Brandon Tseng, co-founder of defense tech company Shield AI, discusses US defense readiness during a panel at the a16z American Dynamism Summit.
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Tseng: Aircraft carriers and expensive jets will be destroyed quickly in major conflict
“What's really interesting to me is how the defense market is transforming. And moving away from exquisite capital assets like aircraft carriers, like ships, like very, very expensive fighter jets or very, very expensive drones. And they're moving away from it …”
Disclosure
Tseng: Shield AI program allocated 60 aircraft despite commander wanting 1,000
“We're in a program of record. If you ask, you know, this was brought up. He's, they asked the commander, how many of these aircraft that shield AI produces do you think you're getting? He said, I hope we're getting a thousand. They're getting 60, right?”
Insight
Tseng: A $1M defense contract yields 10x value via venture backing
“You know, let a, you know, one million dollar contract, you're getting 10 X in terms of the product development capabilities behind you know, the company that's working with the customer.”
Insight
Tseng: AI's key defense domains are autonomy, battle management, hypersonics, space
“In my view, I think there's really four fundamental areas in the defense, you know, space in modern warfare where it's going to be a critical game changer, and I can speak probably relatively intelligently to two of them. And so the four areas being autonomy, …”
Assertion Supported
Brandon Tseng: Adversaries actively jam U.S. drone GPS and communications
“Russia, China Iran, North Korea, they are building up their electronic warfare capabilities. They are jamming GPS. They are jamming communications, which are traditional assets that we've become so reliant on, our predator drones, our, you know, our smaller ve…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Tseng: Startup adoption in the DOD grew from 1% to 10%
“Instead of being one percent of the customers, maybe we're at. 10% of the customers in DOD.”