and the Future of War

Christopher Kirchhoff discusses how the US military innovates (and fails to innovate), the drone revolution in Ukraine, and why bureaucratic organizations struggle to adopt technologies that threaten existing power structures.

Canon

Kirchhoff shows that the US military's procurement system is designed to sustain existing programs (aircraft carriers, fighter jets) and resist innovations (drones, AI) that would make those programs obsolete.

Highlights

Ukraine's military innovation shows that necessity overrides bureaucratic resistance
Kirchhoff contrasts US military's slow innovation with Ukraine's rapid adoption of drones, AI targeting, and commercial technology. The difference: Ukraine faces existential necessity; the US faces bureaucratic comfort.